TAMPA, Fla. — Gerald Declan Radford, who was charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of Walt Lay at a Tampa dog park in February, was back in court Thursday.
His attorney filed a motion April 1st requesting a judge to reconsider granting Radford bond after it was denied at a March 18th hearing.
“The evidence produced at that hearing was insufficient to grant the state’s motion for pretrial detention,” Radford’s attorney, Matthew Futch, said at the hearing.
In his motion, Radford’s defense team wrote, “Declan is immune from criminal prosecution because he used justifiable force in defending himself against his attacker.”
Radford sent a text the day of the shooting showing injuries on his face and writing that Walt Lay attacked him.
He told investigators that he shot Lay in self-defense.
At the bond hearing last month, in which bond was denied, the only witness to testify was the lead detective.
“The only substantive evidence before the court was Mr. Radford’s statements. Everything beyond that was hearsay,” Futch said.
Futch argued that his client’s statements were taken out of context or were not properly characterized by the detective at the initial bond hearing.
Prosecutor Joseph Diaz said the detective’s testimony about Radford’s interviews was considered direct evidence and he said Radford contradicted himself in statements he made to investigators.
That detective also testified about a video Lay sent to his friend Kim Wolfley, which was also recovered in Lay’s phone.
The video was recorded the day before Lay was killed by Radford.
“This morning, while I'm walking, we’re the only two people here, and he comes up to me and screams at me, you’re going to die. You're gonna die,” Lay said in the video, which was obtained by the I-Team.
“When confronted with the video of the victim the day before he was killed, saying he had been threatened, saying he was going to die by that man, the next day being dead… when confronted the defendant miraculously started having memory return to him," Diaz said.
“If he gets out on bond, I’m afraid for my safety,” Kim Wolfley said.
Wolfley attended Thursday's hearing and is expected to testify at Radford's trial.
“He did not send that to anybody else. So I felt like he knew that I would fight for him,” Wolfley said.
The judge ruled against granting Radford bond.
“My position at this time is that I am not going to change the order granting pretrial detention,” Judge Barbara Thomas said.
But she said the law allows Radford to make a new request for a bond hearing during trial proceedings.
“At least right now, he’s still in jail until they get to the other pretrial hearing that they’re going to allow,” Wolfley said.
Radford’s attorneys say they plan to file another motion for reconsideration of bond.
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