Florida 911 Operator Hears a Double Murder
"Put the gun down" yells victim before he is gunned down with lover
Nov. 3, 2011 -- A 911 operator listened helplessly over the phone while a double murder was committed, she testified Wednesday in a Florida courtroom.
Leslie Perrico , a public safety dispatcher for the Pinellas County Sheriff's office, testified that the office received a call on Dec. 20, 2008, but the caller hung up. Perrico called back, and the call was answered, but no one spoke.
The court heard what Perrico heard—a recording of a double murder. A man's voice screams, "Sit on the bed, Jerry!" and another man answers "I'll sit down. You put the gun down," according to ABC affiliate WFTS in Tampa Bay.
Soon after a woman screams "Help!" and says, "Are you out of your f****…" and there are two gunshots. A dog is heard barking.
Prosecutors say the call records the murders of Elizabeth Evans, 44, and Gerry Taylor, 43, her boyfriend, in Evans' condo in Gulfport, Fla.
Evans' estranged husband, Patrick Evans, an executive at Jabil Circuit, an electronics company in St. Petersburg, is on trial on two counts of first-degree murder at Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court and could face the death penalty if convicted.
Elizabeth Evans had been estranged from her husband for eight months and had recently started seeing Taylor when the murders occurred, according to a sheriff's press release. Both victims were shot once in the neck
Police arrived at the condo minutes after the shootings. Police Officer Christopher Perkins testified Wednesday that he found the two victims, both naked. Evans was dead and Taylor was to die later at the hospital. One of Evans' Yorkshire terriers was sitting by her body, shaking in terror.
"It was horrible. I still think about it. It had her blood on it. It was just sitting there, shaking," he said, according to the WFTS report.
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