McDowell pleads guilty to NCSO Deputy Moyers’s murder

Patrick McDowell has pleaded guilty to the murder of Nassau County Sheriff’s Deputy Joshua Moyers.

At a deposition held Friday, March 10, McDowell and his attorneys came before the court to change his plea. McDowell had previously pleaded not guilty to first-degree premeditated murder, use of a deadly weapon against a police canine and eight counts of aggravated assault against a police officer.

Attorneys said McDowell was not offered a plea deal and still faces a possible execution for Moyers’s murder.

Close to midnight on Sept. 23, 2021, Deputy Moyers conducted a routine traffic stop on McDowell. According to the woman in the car with McDowell, he said, “I’m not stopping. I’m not going to jail. It’s either me or him.”

The witness told detectives from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement that after McDowell provided Moyers with the papers for the vehicle, McDowell shot Moyers twice, once in the head when he asked McDowell to step out of the vehicle and once in the back when McDowell reached out the car window to shoot him again. Moyers was transported to the hospital, where he died days later of his injuries.

Prior to the traffic stop, the witness said McDowell had picked her up to go trail riding, making a pit stop “behind a Big Lots in Jacksonville” to pick up a package from another vehicle waiting there. The witness said she was unsure of the contents of the package McDowell placed in the glove box.

After shooting Deputy Moyers, the witness said McDowell took off, not letting her out of the vehicle, even though she asked. She said McDowell stopped the car and hid them both under a trailer. She convinced McDowell to let her go but said he made her turn cellphone off. She told detectives she turned it back on to call 911 once she got away.

“A multi-agency search was conducted to locate Mr. McDowell,” the affidavit for the arrest warrant reads. “A Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office canine attempted to apprehend Mr. McDowell during the search. During the attempted apprehension, Mr. McDowell shot the canine two times (once in the stomach and once in the leg).”

Officers apprehended and arrested McDowell on Sept. 28, 2021, at the Kirsten Higginbotham Sports Complex. He was reportedly suffering injuries from two bullet wounds previously sustained during the initial shootout. He surrendered himself after being surrounded in the public restrooms of the complex.

The State Attorney’s Office previously confirmed its intention to seek the death penalty for McDowell, citing his previous convictions, Deputy Moyers’s status as an active duty law enforcement officer and the “cold, calculated and premeditated manner” of the murder. The State Attorney’s Office reaffirmed its intention to seek the death penalty for McDowell.

New legislation proposed would require only eight of 12 jurors to recommend execution for it to happen instead of a unanimous decision. Jury selection for the penalty phase is set for September.

A Nassau County native, Moyers was 29 years old and engaged to be married when he was killed.

hdorman@fbnewsleader.com