Convicted killer who attacked homeless man with baseball bat to get new trial

Florida Supreme Court says Thomas Daugherty jury given erroneous instructions

Thomas Daugherty will get a new trial in the fatal beating of a homeless man in Fort Lauderdale in 2006.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. ā€“ A South Florida man serving a 40-year sentence for beating a homeless man to death with a baseball bat will get a new trial.

The state Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the jury that convicted Thomas Daugherty was given erroneous instructions.

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Daugherty was 17 in January 2006 when he and two friends found Norris Gaynor sleeping on a Fort Lauderdale bench. They beat him with a baseball bat and fired a paintball gun at him.

The trio of teenagers also attacked two other homeless men, Jacques Pierre and Raymond Perez, that night. One beating was captured on a Florida Atlantic University surveillance camera and was broadcast nationally.

Daugherty was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison in 2008. His sentence was reduced to 40 years in 2012 because he was a minor when he committed the crime.

Attorneys for Daugherty argued that giving the jury erroneous instructions about how Daugherty could be convicted constituted a "fundamental error."

"Daugherty also asserts that his convictions for attempted second-degree murder are invalid because the jury instruction for the lesser included offense of attempted voluntary manslaughter, an offense one step removed from the offenses of conviction, improperly required the jury to find that he intended to cause the death of victims Pierre and Perez," the high court opinion said.

Daugherty was convicted of second-degree murder after the jury received erroneous instructions for a manslaughter conviction.

"As to count one in the indictment, before you can find Thomas Daugherty to be guilty of the lesser included crime of manslaughter, the state must prove the following elements beyond a reasonable doubt," the instructions read. "One, Norris Gaynor is dead. Two, Thomas Daugherty intentionally caused the death of Norris Gaynor, or the death of Norris Gaynor was caused by the culpable negligence of Thomas Daugherty."

However, a manslaughter conviction doesn't require the state to prove that Daugherty had a premeditated intent to cause death.

File: Florida Supreme Court opinion on Thomas Daugherty

The opinion concluded that Daugherty's jury received erroneous instructions on his lesser convictions.

"Daugherty was tried for two counts of attempted first-degree murder and was convicted of attempted second-degree murder on both counts after the jury was erroneously instructed of the lesser included offense of attempted voluntarily manslaughter," the opinion said.

Co-defendant Brian Hooks was also found guilty of second-degree murder.

The third defendant, William Ammons, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of third-degree murder in exchange for his testimony against Daugherty and Hooks in their joint trial.


About the Authors:

Peter Burke returned for a second stint of duty at Local 10 News in February 2014.