MEDIA ARTICLE: Broward Sheriff Tony to take budget fight to Tallahassee, but BSO’s budget numbers often don’t add up (FloridaBulldog.org, 2-23-26)

Gov. Ron DeSantis, right, and Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony

Broward Sheriff Tony to take budget fight to Tallahassee, but BSO’s budget numbers often don’t add up

By Dan Christensen
FloridaBulldog.org

Feb 23, 2026 5:00 AM

Broward Sheriff Dr. Gregory Tony wants the State of Florida to force Broward County to give him a hefty budget increase. He wants it so badly that he and a team of his top brass are planning to travel to Tallahassee to appeal the county’s partial denial of his unprecedented billion-dollar-plus proposal.

While state law grants county commissions broad discretion to set budgets for the constitutional officers they fund, including sheriffs, Tony seems wired to win.

The Florida Administration Commission, which will decide the matter, is chaired by Gov. Ron DeSantis, an ally who originally appointed Tony as sheriff seven years ago and has stood by him despite Florida Department of Law Enforcement findings that:

• Tony lied under oath to obtain a Florida driver’s license, 
• lied about his prior LSD use on an application to become a police officer in Coral Springs and
• failed to disclose his arrest for murder as a juvenile in Philadelphia when applying for jobs as a police officer and to the governor before his appointment as sheriff. 

Tony was acquitted.

The other three commission members are in DeSantis’s Cabinet: Attorney General James Uthmeier, DeSantis’s former chief of staff; Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia and Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson. The Florida Channel was scheduled to broadcast the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, but the sheriff’s portion has apparently been canceled. We will provide a new date and time when it becomes available.

If Tony succeeds, as much as $73.7 million in county funds could be diverted to BSO and taken away from other county needs this fiscal year. That’s the so-called “funding gap” Tony has identified since the county trimmed his requested overall budget increase of nine percent – to $1.009 billion – to just over three percent, or $935.34 million in September.

TENS OF MILLIONS IN BSO BUDGET DISCREPANCIES

A Florida Bulldog review found the sheriff’s adopted budgets for BSO’s Department of Law Enforcement Services (DLE) contain tens of millions of dollars in discrepancies when “revenues collected and budgeted” are compared with the detailed expenses provided for its police service contracts with a dozen municipalities, the county’s international airport, Port Everglades and the sheriff’s Regional Communications Division. Also included are the revenue and expense numbers for DLE’s Special Details Unit which, for a fee, contracts with local businesses and governmental agencies to provide deputies for extra duty work handling security at events.

Tens of millions in additional budget discrepancies were found when comparing the Department of Fire Rescue’s revenues to the detailed expense pages for contracted services provided to eight municipalities, Port Everglades and the aviation rescue unit. The Fire budget tables are below. This story, however, will focus on BSO’s policing contracts.

The two most recent fiscal years where “actual” dollar amounts are provided in BSO’s published budgets are 2022-2023 and 2023-2024. In those two years, the discrepancies for DLE police services totaled $29.3 million. Fire and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) budget discrepancies in the same two-year period amounted to $25.3million – swelling all discrepancies for BSO contract services in those two fiscal years to $54.6 million.

One of the largest single discrepancies we found involves BSO’s Special Details Unit. 

The adopted budget book for the current fiscal year that ends Sept. 30, 2026 states the unit’s “actual” revenue in fiscal year 2023-2024 was $9.74 million, or more specifically $9,738,103. 

But the backup information that details the unit’s expenses, largely for personnel, totals $4.85 million – a difference of $4.88 million. To make understanding even more difficult, last year’s 2024/2025 budget lists the prior year’s budget as $10.5 million.

We asked Broward County’s Independent Auditor Bob Melton about that discrepancy and others. (Melton’s office does not audit BSO.) He gave us his observations but did not conduct an audit.

“Our understanding is that contracted services should be provided at actual cost, whereas this information appears to show revenues are exceeding costs by several million dollars for special [detail] services,” he said. “However, keep in mind that cost can be defined in several different ways.  For example, one could only include direct costs, or cost could also include allocation of central services, etc.”

Al Lamberti, a longtime BSO operations commander who also served as Broward Sheriff from 2007 to 2013, looked over the budget number comparisons.

” In light of the fact that BSO is appealing its budget request to the Governor and Cabinet members for a budget increase, these discrepancies are very concerning,” he said. “The total amount for two years could have funded the Sheriff’s alleged budget shortfall.  As a former sheriff, I understand sound budgeting requires independent oversight, routine internal and external audits, and complete transparency, so that the public can have confidence on how their tax dollars are managed. An independent annual budget audit is required by state statute. All sheriffs have an obligation to protect the public, not only physically, but fiscally as well.”

