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It was an extreme case of road rage — starting with a honking horn, flashing lights and angry words, and ending with four quick shots from an older driver's revolver.
But a Palm Beach County jury on Friday sided with the gun-toting retiree's claim of self-defense for the Sept. 18, 2010 confrontation in West Boca.
A two-week circuit court trial ended with an acquittal for motorist Wayne Tover, a 66-year-old former dentist from West Delray who insisted he was protecting himself when he fired his licensed pistol into a car occupied by four young people.
Tover's defense attorneys convinced the jurors that it was reasonable and justifiable for the defendant to have used deadly force; the lone person shot wasn't seriously hurt. The panel of four women and two men decided on the not guilty verdict after deliberating 12 hours over three days.
The victory for the defense came eight months after Tover's attorneys tried and failed to get the charges thrown out under Florida's Stand Your Ground law — and after Tover rejected a plea deal for five years in prison.
Now, instead of facing a potential sentence of 25 years to life for the shooting, Tover can put the legal drama behind him.
During closing arguments Wednesday, prosecutor Aaron Papero blasted Tover's self-defense theory, contending he fired at Nicholas Perriello, 23, a passenger of the other vehicle who "never had a knife, a gun, a bat, anything."
But defense attorney Richard Lubin repeatedly attacked the credibility of Perriello, and he brought in crime scene experts to testify that Perriello was lunging out of his car window at Tover. He urged the jurors to use common sense to conclude that Tover was under attack.
"We can't ignore the quality of the evidence the prosecutor brings forward," Lubin told the jury.
While Tover declined to testify, the jury twice listened to an hourlong recorded statement he voluntarily gave to Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office investigators several hours after the incident at Glades Road and Diego Drive.
"I was involved in a life-threatening situation and I had to use my weapon," Tover said of his split-second decision to use his Smith & Wesson handgun. "I felt I was justified. I really do."
About 20 minutes before the shooting, Tover left a dinner with friends and family to visit his then-89-year-old mother, who lived nearby and needed help.
Turning northbound on Judge Winikoff Road, Tover steered his silver Cadillac XLR convertible with the top down in front of a black Hyundai Accent with four occupants: Driver Alexandra Nisall, now 21, Perriello in the front passenger seat, and backseat passengers Angela Nisall, 19, and Christopher Romano, 19.
Alexandra Nisall testified Tover was going too slow so she honked at him three times. Tover came to a complete stop just ahead, opened his door, and began to step out of his car, she said.
Tover said, "they literally tried to run me off the road. It felt like an attempted ram."
Assistant State Attorney Papero said Nisall braked, then drove around and past Tover, while her then-boyfriend, Perriello, made a gesture with his arms.
Nisall made a right turn from Winikoff to Glades Road, and headed east toward a Publix. While Nisall was stopped in the left lane at a red light at the Diego Drive intersection, Tover pulled up next to her in the right lane.
"This is when it starts," Tover told the detectives. Perriello was cursing and "started coming out of the window, Dukes of Hazzard stuff."
"The look in his eye was pure rage," Tover said. "I didn't hesitate to squeeze off a few rounds. I felt it was him or me."
Perriello testified he wasn't reaching out of the window at Tover before he was shot. Papero said Tover was the aggressor and wasn't under attack by a defenseless Perriello.
"There was no weapon," the prosecutor told the jury. "Therefore Dr. Tover's actions were unreasonable."
At some point between the first and final shots, Nisall began pulling away and heading to nearby West Boca Medical Center and her sister called police.
There, Perriello was treated for bullet wounds in his right arm and upper chest, and Romano got help for cuts on his arms that were caused by shattered glass.
A witness in another car followed Tover and called 911 with Tover's license plate number. Tover was found at his home and arrested hours later.
The defense condemned investigators for failing to collect key evidence, including Perriello's clothing and gunshot residue.
Lubin said his client readily cooperated with authorities and did only one "probably stupid" thing — not calling 911 right away.
"That's the only evidence they have in this whole case," he said. "It absolutely doesn't mean he's guilty."
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/pa...d-rage-trial-verdict-20130926,0,6812205.story
......it's been ran into the ground