FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Tuesday marks the second day the defense team for Hollywood cop killer Jason Banegas is making its case in the penalty phase, arguing that Banegas should not face the death penalty.
On Tuesday morning, they called up a trauma specialist who spoke about Banegas’ difficult upbringing.
Banegas, 22, has already pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for fatally shooting Hollywood police Officer Yandy Chirino in October 2021.
Now, a jury is deciding whether he’ll be executed or get life in prison.
On Tuesday, Dr. Micah Johnson, a trauma and behavioral specialist, told the story of Banegas’s hard home life, including having a father who was an alleged drug dealer and sex trafficker who disappeared when he was young.
Johnson said Banegas’ mother was trafficked to the U.S. as a young girl and often left Banegas alone while growing up in a tough neighborhood in Miami’s Allapattah neighborhood.
Johnson said Banegas also lost friends to gun violence and had drug and mental health problems.
He argued Banegas had all the risk factors to fall into crime and violence.
“This is obviously a broken home, but this is an extreme type of broken home,” Johnson said. “This is a story of what happens to the child of a young girl who was sex trafficked. That family dynamic could have its own history, but it also shapes your identity, how you perceive yourself, your mental health.”
Chirino was just 28 years old when he was killed while responding to a call about a suspicious person in the 4000 block of North Hills Drive.
Ring camera footage shows Banegas, then 18, on his bike, checking for unlocked car doors.
Police say Banegas shot Chirino twice in the face while resisting arrest, killing him.
Chirino’s family has said they’ll never be the same.
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