Why don’t BSO’s numbers match up? Where did the money go?  While the reason for those discrepancies and others indicates significant fiscal mismanagement, it does not necessarily mean there is any missing money or that there has been any fraud or theft of public funds. A forensic audit would be needed to make such a determination.

BSO’s Division of Internal Audit Services, part of the Office of Inspector General’s Office, handles all types of audits for the agency. BSO Maj. Barry Lindquist was promoted to IG last year, and has been an assistant IG since 2020, according to BSO’s website.

Lindquist did not return phone and emailed questions last week asking whether the IG’s office conducts financial audits of BSO’s budgets. (The IG’s annual report for 2023-2024, the only annual report published on its web page, states that it conducted 187 audits in 2023 and says four were completed. None of the four, as described in the report, involved BSO’s budget.)

Instead, Florida Bulldog’s inquiries were forwarded to BSO’s public information office, which said Friday it would “research” the matter.

The Inspector General’s Office touts its independence. But all that really means is that Lindquist is independent of BSO’s various department heads. Like most every BSO employee, the Inspector General serves at the pleasure of Sheriff Tony. He also reports directly and solely to him “to ensure audit-related activities and investigations are performed independent of any influence or direction” from anyone except the sheriff. That’s not exactly a confidence builder for the IG’s stated goal of “promoting both accountability and transparency.”

In his appeal to the state, Tony accused the county of supplying BSO with inadequate funding for years, and making “arbitrary and capricious” cuts to his current budget. Among other things, he argued those cuts are evidence of a lack of support for public safety. The sheriff has said repeatedly he wants to give pay hikes to deputies to fix “salary disparities” with other police agencies. His 75-page appeal contends that quick action is needed to ensure BSO’s ability to maintain public safety for Broward’s residents and visitors.

SHERIFF TONY VS. BROWARD COUNTY

The county’s 71-page reply, signed by County Attorney Andrew Meyers, defends its commitment to public safety, noting among other things that BSO receives more funding than any other county agency and accounts for 49.64 percent of its annual general, property tax funded budget. It also contends that Tony, an elected constitutional officer whose authority flows from the state’s constitution, did not adequately justify his enormous budget request to the county commission and has been less than honest in his public remarks about the dispute. For example, it contends BSO has received plenty of money for personnel raises, but the sheriff chose instead to divert those funds to other purposes.

Broward County also accuses BSO of “financial mismanagement,” citing Tony’s diversion of funds from salaries to cover cost overruns on capital projects, notably his pet project, BSO’s $73.7-million training center. The center, which opened in July 2024, was plagued by an $18.2-million budget overrun – beyond the county’s appropriation of $55.5 million – and was caused by numerous change orders initiated by the sheriff’s office without county approval, the response says.

The county’s assessment of Tony’s financial mismanagement does not mention any of the numerous discrepancies found by Florida Bulldog. Instead, it focuses on his handling of the training center fiasco, Tony’s use of “misleading” statements to the county commission to obtain helicopter funding and his “posturing and gamesmanship” amid the 911 call center staffing crisis in 2022-2023.

Some of the BSO budgetary discrepancies we found for the two fiscal years of 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 appear to advantage the sheriff’s office, meaning revenues from its police services contracts with its municipal customers exceeded the cost of providing those services. More often, though, BSO’s municipal customers appear to have come out ahead, with what they paid in their contracts being less than BSO’s costs – at least according to BSO’s faulty budget numbers.

The discrepancies are most readily apparent when looking at full year budget numbers. For example, the current adopted budget for 2025/2026 states that in 2023/2024 DLE’s contract services brought in revenue of $274,705,732. The previous year’s 2024/2025 budget, however, says that in 2023/2024 DLE collected nearly $20 million more in contract services revenue, or $294,373,310. It is anyone’s guess as to which number is correct.

BSO’s budget numbers are similarly out of whack for the DLE’s 2022-2023 budget. Its adopted budgets for 2025/2026 and 2024/2025 agree that DLE’s contract revenues were $259,525,849 in 2022/2023. But its 2023/2024 budget says the DLE’s contract revenues for 2022/2023 were $282,992,030 – a nearly $23.5 million difference.

The reported numbers for the sheriff’s municipal contracts, while containing numerous discrepancies, cut both ways as to whether the municipality or BSO came out ahead.

For example, according to BSO’s current 2025/2026 budget that ends Sept. 30 the “actual” revenues it collected from Oakland Park in 2023-2024 were $18.1 million and expenses were $17.9 million – or $214,316 on the plus side for BSO.

