VERO BEACH, Fla. (Court TV) — It took jurors less than one day of deliberations to find Patrick McIntyre guilty on all counts for the strangling murder of Nicole Damatt.

McIntyre was charged with first-degree murder, armed burglary with assault, armed arson, grand theft and felony cruelty to animals. His punishment will be determined at a penalty phase on March 15. McIntyre faces the death penalty.

After the verdict was announced Patrick's mother Molly McIntyre thanked her friends and family. She said she wanted to tell her "brothers and sisters at the Vero Beach police department that I love them and this is the hardest thing they've had to do."

Molly, who is also a Vero Beach police officer, had been accused by the defense of instructing Patrick to confess to Damatt's 1997 slaying. Throughout the trial, Molly insisted that she only urged her son to "tell the truth."

"I'm his mother and I had to do the right thing. You have got to tell the truth. It's the only hope we have," Molly reiterated after the verdict.

But Patrick now faces the death penalty, a punishment the defense claims Molly promised her son he could avoid by confessing.

At trial, prosecutors argued that the key evidence against McIntyre was his confession, which he initially gave to his mother Molly, and then to investigators.

However, the defense argued that Molly McIntyre was not acting as a mother, but as a police officer when she talked to her son after his arrest for the murder.

Patrick, defense attorneys said, would not have confessed if his mother had not allegedly promised him that he would not receive the death penalty. The defense claimed McIntyre's confession was illegally obtained and invalid.

Shortly after prosecutors rested their case without calling Molly McIntyre, the defense summoned her to the stand to explain the confession.

Molly testified that she never promised Patrick he would not get the death penalty if he confessed and realized she was not in position to make him promises.

Admitting that she did not want "her baby" to get the death penalty, the witness said she only wanted him to tell the truth. But Molly McIntyre conceded telling Patrick that he "should do what he has to do" to resolve his legal troubles.

Molly said she wanted to ensure Patrick knew that she loved him and was visiting him as a concerned mother, not a police officer. She said she visited him voluntarily and was not ordered by Vero Beach police officers to elicit a confession from her son.

During cross-examination by prosecutors, Molly testified that at the time of Patrick's arrest, she was on-leave from police duty because of an injury. Undermining the defense's contention that she was acting as an officer, prosecutors had Molly testify that she was not wearing her uniform when she visited her son.

After Molly's testimony, both the prosecution and the defense gave closing arguments. Prosecutor Moira Lasch focused on Patrick's confession where he admitted entering Damatt's home, killing her, trying to make the crime scene look like a robbery, and setting the apartment on fire.

Lasch said that Patrick killed Damatt and set her apartment on fire to cover-up his crimes and to make it convenient for him to get away with robbery and murder.

But in his closing argument, defense attorney Jim Harpring pointed out to jurors that none of the physical evidence decisively links Patrick to Damatt's murder and the subsequent arson. He said the state's only reliable evidence, the confession, is unreliable because it was coerced by Molly McIntyre.

Reminding the jury that Molly said she did not want her son on death row, he suggested that she would have done anything to help him — including suggesting that he confess.

"The only evidence in this case is so suspect, it cannot even be considered," Harpring said. "You cannot say beyond reasonable doubt that Patrick McIntyre's confession was voluntary."

During rebuttal closing arguments, prosecutor Mary Ann Duggan denied the defense's suggestion that the Vero Beach police department conspired to coerce Patrick's confession and said the investigation was conducted professionally. She emphasized that Molly's visit with her son was as a mother, not as an officer and argued that the confession was legally obtained.

Florida v. Patrick McIntyre

February 26, 1999

VERO BEACH, Fla. (Court TV) — When a fire destroyed a Florida apartment exposing the body of 26-year-old Nicole Damatt, police were baffled. An autopsy revealed that Damatt was not killed by the fire, even though her dog Sam died from smoke inhalation. Damatt had been strangled — a T-shirt was discovered around her charred neck. Furthermore, investigators found her apartment door and kitchen window open; outside the window was a ladder.

While evidence suggested Damatt was murdered, police appeared to have no suspects. On November 4, 1997, approximately one month after Damatt's death, Vero Beach police offered a $5,000 reward for any information on the case. Damatt's family later added $2,000 to the reward. Although the local press suggested the police had no leads by calling the case a mystery, investigators did have a suspect — Patrick McIntyre, an acquaintance of Damatt who had lived in the same apartment building until a few days before the fire.

Vero police approached Molly McIntyre, Patrick's mother and a police officer, and ordered her not to get involved in the investigation, not to use department resources to gain information about the case, and to turn over any information she received about Damatt's death.

On December 10, 1997, Patrick McIntyre was arrested on charges of burglary and attempted sexual battery. He had broken into the home of his uncle (his father's brother), and forced his aunt out of bed at knifepoint in an apparent attempt to rape her. But Patrick's uncle was awakened and managed to subdue his nephew. After his arrest, Patrick signed a Miranda card invoking his rights.

Two days after the arrest, Molly McIntyre and her other son Todd met with Vero police officers and spoke to Patrick in the jail conference room. It is unclear whether Todd witnessed the conversation between Patrick and his mother. Furthermore, what mother and son discussed is disputed.

But, defense attorneys claim Molly, who's a police officer, urged her son to confess to Damatt's murder to avoid the death penalty, without formally reading him his rights. While she says they never discussed the circumstances surrounding Damatt's death, Patrick agreed to make a statement to a Detective Dan Cook.

When Patrick saw Cook, he was Mirandized, waived his rights and gave an audiotaped confession to Damatt's murder. He admitted breaking into her apartment, attacking and strangling her, stealing her computer, and setting her apartment on fire.

However, Patrick's defense argues that his confession was false and illegal because of his mother's promise. His attorneys argue that Molly McIntyre was not acting as a mother during her jail center conversation with her son but as an officer and Patrick had not been Mirandized. They claim Molly illegally interrogated her son, and that nullifies his subsequent confession to Detective Cook.

The defense says that Molly McIntyre's meeting with police officials proves that she was acting as an officer in her meeting with Patrick. Patrick's attorney claims Molly, Todd, and the officials all conspired to "circumvent and violate the defendant's right against self-incrimination under the 5th amendment...the defendant's right to Miranda warnings, and the defendant's right to counsel." Patrick, the defense claims, never would have confessed if his mother had not promised immunity from the electric chair.

Prosecutors insist Molly McIntyre was not acting as a police officer, but rather as a mother when she spoke to her son, and the meeting was not a custodial interrogation requiring Miranda warnings. They point out that Patrick was read his rights before he actually confessed to Cook and waived them before his admission. Jurors will hear the confession at trial.

Patrick McIntyre is charged with first-degree murder, armed burglary with assault, armed arson, grand theft, and felony cruelty to animals. If he is convicted, he could face the death penalty while his mother will collect on a $5,000 police reward. But Molly McIntyre is not concerned about the reward: she just wants her son's life spared from the death penalty.

Patrick J. McIntyre