A Florida man was sentenced to one year in prison after pleading no-contest to tampering with evidence in relation to the 2018 shooting death of a Black man, who investigators believe was his lover.
Gardner Fraser claimed self-defense after killing Dominic "DJ" Broadus II and was only charged for deleting phone conversations with Broadus after the shooting. Fraser, who is the son of a former Baker County Sheriff's Office deputy, received four years of probation in addition to spending a year in a Baker County jail.
"My son was not the aggressor," the victim's father claimed. "My son went over there with flip-flops, $1,000 in his pocket, no way going over there for a fight. The investigators who arrived on the scene, even Baker County, said it didn’t even look like there was evidence of a scuffle or anyone had been in a fight for their life."
Prosecutors believed Fraser got rid of the victim's phone in an attempt to hide the two men's sexual relationship. According to reports, 35 texts and 115 phone calls were exchanged between the two and investigators claimed the conversations and images were sexual in nature. While the prosecution argued that Fraser disposed of Broadus' phone after killing him, Fraser's defense team claimed he immediately contacted police and didn't try to hide the victim's body.
"This defendant took the actions to get rid of that phone," said Assistant State Attorney Mark Caliel. "Where it is, we don't know your honor. To this day only one person knows where DJ Broadus’ phone is -- that's Gardner Fraser."
The victim's father expressed his disappointment in Fraser's sentence and said, "They're trying to feed us crumbs. We're all disappointed because we know what the real charge should be, if not manslaughter, then murder in the first degree."
Source: REVOLT