But the current budget’s numbers for 2022-2023 flip in Oakland Park’s favor. That year BSO’s revenue from Oakland Park was $17,172,399 and its reported cost to supply police services to that city was $17,195,497. Oakland Park came out ahead by $23,098.

Sheriff Tony’s appearance in Tallahassee Tuesday before Gov. DeSantis and his Cabinet, sitting as the Florida Administration Commission whose duties include resolving sheriffs budget appeals, will apparently be a first for a Broward sheriff.

Yet some police chiefs have wondered why, given BSO’s own large budget discrepancies, he’s appealing.

Said one Broward chief, “How can you ask for more money when your own numbers don’t add up?”

https://www.floridabulldog.org/2026/02/broward-sheriff-tony-takes-budget-fight-tallahassee-but-bsos-budget-doesnt-add-up/

 

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MEDIA ARTICLE: A 2-year-old girl was killed by her father, police say, despite warnings about violence. What went wrong? (Broward.us, 5-31-24)

 A 2-year-old girl was killed by her father, police say, despite warnings about violence.
What went wrong?

By Shira Moolten | smoolten@sunsentinel.com | South Florida Sun Sentinel

PUBLISHED: May 31, 2024 at 7:00 AM EDT | UPDATED: May 31, 2024 at 10:39 AM EDT

The mother had tried to keep her 2-year-old daughter safe. She told the court in a motion last year that her daughter should not be left in her father’s care unsupervised. That he had been involuntarily committed several times, reported hearing voices, chased her through their Pembroke Pines house, abused the family dog and punched inanimate objects.

But somewhere along the way, those concerns fell aside. Months after the mother raised her initial concerns, the parents’ lawyers submitted an agreed-upon timesharing plan that a Broward judge approved. The girl would stay with Jeronimo Duran, 33, unsupervised, every other weekend and one night per week. When she entered school, parenting would become 50-50.

Then, on Tuesday morning, police say, Duran cut the throat of his 2-year-old daughter inside the same Pembroke Pines home while she was visiting him as part of her parents’ timesharing plan. 

Even as more details come to light about what took place that morning, it remains unclear why the girl ended up alone with him despite all of the efforts to avoid that scenario. 

Neither the child’s mother nor attorneys for either parent have responded to requests for comment.

“Unfortunately, in this case for a multitude of reasons, you’re looking at irreversible tragedy that I do believe is preventable,” said Michael Grieco, a defense attorney and former state congressman from Miami Beach who helped sponsor one of the earlier iterations of “Greyson’s Law,” formed in response to another child’s death at the hands of his father. 

“I don’t know if it was preventable legislatively. If it was preventable in the courtroom. If it was preventable among the attorneys involved. But there clearly was not enough advocacy on behalf of the little girl, and that’s the problem.”

On Tuesday morning, about 9:30 a.m., Duran’s grandmother returned home to find him on top of his daughter. She called 911, telling the call taker in Spanish to send someone quickly. 

The girl was pale and not reacting, she said frantically, according to a recording of the call released by police on Thursday. 

Police later said she was bleeding profusely from her neck, which Duran had lacerated. 

Paramedics took the girl to the hospital, where she later died. Duran is now facing charges of first-degree murder while engaged in child abuse and aggravated child abuse.

Jeronimo Duran, 33, is facing charges of murder while engaged in child abuse and aggravated child abuse in the violent death of his daughter, court records show. 

(Broward Sheriff's Office/Courtesy)

A similar tragedy, also described as preventable, had unfolded in Broward almost exactly three years ago to the day in May 2021. Alison Kessler was receiving threats from the father of her 4-year-old son, Greyson. He had tracked her with a device and knew she went to the Broward courthouse seeking an injunction against him.

“You have created ginormous amount of problems for me,” he said in one message. “I was never angry before I met you.”

Another read, “you deserve to have your head separated from your body. But I am not the violent type. God will deal with you.”

Kessler knew Greyson was in trouble. She spoke to the police and sought permission to pick up her son in an emergency court filing. But when police finally arrived at the father’s apartment, it was too late. Greyson’s father had killed his son and then himself in a murder-suicide. A day later, the judge denied her motion.

Kessler had just heard the news of the 2-year-old girl’s death days after the anniversary of Greyson’s.

“My reaction was, I can’t believe this is happening again,” she told the South Florida Sun Sentinel on Wednesday. “And I can’t believe our judicial system is so flawed.”

