Emotions in motion at capital murder trial for Russell Bradshaw

Emotions ran the gamut during the trial of Russell Charles Bradshaw, the cold-blooded 22-year-old Edgewater killer who beat, strangled and finally slashed the throat of 21-year-old Lisa Memro of New Smyrna Beach before having sex with her lifeless body the night of Sept. 25, 2006. And more emotions are on the way as the same 12 jurors who pronounced him guilty of captal murder Monday will have a say in his punishment next week: Rot in prison for the rest of his life or spend years on Death Row awaiting a death sentence by way of lethal injection.
After Circuit Judge James R. Clayton cleared his courtroom Monday at the Volusia County Couthouse in DeLand so the jury could be escorted without a major drama unfolding, Bradshaw who was left alone with several deputies, took off his eyeglasses, pulled the elastic that held his long-flowing hair in a ponytail and buried his face in a paper towel. I could have sworn he shed a tear, but I could be wrong. I only caught a glimpse of him from the little media room in the back of the courtroom for a second as he was led away to a holding cell for jail transport.

In the parking lot was emotion of a different kind: An image in memory of Lisa Memro's face was printed on a T-shirt in the rear passeger-door window of a vehicle parked at the courthouse, apparently by one of her supporters.

Members of Bradshaw's family showed no emotion when the guilty verdicts were announced for first-degree murder, a first-degree felony that carries a possible death sentence and sexual abuse of a body, a misdemeanor.

Members of Memro's family cried. Several juros had watery eyes.

Probably the biggest emotion was when a juror knocked on the door from within the jury room and handed the bailiff a note that read: "What happens if we cannot agree to a verdict?"

And that was just two hours after the deliberations began. After several minutes of haggling, attorneys for both sides agreed to the following suuggested by Clayton: "I have a specific jury instruction I will read to you if you cannot agree to a verdict."

Then three hours and 59 minutes after the jury began its deliberations, there was an even louder knock from inside the door.

The judge was alerted and court was back in session. The jury had reached its verdicts. After the verdicts were read and published into the record, the jurors were polled individually. Their voices were unified as each name was called and the response was the same:

"Guilty!" "Guilty!" "Guilty!" "Guilty!" "Guilty!" "Guilty!" "Guilty!" "Guilty!" "Guilty!" "Guilty!" "Guilty!" "Guilty!"

That jury had become weary, no doubt, beaten down by the drawn out closing arguments of Bradshaw's lead defense counsel, Gayle Graziano, a former circuit judge, who methodically used snippets of conflicting testimony by police officers, even insinuating at one point in her closing argument that State Attorney Investigator Shon "McGuire could have asked him if he had killed Santa Claus and he would have said he did" with his littany of leading questions that drew "yes" and "no" responses.

And there was Assistant State Attorney Matt Foxman, the fire-breathing prosecutor and chip off the shoulder of his father, Circuit Judge S. James Foxman, who used Bradshaw's own words from his 911 call to nail him -- "I just killed someone" -- preceded by his lead in statement to the jury in closing arguments: "Make no mistake! Those hands you see resting on the table beat her, strangled her and then cut her throat."

Foxman then referred to what he said was evidence from the deceased herself in the form of scratches on the accused: "Lisa Memro is fighting back, signs of a struggle... Lisa Memro's last communication to the world."