{"id":84255,"date":"2025-12-15T19:28:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T19:28:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/84255\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T19:28:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T19:28:06","slug":"jury-begins-deliberating-following-penalty-phase-for-confessed-hollywood-cop-killer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/84255\/","title":{"rendered":"Jury begins deliberating following penalty phase for confessed Hollywood cop killer"},"content":{"rendered":"

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. \u2014 Jurors are now deliberating after closing arguments were held Monday in the penalty phase for a man who pleaded guilty to fatally shooting a Hollywood police officer in 2021.<\/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

\u201cShe said the defendant did understand right from wrong. He did understand the consequences,\u201d Assistant State Attorney Stephen Zaccor told the jurors Monday. <\/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 said Banegas shot Chirino twice in the face while resisting arrest, killing him.<\/p>\n

Last week, the defense team called experts to the stand who testified about Banegas\u2019 rough upbringing. <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cDo we kill Jason Banegas? Must we kill Jason Banegas? Is that the only option that you have? Absolutely not,\u201d Banegas\u2019 defense attorney told the jury Monday.<\/p>\n

Last week, Banegas\u2019 youngest sister, Kathryn Benegas<\/a>, 21, asked jurors to spare her brother\u2019s life, offering an emotional account of what she described as a violent upbringing shared with her brother. <\/p>\n

Kathryn Banegas, who works and studies at Miami Dade College, testified that she and Jason Banegas share the same mother, Ingrid Villanueva Pineda, and biological father, Omar Yovany Banegas.<\/p>\n

Jurors were told that the household was marked by frequent fights between her parents.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would stay quiet and hide,\u201d said Kathryn Banegas when asked what she would do during the arguments.<\/p>\n

She described witnessing severe abuse of her mother when she was about 5 or 6 years old.<\/p>\n

Kathryn Banegas also spoke about her brother\u2019s emotional struggles and the way he coped through music.<\/p>\n

She said he used songwriting to work through heavy emotions, describing a song in which the chorus repeats the idea that \u201ceveryone believes there is a monster in him,\u201d even though she believes that deeper lyrics explore his vulnerabilities and the pain tied to his upbringing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe solution to not being considered a monster is not breaking into cars with a gun, not shooting a police officer in the line of duty and taking his life,\u201d Zaccor said during closing arguments. <\/p>\n

During her testimony last week, Kathryn Banegas said she was the person who gave her brother the gun used in the killing.<\/p>\n

She said she deeply regrets it, explaining she gave it to him because she felt safer having him protect her, noting, \u201ceveryone around us had guns.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also explained why she believes her brother deserves to live.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe doesn\u2019t deserve to die,\u201d she said. \u201cMistakes happen when you are emotionally unstable and maybe that is what happened with him. I love him to death and I will love him in my next life.\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 Jurors are now deliberating after closing arguments were held Monday in the penalty phase…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84256,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":["post-84255","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\/84255","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=84255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}