After Greyson died, Kessler threw herself into activism, fighting for the next two years to get a bill passed that would prevent situations like hers from happening again.

A watered-down version of “Greyson’s Law” went into effect in July 2023. It requires that judges weigh more factors in determining parental custody or timesharing, particularly any reasonable fear raised by a parent that their child is or has been in “imminent danger” of domestic violence, abuse or neglect. 

It also broadens the definition of domestic violence, including whether someone has “engaged in a pattern of abusive, threatening, intimidating, or controlling behavior composed of a series of acts over a period of time, however short.”

Such a definition could describe the behavior of Duran, particularly his chasing of the girl’s mother and his punching of walls, a fan, and the family dog, according to allegations the mother made in court filings last year. 

Police had responded to the home twice last year, records show, though it is unclear whether those calls had to do with domestic violence. Public records requests for police reports about Duran and the incidents at the home were not fulfilled Thursday.

Another red flag detailed in the court motion was Duran’s history of serious mental health issues, which some say should have given the mother’s fears more legal credence. 

Based on the mother’s court filing, he had been Baker Acted, or involuntarily committed, five times and reported hearing voices telling him to kill himself, including when his daughter was home. She wrote that he was not taking medication and was self-medicating with drugs instead. 

Duran later denied those claims but admitted he suffered from an unspecified mental illness for which he was receiving treatment.

“When you have multiple Baker Acts, now it’s memorialized that you clearly have a history of mental health issues that require involuntary hospitalization,” Grieco said. 

“Then the allegations in the court filings hold a lot more water than if they’re just a bunch of unprovable allegations.”

The mother had previously asked for a psychological evaluation of Duran, a guardian ad litem, full custody, and for her child not to visit him unsupervised.

“His behavior is erratic, aggressive, violent and dangerous to the mother and the minor child,” her court filing read.

But in March of this year, the parents signed a timesharing plan that looked drastically different from what the mother had previously wanted, and Broward Circuit Judge Kristin Kanner approved it. Kanner did not respond to an email late Thursday afternoon and her office redirected inquiries to the court administrator, who did not return a voicemail.

“I don’t know what happened, why the mother agreed to the parenting plan,” said State Sen. Lori Berman, D-Boca Raton, who sponsored the bill that became Greyson’s Law in 2022 and 2023. 

“I will never second-guess a parent in that situation. I will never place any blame against a parent in that situation. But I’m very sad the end result was the loss of this child’s life, and that Greyson’s Law, despite what we did, didn’t end up saving this child.”

Many parents are not educated on Greyson’s Law or other rights they may have in domestic situations. 

Often they are under immense pressure to resolve the dispute, both financially and legally.

Kessler said that in her own custody case, she felt that she had to reach an agreement with Greyson’s father during mediation or else the judge would deem her uncooperative.

“We don’t have a choice,” she said. “Unless we want to risk our child getting taken away by the judge because we’re not cooperating. You have to reach an agreement in mediation.”

Money can also become a deciding factor. Many people do not have the resources for prolonged litigation, Grieco said. 

Oftentimes, victims are financially dependent on their abusers. The mother in Duran’s case, a veterinary tech at the time whose most valuable assets were her car and an $800 mattress, wrote in her court filing that he had a better ability to pay for child support and that she “definitely has a need.”

Experts agree that tragedies like this are happening far too often. In March, a 2-year-old boy and his mother were found dead in a home in Plantation, where Kessler lives. The father attempted suicide but survived and is now charged with first-degree murder.

“It’s happening at an alarming rate,” Kessler said. Every day she is contacted by parents who need help or advice. Some say that citing Greyson’s Law helped them save their own child.

Berman said further education on the law could help more parents. Grieco thinks one possible solution would be to appoint guardian ad litems in any case where a parent shows severe mental health issues. 

Kessler is still fighting for more police intervention and for the legal system to better understand all forms of domestic abuse in the first place.

“It’s really hard to prove domestic violence when you don’t have physical scars,” she said.

https://broward.us/2024/05/31/a-2-year-old-girl-was-killed-by-her-father-police-say-despite-warnings-about-violence-what-went-wrong/

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MEDIA ARTICLE: In Ron DeSantis’ power grab, the Legislature helped | Column (Tampa Bay Times, 2-18-26)

 Tampa Bay Times

John Hill, Columnist

2-18-26

In Ron DeSantis’ power grab, the Legislature helped | Column

Only gentle pushback now for the termed-out governor.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis delivers his State of the State address as House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, applauds on the opening day of the legislative session Jan. 13 in Tallahassee.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis delivers his State of the State address as House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, applauds on the opening day of the legislative session Jan. 13 in Tallahassee. [ MATIAS J. OCNER | Miami Herald ]

Three stories last week captured the graft, deceit and ugliness of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ tenure. The first detailed the governor’s lavish spending from a taxpayer-provided slush fund. The second revealed how his administration spent public money fighting the recreational marijuana campaign (which most Florida voters supported). A third showed how the governor’s health department schemed to cut off life-saving access to affordable drugs for thousands of Floridians. It was a big run of dispiriting news, but par for the course.

