Jury sees video of Lt. Debra Clayton alive during Markeith Loyd sentencing
ORLANDO, Fla. - For the first time on Tuesday, the jury got a chance to see the late Lt. Debra Clayton for themselves.
"It’s such a great day that God has made, isn’t it?" Lt. Clayton is seen saying on video to a crowd.
Prosecutors showed pictures and video of Lt. Clayton doing what she loved, spending her off time with her family and representing Orlando police as she tried to bridge the gap with the community.
"The police is here to help you. We’re not here to hurt you. We’re here to help you," Lt. Clayton told a crowd from a stage in video captured of a community event.
The jury also heard a highly emotional victim impact statement from Lt. Clayton's cousin.
Francine Thomas told the jury about the day Lt. Clayton was shot and killed.
"On the TV, it went from officer shot, to officer killed. I died that day. I died. It killed me inside. I screamed," Thomas said, as tears rolled down her face.
She admits that nearly four years later, she still has trouble dealing with her cousin’s death.
"I am still overwhelmed with grief every day. I still ache in my heart. It’s broken," Thomas told the jury.
The cousins spoke the afternoon before Lt. Clayton was killed.
"Said she needed to cook for her husband," Thomas recalled.
She told the jury that Lt. Clayton was at Walmart buying ingredients to make her husband a shepherd’s pie when she encountered Markeith Loyd.
She didn’t hide the anger she has toward Loyd.
"There was just so much, so much more," she said referring to things that Lt. Clayton planned on doing in life.
Prosecutors also had the medical examiner take the stand.
Dr. Stefany reiterated that the first three gunshot wounds Lt. Clayton sustained did not kill her.
And, that it was the shot Loyd fired into her neck while standing over her that ended her life.
The state used his testimony to try to prove an aggravating circumstance, one of many that would need to be proven for a death sentence.