An elusive answer, as Tampa’s father is brought to trial for shooting two children

Tampa – Why does a father shoot his child?

This is a question that has been lingering ever since Hillsboro Sheriff’s deputies arrested Jermaine Base on charges of killing his 5-year-old daughter and seriously injured his 8-year-old son in the summer of 2022.

For them, Bass would argue that the shooting was an accident.

When his trial was held in Tampa court on Monday, prosecutors and defense attorneys granted the ju judge absent from the case without many answers as to why.

However, another question prompted the ju apprentice to make sure they act. Whether the bus has committed murder and attempted murder.

Filming took place on the night of August 29, 2022 at the townhouse on Heritage Club Drive, just north of Fletcher Avenue. Bass, 32, lived there with his wife Shirley.

In the opening statement, assistant state attorney John Terry quoted several things Bass told deputies when Bass questioned him about the shooting.

Bass claimed the shooting was “accidental discharge,” Terry said. It happened when he was trying to get a magazine out of his gun.

The children lying next to him on the bed in the sleeping berth when the gunshot was fired. Three bullets hit 5-year-old Jayla in the head. In his temple, Jermaine, the fourth hit, known as “JJ.”

“This wasn’t a coincidence,” Terry said.

However, the defense attorney hinted at another explanation – someone other than Germaine’s base fired the gun.

Public defender Aide Jennifer Spradley urged the ju apprentices to pay close attention to the inconsistencies in the evidence and listen closely to what they were told on the night of the shooting. She also highlighted one strange detail. JJ’s DNA was on top of the gun and was his father’s DNA.

“In the end, there will be more questions in this case than the answer,” Spradley told the ju referee.

Terry appears to be anticipating a debate over DNA evidence, and ju-describers will hear from DNA analysis experts who talk about how it can be transferred to objects through the exchange of fluids. I stated.

A second expert in bloody pattern analysis was also expected to give an opinion on exactly where the children were in the bedroom when they were shot.

Prosecutors admitted that they “may never know” why the shooting occurred. However, he hinted at a family conflict.

“In a bass home, you’ll hear evidence that something’s not right,” Terry said in an opening statement.

Hours before the children were shot, mother Shirley Bass left the North Tampa Condo where the family lived to attend a birthday celebration for her sister at Chris Steakhouse in Ruth in the West Shore area. I did.

Germaine Base was supposed to be at home to take care of the child, prosecutors said. However, according to phone records, he headed to the steakhouse that night. When Shirley and her sister left to go home, he chased them and actively chased them in the truck, prosecutors said.

They noticed Interstate 275 and pulled it, Terry said. Germaine’s base stopped, got out of the truck and approached the car.

“Are you drunk?” the sisters heard him ask. He then drove back into the truck. He returned to the townhouse at Heritage Club Drive near the University of South Florida. Soon after that, Shirley was.

Eight minutes after she arrived, a neighbor from the Townhome Complex heard a gunshot.

Defence counsel Spradley said in her opening statement that details of the incident did not surface until more than a year after the shooting. She also said that the ju-describers will hear about the difficulty they encountered when trying to get Shirley Bass to interview his son.

For the first time, they arranged to sit with the boy at Mary Lee’s home, a tampa facility that serves abused children. Shirley came to the meeting, but the detective refused to let him talk to the boy, Spradley said.

At another meeting, she said the boy became “destroying” and refused to talk. After other attempts at the meeting, they sent a subpoena, Spradley said. When they finally sat down with the boy, he said he remembered nothing about the shooting.

As the state called the first witness on Monday morning, the ju-degrees got a glimpse into the chaotic and horrifying situation.

They heard a crying, hysterical Shirley Bass in the voice of a 911 call after a neighbor called to report the gunshot. Her words that come in the rapid breathing are hard to understand as Cole Taker tries to calm her down. A few phrases pop out:

“My son was shot. …Where is the ambulance? …My son is bleeding. …He was supposed to be in bed, but he was not asleep. … . f-k is wrong to you? When my son dies, I will swear to God…”

Ju-dean watched a video of the bloody scene, filmed on camera covered in the bodies of the sheriff’s deputies who first arrived.

They heard the boy’s voice fill the courtroom.

“It hurts, my head,” the ju-degree heard him say.

In the court gallery, men and women began crying, they woke up and left.

Prosecutors initially sought the death penalty for bass, citing the victim’s younger age among the aggravating factors. This was one of the first cases Susie Lopez had sought the death penalty after being appointed state attorney in August 2022.

However, shortly before the trial, prosecutors resigned from seeking death sentences. The reason is unknown. If convicted of the most serious charges, Bass faces a mandatory prison penalty without the possibility of parole.

The trial is expected to continue until this week.

Times staff photographer Dirk Shadd contributed to this report.