In a healthy democracy, where checks and balances keep the co-equal branches of government in line, any of these revelations would certainly have prompted backlash from the Legislature. Lawmakers would have dug in on their power over the purse, on holding the governor’s appointees accountable and on being kept in the loop on major policy decisions. But DeSantis has gone off alone with the Legislature’s blessing, reshaping the power dynamics in Florida for the worse.

Take DeSantis’ abuse of the state’s emergency fund. Under the guise of an immigration “emergency,” DeSantis has spent hundreds of millions of dollars from Florida’s Emergency Preparedness and Response Fund since the Republican-led Legislature first established the account in 2022, according to last week’s report by the Times/Herald Tallahassee bureau.

The spending included more than $166,000 on restaurant bills and catering, $717,000 on travel and at least $1.7 million on outside attorneys. Thousands of dollars flowed to Amazon, Sam’s Club and dozens of restaurants, from Outback Steakhouse and Kyoto Japanese Cuisine to Pedro’s Tacos, Bumpa’s Sports Bar and Bagel Bagel. DeSantis’ office has used the emergency to cover the tab at restaurants more than 50 times this year alone. This from a fund typically reserved for hurricanes and other disasters, when access to quick cash actually serves a purpose.

DeSantis’ administration also acknowledged for the first time last week that it used opioid settlement money to campaign against a recreational marijuana amendment on the 2024 ballot, which the governor opposed.

Shevaun Harris, who led Florida’s child welfare agency at the time, made the admission during an appearance before a Senate committee as part of her confirmation as secretary for Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration. The department paid a Republican-aligned digital firm $5.1 million in a no-bid contract for ads about marijuana and abortions; $4 million of it came from the state’s opioid settlement, money intended to steer Floridians away from drug dependency.

The administration hasn’t responded to questions from the Times/Herald about the use of the opioid money for years, and the Orlando Sentinel reported this month that the state hadn’t answered questions about the campaign spending from its own opioid advisory council. But dodging the press and subverting the state’s own internal channels of communication is nothing new for this administration. Take its approach in cutting off affordable access for Floridians to life-saving AIDS drugs.

The Times/Herald reported last week that Florida planned to kick patients in the AIDS Drug Assistance Program off their state-paid health insurance. The decision leaves up to 12,000 needy people scrambling to find ways to afford medication. No other state has made cuts at Florida’s level to deal with rising health care costs, and longtime advocates and health experts say the state has gone far beyond what’s necessary. It’s also impossible to ignore than many affected are members of the LGBTQ+ community, a population that DeSantis has regularly targeted.

As the administration readied changes, it operated in secret. The Florida Department of Health’s own HIV planning board stopped getting updates about the drug assistance program about a year ago. Changes were initially communicated to health clinics by phone, not in writing. Officials operated out of sight despite the requirement to follow an open rule-changing process. And patients were given short notice, forced to scramble to find coverage elsewhere.

The House is finally pushing back on the governor’s slush fund, but lawmakers are finding a backbone only as the termed-out governor prepares to depart. The Senate still follows the governor’s lead. DeSantis’ record is his legacy, and there is plenty for history to criticize. But we should remember the role our own pliant, independently elected representatives played. If that’s how our system works, no wonder the bad news flows.

John Hill - Columnist

John Hill is a columnist for the Tampa Bay Times. Reach him at hill@tampabay.com.

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https://www.tampabay.com/viewpoints/2026/02/18/ron-desantis-power-grab-legislature-helped-column/?trk_msg=3FPSULBL15D4D3G64E92TEREHO&trk_contact=FEUGMM9L1IUD13T890TMN8V3TG&trk_sid=RUFUUSRKJEEG24UEAA9F49OHUG&trk_link=M1PHG3VSPDCKH84NON3LFF6MM0&utm_email=f0075cfb4c7bb435f4382a4aabc76517743da7f8b8507e67660310f2147780f4&trk_source=Dont-Miss&utm_source=Breaking+News&utm_medium=MG2_Newsletter&utm_term=https%3a%2f%2fwww.tampabay.com%2fviewpoints%2f2026%2f02%2f18%2fron-desantis-power-grab-legislature-helped-column%2f&utm_campaign=subscribecta

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MEDIA ARTICLE: New evidence is released of the triple murders in Tamarac, exactly 1 year since the tragedy shook the community (CBS News, 2-17-26)

 Local News

New evidence is released of the triple murders in Tamarac, exactly 1 year since the tragedy shook the community

By

February 17, 2026 / 10:35 PM EST / CBS Miami

A year after a devastating triple murder in Tamarac, new evidence has been released, giving us a window into the mind of the accused killer.

