Markeith Loyd Trial: White OPD Cop Testified He was in Great Fear of the Surrendering Black Man who was Crawling on His Stomach w/His Hands Out, So He Kicked Him In the Face as Hard as He Could
Larken Rose explains, “It is horribly dangerous for anyone to imagine himself to have an exemption from the basic rules of right and wrong, yet that is exactly what every agent of “government” imagines.”
From [HERE] Markeith Loyd had tossed two guns out of the abandoned house where he was hiding and crawled toward law enforcement with his hands out, but Orlando police Lt. Jonathan Cute told jurors Monday he was scared of the Black man because Loyd’s arms were tense and he wouldn’t follow commands to look at the ground.
Cute said he also thought Loyd “was not prepared to give up” because he wore a bulletproof vest and could have been hiding another weapon in his waistband. The lieutenant testified that he kicked Loyd’s face and saw another officer step on his forehead before they arrested him.
“I believed in my heart that Mr. Loyd was either going to kill myself or one of the other officers there,” he said.
Four OPD officers punched, kicked and hit Loyd with their rifle muzzles in a beating that caused him to lose an eye — and were eventually cleared of criminal wrongdoing and exonerated of using excessive force.
“You kicked Mr. Loyd hard enough to conceivably kill him?” asked Allison Miller, Loyd’s defense attorney.
“I don’t know that — I’m not a doctor — but I definitely hit him as hard as I could,” Cute responded.
The testimony about Loyd’s beating by police came as the jury in his murder trial decides whether he should get life in prison or be sentenced to die for killing OPD Lt. Debra Clayton.
Attorneys on both sides will make closing arguments in the trial Tuesday morning.
Jurors must unanimously decide if Loyd, 46, should face execution before a judge can give him a sentence of capital punishment.
The same jury convicted Loyd of first-degree murder last month for fatally shooting Clayton when she tried to arrest him at the Walmart on Princeton Street Jan. 9, 2017, for killing his pregnant ex-girlfriend, Sade Dixon, the month before.
Circuit Judge Leticia Marques had previously banned defense attorneys from presenting such evidence before Loyd was found guilty of Clayton’s killing but she later allowed jurors to consider it as mitigation against capital punishment.
Before prosecutors rested their rebuttal case Monday, jurors heard from Stacey Salmons, chief assistant state attorney to Seminole-Brevard State Attorney Phil Archer. Archer’s office was appointed by former Gov. Rick Scott to determine whether criminal charges should be brought against the officers involved in Loyd’s beating.
“Did you make the decision not to file charges against officers in this case?” asked Assistant State Attorney Ryan Williams.
“I did,” Salmons said.
AS MARKEITH LOYD MOANED FROM INSIDE AN ORLANDO POLICE DEPARTMENT INTERVIEW ROOM IN 2017, OFFICERS AND ORANGE COUNTY DEPUTIES CRACKED JOKES, CONGRATULATED EACH OTHER ON NABBING THE ACCUSED COP KILLER EARLIER THAT NIGHT AND SNAPPED PHOTOS OF HIM WITH THEIR CELL PHONES. LOYD REPEATEDLY COMPLAINED ABOUT THE INJURIES TO HIS FACE — HE’D EVENTUALLY LOSE AN EYE, A RESULT OF A BEATING DELIVERED BY LAW ENFORCEMENT DURING HIS APPREHENSION EARLIER THAT NIGHT — AND ASKED FOR ONE OF HIS HANDCUFFS TO BE LOOSENED, EXPLAINING IT WAS CUTTING OFF HIS CIRCULATION.
LOYD’S DEFENSE LAWYER, TERENCE LENAMON, HAS ASKED A JUDGE TO ALLOW THE VIDEO TO BE SHOWN AT HIS UPCOMING FIRST-DEGREE MURDER TRIAL. IT REVEALS THE “ANIMUS AND PREJUDICE” AGAINST LOYD HELD BY THEN-ORLANDO POLICE CHIEF JOHN MINA AND HIS OFFICERS, LENAMON ARGUES. [MORE] HIS SECOND MURDER TRIAL WAS SCHEDULED FOR MAY BUT WAS POSTPONED. A NEW TRIAL DATE HAS NOT YET BEEN SCHEDULED. [MORE]
Neuroradiologist Geoffrey Negin, a state expert, told jurors he reviewed Loyd’s brain scans and found it to be “pretty much normal” despite some scarring that could be due to age. A defense expert previously testified the scarring was likely from physical trauma.
Before Loyd’s attorneys rested earlier on Monday, jurors heard the defense’s final witness, Kianna Loyd.
Loyd’s daughter told jurors her father made an effort to be present in her life despite being in federal prison for the majority of her life. The jury saw videos of Loyd interacting with Kianna Loyd’s young daughter.
“They have a great relationship — they talk all the time,” Kianna Loyd said. “... For a long time, he was the closest thing to a father [she] had and just their bond is really important and healthy for her.”
After her father was released from prison in 2014, Kianna Loyd told jurors about an incident where he called and told her someone was going to kill him.
“He said ‘When they kill me, do not come to pick up my body. Where I drop, just let me lie there,’” she said between tears.
This is the second time Loyd faces the possibility of capital punishment.
He was convicted of first-degree murder in 2019 for killing Dixon but avoided the death penalty after jurors recommended he be sentenced to life in prison without parole.