Florida man who shot at Daytona Beach Police stands trial for 6 counts of attempted murder

Daytona Beach Police officers were investigating a possible break-in at a house during a well-being check when they heard a gunshot nearby, according to trial testimony Monday.

The officers ran toward the gunfire. When they looked across a drainage ditch, they saw a man holding a rifle. One of the officers said it was "an AR-15 pattern rifle." They yelled at the man to show his hands and drop the firearm.

Joseph Calvin Jaynes II, 27, was charged with six counts of attempted first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer.

No officers were hit. Jaynes was shot in the leg.

Daytona Beach Police were checking a home where Jaynes and another renter lived to make sure everything was Ok. Jaynes roommate had shot at him during a dispute at the house and police had advised Jaynes not to return, according to testimony.

When police checked the house that night, they found the garage door was open. They also found the deadbolt lock had apparently been popped from the front door. Officers checked the house but did not find anyone inside. As they stood in front of the house they heard a gunshot nearby. They drew their weapons and ran toward where they had heard the gunshot.

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The shooting in the early morning hours of Oct. 4, 2021, in the neighborhood near Jimmy Ann and Piccadilly drives, led to an hours-long standoff as police summoned an armored vehicle to eventually arrest Jaynes. It also delayed the opening of Westside Elementary School at 1700 Fifth St., Daytona Beach.

A jury of four men and three women began hearing testimony Monday before Circuit Judge Raul Zambrano at the S. James Foxman Justice Center in Daytona Beach.

Officer Sterling Martin testified he had responded to the home on Picadilly for a well-being check. It was the home in which Jaynes lived before a recent incident with his roommate. Assistant State Attorney Kevin Sullivan, who is prosecuting the case along with Assistant State Attorney Erica Kane, questioned Martin.

While no one answered the front door, Martin saw that the deadbolt lock was on the floor instead of in the door. He also saw the garage was open. Other officers arrived. They were standing out front talking about another case when they heard a gunshot.

Martin's body camera video shows him and other officers running toward the sound of the gunshot. Martin testified he saw across a drainage ditch a man standing outside a pickup truck. The man had a flashlight which sometimes was pointed directly at the officers.

Then Martin said he saw the silhouette of a rifle in the man’s hands. Martin said he believed the flashlight was attached to the rifle because the two were moving in unison.

He said he yelled at the man to show his hands. But instead, the man lifted the rifle and pointed it at another group of officers nearby.

Martin said that’s when he fired at the man.

Martin testified that while he fired first, the man returned fire. He said a bullet struck the water in the drainage ditch in front of him.

In response to a question from Sullivan, Martin said he did not have to wait for someone to fire at him before firing. He said he could respond to defend himself, another officer or the public without having to wait for someone to shoot first.

“No. If someone points a gun at me, I'm going to defend myself,” Martin said.

Jaynes' defense attorneys, Terry Shoemaker and Tim Pribisco, are the same attorneys representing Othal Wallace, the man accused of fatally shooting Daytona Beach Police Officer Jason Raynor on June 23, 2021.

During cross-examination, Martin said he had actually spoken to Jaynes days earlier over an incident involving Jaynes’ roommate on Piccadily. In that incident, Jaynes' roommate had fired a gun at Jaynes, Shoemaker said.

Shoemaker asked Martin if he later learned that the flashlight was not attached to the rifle as he had believed.

Martin said he had.

Shoemaker asked him if Jaynes had fired back during the first gunfire from police.

Martin said he could not recall and that it was a chaotic situation.

Shoemaker also played radio traffic in which another officer says that the man had put something in his truck.

Shoemaker asked him if recalled hearing that now that he heard the recording.

Martin said he did.

In her opening statement, Kane told jurors that Jaynes knew he was shooting at police.

“You are going to hear about law enforcement shooting at the defendant. You are going to hear about the defendant shooting back at law enforcement, knowing they are law enforcement officers, knowing he should have dropped his rifle, knowing he should have put his hands up,” Kane said.

In his opening, Shoemaker read from police communications that night in which he said that officers at one spot knew Jaynes had put his rifle down but the other officers did not.

"After he is shot, he then eventually returns fire in hopes that he’ll be able to save his own life," Shoemaker said. "You never hear anybody say he’s shooting directly at them. He’s shooting in the ground, he’s shooting in the water. He's shooting in the air."

The trial continues Tuesday.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Daytona man on trial for attempted 1st-degree murder against police