The Broward State Attorney's Office just released videos, text messages, and photos of the moments before and after the murders. 

On February 16, 2025, Nathan Gingles was accused of killing his estranged wife, her father, and a neighbor.

The first piece of evidence was an interrogation video where you see Gingles calm and collected a few hours after his arrest.

When asked if he worked for the military, Gingles replies with:  "I'm a government contractor."

The interrogation ends after Gingles says he wants a lawyer present before he can say anything, and over the next few hours, Gingles sits cuffed and silent. At one point, a tech comes into the room and takes DNA samples. He is then fingerprinted and gives palm prints before being sent to prison.

According to investigators, Gingles was going through a contentious breakup. His estranged wife, Mary, said in court documents that he was violent and she feared for her life.

 On a Sunday morning, detectives say Nathan Gingles showed up at Mary's Tamarac home, shot her father on the patio. You can see his shattered coffee cup captured in a crime scene photo.

Then, detectives say Nathan Gingles stalked Mary Gingles at gunpoint. She was seen running away from Gingles before dying in front of a neighbor's house, asking for help. That neighbor was also killed by Gingles, police say.

Afterwards, Nathan Gingles is seen on camera walking down the street with his young daughter, who had seen the bloodshed. He is also accused of kidnapping her, since he tried to leave the scene with her in tow.

Phone calls and texts from Mary Gingles before she died showed that she expressed fear of her estranged husband 

Eight BSO deputies lost their jobs over fallout from the murders, for not doing enough to protect Mary Gingles despite her repeated pleas for help.

Three and a half months before her life ended, Mary Gingles sent a text to a neighbor expressing concern.

The text read: " Will you let me know if you see Nathan at the house today? I found a gps tracker on my car, and it looks like he kicked my security cameras off the network."

We are also hearing the many conversations Nathan Gingles has with a relative over the months he's been in jail, commenting on everything from the conditions to his young daughter.

"I'm just in low-grade torture now. It's the worst jail in South Florida. They're like why did you kill that girl? I finally saw the paperwork on the guardian ad litem for my daughter's case, and it's literally just flat out like falsehoods.  They just basically accuse me of the crimes, like it's a fact," he said in the call.

No trial date has been set yet for him, but prosecutors do say they are seeking the death penalty. 

https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/tamarac-triple-murder-new-evidence-1-year-later/

In:

• Double Murder
• Murder
• Crime
• Broward County

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MEDIA ARTICLE: ‘He snapped’: Jail calls, photographs connect fraught custody battle to Tamarac triple murder (Sun Sentinel 2-13-26)

‘He snapped’: Jail calls, photographs connect fraught custody battle to Tamarac triple murder

(Sun Sentinel 2-13-26)

By Shira Moolten | smoolten@sunsentinel.com | South Florida Sun Sentinel and Angie DiMichele | adimichele@sunsentinel.com | South Florida Sun Sentinel

PUBLISHED: February 13, 2026 at 8:00 AM EST | UPDATED: February 13, 2026 at 9:38 AM EST

The notes appeared throughout the now-quiet Tamarac home, on pieces of printer paper and legal pads.

“Videos give a good contrast of demeanor changes, coaching, & alienation,” one read.

“Won’t be a permanent final injunction,” said another.

A third contained a quote in blue ink: “The most dangerous time for a woman when she is leaving her abuser is the moments just before and after her ‘leaving.'”

“Timely,” was written above it.

The notes depict Mary Gingles’ efforts to escape an abusive marriage and get custody of her 4-year-old daughter in the years and months leading up to her death. 

Photographs of the notes and others like them are among a tranche of records released by the Broward State Attorney’s Office this week as part of the discovery process in the death penalty case against her estranged husband, Nathan Gingles, and reveal the extent to which their divorce proceedings — and their ensuing custody battle — consumed both their lives and culminated in him being accused of killing her, her father and a neighbor in the Plum Bay community in Tamarac almost exactly a year ago.

