{"id":439539,"date":"2025-12-11T06:58:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T06:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/439539\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T06:58:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T06:58:16","slug":"man-accused-in-double-shooting-at-baldwin-truck-stop-takes-stand-claims-self-defense-led-to-deadly-encounter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/439539\/","title":{"rendered":"Man accused in double shooting at Baldwin truck stop takes stand, claims self-defense led to deadly encounter"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.<\/strong> \u2013 A man accused of a deadly shooting at a Baldwin truck stop <\/a>took the stand Wednesday in his own defense, claiming he acted in self-defense during what he described as an \u201cattempted hijacking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leroy Edwards faces life in prison in 2019 and is accused of shooting two co-workers at the Pilot truck stop, killing Todd Phillips and wounding Joseph Parcell. <\/p>\n

Authorities say officers exchanged gunfire with Edwards and took him into custody.<\/p>\n

During the second day of testimony, Edwards, who faces life in prison, denied any involvement in Phillips\u2019 death.<\/p>\n

RELATED | <\/b>Vivid testimony opens trial of man accused of killing coworker, injuring another at Baldwin truck stop<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI had nothing to do with that guy\u2019s death. I didn\u2019t even know about it,\u201d he said in court on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

However, in Parcell\u2019s case, Edward said he shot him in self-defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat guy, if he\u2019s the same guy that came up from the rear of the trailer and threatened to kill me. I don\u2019t know who it was,\u201d Edwards said.” But that guy made the threat first. He was going to kill me, and he was looking for the gun. When I seen what he was looking at, I beat him to it and I shot him.”<\/p>\n

Prosecutors also said Edwards then stole the company\u2019s 18-wheeler and led officers on a chase onto Interstate 10. When asked about it in court, Edwards said he was unaware of any police presence.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t hear a siren; the generator was running. I didn\u2019t hear no sirens, couldn\u2019t see no lights or anything. The only light that I saw was the yellow amber light and I\u2019m thinking it was a construction worker,\u201d Edwards said on the stand.<\/p>\n

Jacksonville attorney Gene Nichols, who is not associated with the case, believes the prosecution has presented a strong case against Edwards.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the charges that he has right now, he\u2019s facing life in prison. And so there\u2019s not much to be able to argue, even if there\u2019s a tremendous amount of mitigation,\u201d Nichols said. \u201cBut that mitigation doesn\u2019t come into a defense in trial. It\u2019s only going to come into play potentially at a sentencing hearing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nichols anticipated mental health considerations from the defense would play a significant role during sentencing.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ll do everything they can to try and portray that Mr. Edwards did not have the mental capacity and was clearly suffering from mental health problems when he committed some very serious crimes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Closing arguments concluded on Wednesday. The jury will begin deliberations on Thursday, which Nichols anticipated a quick verdict.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 A man accused of a deadly shooting at a Baldwin truck stop took the stand…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":439540,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,3188,723,7310,202994,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-439539","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-fl","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-jacksonville","12":"tag-leroy-edwards","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115699640159089442","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}