Mediaboss Marketing

Friends and attorneys of both Yousef Hafza and Clarence Howard voiced their thoughts on Monday's stand your ground hearing Tyler Vazquez, FLORIDA TODAY

Former Brevard County deputy Yousef Hafza made his case Monday for stand-your-groundin the Father's Day2016 shooting of an unarmed man during an alleged road rage incident.

Hafza took the stand at the Viera courthouse on the second day of testimony to tell Judge Jeffrey Mahl why he believes he was justified in shooting and killing Clarence Howard on St. John's Heritage Parkway while off duty. The first day of testimony was held in March.

Autoplay

Show Thumbnails

Show Captions

After a Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation into the shooting, Hafza was charged with second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder after the altercation with Howard and Jose Montanez.

He and his attorneys filed a motion to have the charges dismissed based on Floridas stand your ground law. Under the law, a person does not have a duty to retreat if faced with an imminent threat.

Judge Mahl did not issue a decision Monday and it could take several months.

Both parties agreed on certain events leading up to the shooting: Hafza and the two men nearly collided on Emerson Drive. Montanez and Howard then began following Hafza for four miles.

Hafza got out of his car on St. John's Heritage Parkway where he said he saw another vehicle in the areaand hoped a potential witness would defuse the situation. At that point the men began yelling at each other, and Hafza fired at Howard and killed him.

Hafza then left the scene before calling 911 from his ex-wife's house nearby, letting dispatchers know what had happened and who he was.

What's in dispute are the exact details of the case.

Prosecutors said Hafza got out of the car and immediately began shooting at the men from about 50 feet and that Montanez and Howard's arms were in the air to surrenderat the time.

Defense attorneys allege Howard was charging at Hafzawith body language that indicated a fighting pose.

They also dispute the distance, saying that the gun would have ejected the empty casings backward behind Hafza and that FDLE agents measured the distance between the casings and Howard without taking into account their trajectory or possible bouncing.

Among the witnesses to take the stand Monday was Lt. Alex Herrera, a training and hiring officer with Brevard County Sheriff's Office.

Hesaid the level of force used by a deputy dependson a totality of factors. He also couldn't say whether Hafza should reasonably have been expected to stay at the scene and call for help or if he thought Montanez also posed a possiblethreat, prompting him to leave.

"I can't answer that without taking everything into account" because it was an ongoing event and people react differently, Herrera said.

"I understand why he left. You can't look at the shooting as a 10 second event without looking at everything leading up to it," Herrera said."It wouldn't be unreasonable for him to stay maybe, but I don't know Hafza's perception of the situation."

Defense attorney Eric Barker brought up a Palm Bay police officer, who testified that a nearby church had a security camera. The footage from the camera was never collected by FDLE.

Assistant state attorney Stewart Stoneasked a Brevard County crime scene investigator if she found Hafza's badge in his vehicle. He suggested to the court that Hafza could have shown the men the badge to deescalate the situation.

During his testimony Monday, Hafza maintained that he only acted in self-defense.

During the four-mile pursuit, Hafza said the men repeatedly attempted to run him off the road as well as dangerously passing other cars across double-yellow lines to catch up to him.

Stone said Hafza could have kept driving and not stopped on St. John's Heritage Parkway. Hafza said he thought he could get out and defuse the situation.

"Dude, I'm good, chill out. I'm good," Hafza recalled telling the men."I thought it would be over at that point."

"At that point, I was terrified because they tried to stop me twice and now he was running at my vehicle," he told the court."He was running straight at me, he sort of turns his body as he was reaching toward his waistband."

"I believed at that moment he was reaching for a weapon," Hafza added. "For over four miles they pursued me, trying to block my car, screaming at me. Both of them were bigger than me, Howard was a lot bigger than me."

Hafza then fired several shots at Howard until hestopped coming, according to his testimony.

He said afterward Montanez was bobbing up and down behind the car and Hafzabelieved he might shoot at him, which is why he drove off instead of sticking around to check on Howard.

He disputed the prosecution's assertion that Montanez stuck his hands in the air to give up.

"Never did anyone put their hands up to surrender. That never happened," Hafza said.

Stone pressed Hafza, asking whether it would have been reasonable to first identify himself as a police officer, display his weapon, or call police before the situation escalated.

Hafza replied there wasn't time to do any of the above because the events happened so quickly.

In closing statements, Stone focused on the distance between the two men, which the parties dispute.

"The distance is the biggest thing. We're talking somewhere around 50 feet. We're talking about deadly force here," Stone said."It's demonstrated by the evidence that he did not need to do that."

Barker reminded Judge Mahl that "the state has the burden to prove to provide clear and convincing evidence that the defendant did not have reason to fear for their life."

"Someone who's speeding away is not the aggressor," Barker said. "It's illogical to think Hafza would call the police on himself and tell them where he was going."

"Mr. Hafza need not be correct that they were absolutely going to kill him," Barker told the judge. Maybe they chased him for four miles and got out of the car to shake his hand and wish him a Happy Fathers Day."

Contact Vazquez at tvazquez@floridatoday.com, 321-917-7491 or on Twitter @Tyler_vazquez.

Read or Share this story: https://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/crime/2019/11/25/hafza-testifies-stand-your-ground-hearing-shooting-death-unarmed-man/4295544002/

Read more:
Hafza testifies in stand-your-ground hearing in shooting death of unarmed man - Florida Today