The records include thousands of pictures of evidence within both of their homes, hours of footage of a calm Nathan Gingles in the aftermath of the murders, dozens of calls he made to a close friend from jail, and extensive interviews with those who knew the couple.

A note found in Mary Gingles' home about the dangers of leaving an abusive relationship. (Broward State Attorney's Office/Courtesy)

A note found in Mary Gingles' home about the dangers of leaving an abusive relationship. (Broward State Attorney's Office/Courtesy)

The custody battle features prominently in the photographs and written documents. The notes found in Mary Gingles’ home about “alienation” and “coaching” refer to tactics sometimes used by parents to turn children against their estranged partners during custody disputes. Shortly after the killings, the Gingles’ daughter told deputies her father had intended to take her to Texas, where he has family. A close co-worker of Nathan Gingles said he had made similar comments, adding that he “snapped” due to troubles at work spurred by the divorce.

According to court and law enforcement reports, Gingles first shot and killed Mary’s father, David Ponzer, as Ponzer drank coffee on the patio of his daughter’s Tamarac home early on the morning of Feb. 16, 2025. Mary Gingles, 34, then ran from house to house down the street, trying to find a place to hide from Gingles as he stalked her with a gun, their daughter trailing behind. Mary Gingles opened a neighbor’s unlocked door; the resident, Andrew Ferrin, was asleep in his bed. Gingles shot both his estranged wife and Ferrin to death in the bedroom, deputies say. Nathan Gingles has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Mary Gingles and David Ponzer are shown in an undated family photo. (Mary Gingles' family/Courtesy)

Mary Gingles and David Ponzer are shown in an undated family photo. (Mary Gingles' family/Courtesy)

In court and to the Broward Sheriff’s Office, Mary Gingles repeatedly reported abusive and controlling behavior by Gingles, including threats to her life, in the months leading up to the murders. She obtained a restraining order against him in January that required him to surrender his stockpile of guns, but he never did, and the Sheriff’s Office never followed up to determine whether he had turned in his weapons. A total of 19 deputies were fired or disciplined for their handling of Mary Gingles’ reports about her estranged husband’s  behavior or for their response to the shootings that morning.

‘Goal was to kill the wife and take the kid and go somewhere,’ co-worker said

Gingles, 44, a decorated military veteran, is related to a prominent political family in Texas with ties to House Speaker Mike Johnson and may have been seeking to take his daughter there, according to documents and jail calls released Wednesday.

Gingles had served in the U.S. Army in the mid-2010s in Afghanistan and was one of several soldiers awarded the Meritorious Unit Commendation for his service in 2013 and 2014 during Operation Enduring Freedom XIII-XIV in the Zabul Province, according to newly released military records. While Gingles held the rank of captain, he received the Meritorious Service Medal for his service as the Defense Coordinating Element of Region Ten for the U.S. Army North, headquartered in Texas.

Nathan Gingles is shown in military uniform in a photo included in thousands of documents released Wednesday by the State Attorney's Office. (State Attorney's Office/Courtesy)

Nathan Gingles is shown in military uniform in a photo included in thousands of documents released this week by the Broward State Attorney's Office. (Broward State Attorney's Office/Courtesy)

Dozens of photos included in the documents released Wednesday are military handbooks, field guides and cultural texts, some dating back to the early 2000s that appeared to belong to Gingles, as well as numerous books from the SANS Institute detailing computer hacker tools.

The documents also reveal signs of abuse in Nathan and Mary Gingles’ relationship as far back as 2017, prior to their marriage.

Ponzer, her father, had called authorities in Alaska that year for a welfare check because his daughter was there with Gingles and the two had an argument. He told them Gingles threw her phone out the window of the car because she was recording him, according to an incident report from the Alaska Department of Public Safety.

Mary Gingles took their daughter and filed for divorce in 2024, according to court records. The divorce became such a focus in Gingles’ life that he was taking time off from his job, according to the newly released documents.

Before his arrest, he had been working at a major global information technology company that works with government agencies, according to transcripts of interviews released Wednesday. A detective called a man who was one of Gingles’ “closest” co-workers to find out whether Gingles had been discussing his divorce and custody issues with his daughter.

The co-worker said Gingles talked about the divorce often and had been “going through a lot with his work,” according to the transcript. The detective asked if Gingles ever talked about kidnapping his daughter or killing his wife, to which the co-worker said he did not. Later in the interview, he said Gingles talked about how he cared for his daughter.

Gingles had been nearly demoted at his job, the co-worker said, due to taking too much time off because of his pending divorce. He added that Gingles was being given “impossible” tasks and that “malicious” things were being done to him.

