Video above: A jury finds Joseph Ables guilty of first-degree murder.
SEBRING, Fla. (WFLA) — A jury has unanimously recommended the death penalty for the suspect responsible for the death of Highlands County Deputy William J. Gentry Jr.
Joseph Ables was convicted last week for first-degree murder, after shooting the deputy in May 2018. He was also convicted of animal cruelty for fatally shooting a cat.
Deputy Gentry, 40, was responding to a dispute in Lake Placid when a woman called about someone shooting her cat dead.
When the deputy approached then-69-year-old Ables, he shot him multiple times in the head, killing him.
Ables, a Marine, told the courtroom in closing arguments last week that he didn’t realize Gentry was a deputy and had acted in self-defense.
“That guy shows no remorse. He’s not remorseful for what he’s done. He’s not remorseful that he killed a cat. He’s not remorseful that he killed a deputy. There’s no remorse,” Kevin Gentry, Deputy William Gentry’s brother said. “I think the jury saw that, we saw it and I think they made the right decision.”
Ables had been arrested on May 6, 2018, on charges of homicide murder, possession of a weapon by a convicted felon, resisting an officer with violence, tampering with evidence, and violating probation.
The final sentence from the judge will be sometime in the future once pre-sentence court hearings are completed.