Nearly three years ago, Dominic Jerome “DJ” Broadus II was found dead behind a residence at Southern States Nurseries outside of Macclenny, Florida, News4Jax.com reported. Gardner Fraser, who's suspected to have had a relationship with Broadus, will receive one year in jail and four years probation in connection to the case.
In February 2018, Baker County sheriff’s deputies arrived on the scene of the residence to find the 31-year-old’s body was seemingly rolled over from one end of the Fraser-owned property. Though it was reported that Broadus was holding a cell phone when he was shot, the cell phone was not at the scene of the crime when officials arrived.
Even without the physical presence of a cell phone, a thorough Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) investigation revealed a reported number of 115 phone calls and 35 text messages between Fraser and Broadus with explicit sexual and romantic nature. Fraser also waited 21 minutes to make the 911 call after Broadus was shot four times total, twice in the head. Records showed that Broadus had a phone call less than 30 minutes before his shooting death.
When asked by emergency operators if the 32-year-old knew Broadus, he responded, “Ahh, I believe I do.”
According to local news outlet ActionNewsJax.com, the images and the text conversations between Fraser and Broadus uncovered by investigators were "sexual in nature." With the alleged nature of their relationship, police officials were led to believe that evidence was tampered with to cover up the relationship.
Back in May, Fraser, who is also the son of a former deputy, was arrested and charged with evidence tampering due to Florida’s stand your ground law. Fraser claimed that this was a result of self-defense after a “scuffle,” Baker County Press reported. Broadus’ father assured that this could not have been the case due to the nature of their alleged relationship and the lack of malicious intent in his son’s character.
"My son was not the aggressor. My son went over there with flip-flops, $1,000 in his pocket, no way going over there for a fight," Dominic Broadus Sr. said, according to Jacksonville.com.
On Monday, Fraser appeared via video conference due to COVID-19 regulations before Florida Circuit Court Judge James Colaw, who sentenced Fraser to a year in the Baker County Jail with four years of probation to follow. During the Monday court appearance, Broadus’ family, which included his mother, father and 13-year-old son, were in attendance.
“In order for the defendant to hide his feminine, bisexual nature, he executed my son and my grandson’s father,” Broadus’ father said during the court hearing. “In an effort to try and keep his secret, he fatally shot my son in the back of the head twice and tried to destroy any evidence of their relationship by deleting all texts from his phone and destroying/hiding my son’s phone, then calling three people before reporting the shooting to the proper authorities.”
In addition to his sentenced jail and probation time following his no-contest plea for tampering with evidence, Fraser will receive a mental evaluation upon his release from prison.
