{"id":78701,"date":"2025-12-10T18:14:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T18:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/78701\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T18:14:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T18:14:06","slug":"mother-of-hollywood-cop-killer-asks-judge-jury-to-spare-her-sons-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/78701\/","title":{"rendered":"Mother of Hollywood cop killer asks judge, jury to spare her son\u2019s life"},"content":{"rendered":"

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. \u2014 Wednesday marked another emotional day in court in the penalty phase for the man who pleaded guilty to killing a Hollywood police officer over four years ago. <\/p>\n

A pre-recorded video was played in court of his mother\u2019s emotional testimony, pleading with the judge and jury to spare her son\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause what happened was an accident,\u201d Ingrid Banegas said. \u201cMy son has never been inhuman. He has always been a very humble person. And I ask the judge to please spare his life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jason Banegas, 22, has already pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for fatally shooting Hollywood police Officer Yandy Chirino in October 2021.<\/p>\n

Now, a jury is deciding whether he\u2019ll be executed or get life in prison. The defense team needs to convince at least five of the 12 jurors that Banegas deserves to live.<\/p>\n

Chirino was just 28 years old when he was killed while responding to a call about a suspicious person in the 4000 block of North Hills Drive.<\/p>\n

Ring camera footage shows Banegas, then 18, on his bike, checking for unlocked car doors.<\/p>\n

Police say Banegas shot Chirino twice in the face while resisting arrest, killing him.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Dr. Micah Johnson, a trauma and behavioral specialist, told the story of Banegas\u2019s hard home life<\/a>, including having a father who was an alleged drug dealer and sex trafficker who disappeared when he was young.<\/p>\n

Johnson said Banegas\u2019 mother was trafficked to the U.S. as a young girl and often left Banegas alone while growing up in a tough neighborhood in Miami\u2019s Allapattah neighborhood.<\/p>\n

Johnson said Banegas also lost friends to gun violence and had drug and mental health problems.<\/p>\n

He argued Banegas had all the risk factors to fall into crime and violence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is obviously a broken home, but this is an extreme type of broken home,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cThis is a story of what happens to the child of a young girl who was sex trafficked. That family dynamic could have its own history, but it also shapes your identity, how you perceive yourself, your mental health.\u201d<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfe0 News From Your Neighborhood<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by WPLG Local10.com – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. \u2014 Wednesday marked another emotional day in court in the penalty phase for the man…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":["post-78701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}