PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "“The trajectory went left to right in the abdomen,” said Ibrahim Garcia, a retired Miami Beach police homicide detective, while on the stand testifying on behalf of the defense. He was the final defense witness in this evidentiary hearing for 80-year-old Tommy Zeigler, who was convicted and sent to death row for the Christmas Eve murders inside his Winter Garden furniture store. The four victims were his wife Eunice, her parents Perry and Virginia Edwards, and Charlie Mays, a customer who did occasional work for Tommy Zeigler. Garcia’s testimony was key because Zeigler was found alive inside the store with a bullet wound in his stomach, which he claimed was the result of being shot by the perpetrator or perpetrators of the murders." The State has always contended Zeigler shot himself to divert suspicion away from him."
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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "Gathering up a 357 handgun, a powerful weapon, from the Clerk’s evidence box, attorneys walked the gun that shot Zeigler over to the witness stand and showed it to Garcia. A defense attorney asked Garcia if Zeigler, who is right-handed, could have shot himself in the side, adding, "It would be inconsistent and unlikely that the person was right-handed bullet could attain that trajectory." That’s when the prosecutor stood up and said, "Your honor, I would object." After the judge listened to the State's objection, the pistol was taken back to the clerk's evidence box, and the defense rested."
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PASSAGE THREE OF THE DAY: "When the State got its chance to question Garcia, the prosecutor tried to discredit his expertise, but Garcia stood fast to his opinion that evidence collected by officers in 1975 was not thorough and would not hold up to today's forensic standards, adding, "What I can tell you is, it was done improperly." The prosecutor replied, "In your personal opinion, things were done improperly?" Garcia said, "Yes. Things were done improperly."
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PASSAGE FOUR OF THE DAY: "The state called its own witness to this evidentiary hearing, a forensic expert who had a very different opinion from Zeigler's expert in interpreting the DNA test results."
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STORY: "Testimony wraps up in hearing for Florida's longest-serving death row inmate," by Investigative Reporter Greg Fox, published by WESH on December 4, 2025. (Greg Fox has been a member of the WESH 2 News team since May 1987 as an anchor and reporter. He is currently the Investigative and Political reporter._
GIST: "Starkly different testimony from two experts marked Thursday’s proceedings in the special hearing for a convicted mass murderer.
While the state says the evidence in the case makes Tommy Zeigler just as guilty today as he was 50 years ago, the defense painted a picture of sloppy work by police and prosecutors who got the wrong man.
“The trajectory went left to right in the abdomen,” said Ibrahim Garcia, a retired Miami Beach police homicide detective, while on the stand testifying on behalf of the defense.
He was the final defense witness in this evidentiary hearing for 80-year-old Tommy Zeigler, who was convicted and sent to death row for the Christmas Eve murders inside his Winter Garden furniture store.
The four victims were his wife Eunice, her parents Perry and Virginia Edwards, and Charlie Mays, a customer who did occasional work for Tommy Zeigler.
Garcia’s testimony was key because Zeigler was found alive inside the store with a bullet wound in his stomach, which he claimed was the result of being shot by the perpetrator or perpetrators of the murders.
The State has always contended Zeigler shot himself to divert suspicion away from him.
Gathering up a 357 handgun, a powerful weapon, from the Clerk’s evidence box, attorneys walked the gun that shot Zeigler over to the witness stand and showed it to Garcia.
A defense attorney asked Garcia if Zeigler, who is right-handed, could have shot himself in the side, adding, "It would be inconsistent and unlikely that the person was right-handed bullet could attain that trajectory." That’s when the prosecutor stood up and said, "Your honor, I would object."
After the judge listened to the State's objection, the pistol was taken back to the clerk's evidence box, and the defense rested.
When the State got its chance to question Garcia, the prosecutor tried to discredit his expertise, but Garcia stood fast to his opinion that evidence collected by officers in 1975 was not thorough and would not hold up to today's forensic standards, adding, "What I can tell you is, it was done improperly."
The prosecutor replied, "In your personal opinion, things were done improperly?" Garcia said, "Yes. Things were done improperly."
The state called its own witness to this evidentiary hearing, a forensic expert who had a very different opinion from Zeigler's expert in interpreting the DNA test results.
“They left the original drip stain,” said Anna Cox of Cox Forensic Consulting and Training, LLC.
As she used a pointer to walk the courtroom audience through dozens of crime scene photos from inside the W.T. Zeigler Furniture Store, which were taken in the hours following the murders.
Cox, a blood spatter specialist, raised questions about the defense's conclusion, from the latest DNA test results, that Zeigler could not have committed the murders.
Cox testified that it’s not that easy to tell. What she considered more startling was that the defense chose to exclude certain items from the testing procedure.
For example, she pointed to a piece of a rubber glove on the floor that she suggested might contain the “touch DNA” of the murderer, as an item of evidence she would have tested, adding, “I'm getting a little bit off and away from my expertise, as a bloodstain analyst. It's significant that it's got blood on it, and it's in an area that there is no blood around it, which means it had blood on it and came to rest in that position. That's what is significant for me.”
It’s a lot of scientific information and evidence for Circuit Judge Leticia Marques to review before she rules on Tommy Zeigler's request for a new trial or outright release from Florida State Prison, where he has lived for nearly 50 years."
The entire story can be read at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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