“— obviously, he, he snapped, um, because he knew he was getting fired,” the co-worker told the detective.

The co-worker said there was talk of Gingles being terminated at some point, and believed Gingles’ “goal was to kill his wife and take the kid and go somewhere,” according to the transcript.

In Gingles’ apartment, investigators found a letter from the DMV in Texas, dated less than two weeks before the murders, rejecting an application for a Texas certificate of title for a vehicle. When deputies spoke to his daughter the day of the murders, documents show, she told them, unprompted, “My dad was trying to move me to Texas.”

Blood, bullet casings, children’s clothes

The custody battle had also been a major focus for Mary Gingles. Her estrangement from Nathan caused her to fear for her own life, and she wrote that the dragging divorce kept her stuck in Tamarac despite her desire to move, according to photographs and screenshots of texts released Wednesday.

“How’s everything going, still on track to move,” a neighbor texted her in June 2024, one screenshot shows.

“Nathan has rejected all the negotiations, I think I’ll have to petition to move,” Mary Gingles replied, adding in another text, “it’s all so much more complicated than I was hoping.”

Throughout the home, Mary Gingles had written down notes about to-do items, including mentions of psychological and substance abuse evaluations for court, “cut screens” on her windows upstairs and a backpack containing handcuffs and pills. She had jotted down the names of Broward Sheriff’s Office investigators assigned to investigate possible criminal activity by Nathan Gingles.

Mary Gingles had called BSO for help more than a dozen times, including the day before she was killed. But deputies did not properly investigate her discovery of a GPS tracker hidden on her car or a backpack filled with suspicious supplies, according to an internal affairs investigation. Both cases remained open just three days before the murders, the Sun Sentinel previously found.

In her petition for the restraining order, Mary Gingles had also written that she believed Nathan Gingles would attempt to kill her by the end of February, when the lease was set to end and she and their 4-year-old would finally move out of the Tamarac home.

“He has already taken steps to prepare to murder me, but is waiting for the opportune time,” she wrote. “I think it is likely that without a restraining order he will attempt this before the lease is up at the end of February.”

Photographs released Wednesday depict a quiet family home turned into a crime scene: blood spatter near the shattered handle of a mug; bullet casings; a note about the toddler program at a nearby preschool; a bathtub full of children’s toys.

Meanwhile, when deputies searched Nathan Gingles’ apartment after the murders, they found it entirely cleared out, save for a few items neatly packed into bags. Among his belongings, they found stacks of hundred-dollar bills, children’s clothes, and electronics. There was no food in the apartment or evidence that anyone had ever eaten there, save for a pizza box discarded in the trash.

Investigators also came across a calendar, according to records released Wednesday. In small, neat handwriting, he had noted down the dates of hearings for the divorce case and appointments with the VA. And at the very end of the month, he marked Feb. 28.

“Plum Bay move out,” he wrote.

Gingles’ family fought for custody after murders

After Nathan Gingles was jailed, the custody battle continued, records show, as his cousin, Damaris Barton Schuler, fought Mary Gingles’ sister to win parental rights over his daughter.

Schuler’s father and Nathan Gingles’ uncle, David Barton, is a well-known Texas pastor who was named one of Time magazine’s “most influential evangelicals” in 2005, according to news reports, which describe him as a Christian nationalist. He served as vice chair of the Republican Party of Texas and is the founder of Wallbuilders, an organization that promotes his views and vision of America. He has served as an adviser to Mike Johnson, while prominent politicians, including Sen. Ted Cruz and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have sought his endorsement.

Barton himself was deposed during the Gingles’ divorce, his name appearing on notes in Mary’s home, according to records. The pastor helmed a trust, of which Nathan Gingles was a co-trustee. His deposition had to do with whether Nathan Gingles had access to money from the trust during the divorce, according to court records and photographs of Mary Gingles’ notes.

Schuler and her mother, meanwhile, appeared at the Plum Bay home after the murders to take items from the house, according to an incident report from the time. Schuler did not return a phone call Thursday afternoon. Attempts to reach Barton were unsuccessful.

Gingles, by his own account, is estranged from his parents, according to his jail calls. He asked a family member to tell his mother to stop writing to him in jail and, in another call, informed his friend that he hadn’t talked to his father in 10 years.

A calendar found at Nathan Gingles' apartment. (Courtesy/Broward State Attorney's Office)

A calendar found at Nathan Gingles' apartment. (Broward State Attorney's Office/Courtesy)

In multiple phone calls from jail, Nathan Gingles discussed the dependency court case, asking his friend in Texas to pass along information and criticizing Mary’s sister, who was fighting for custody against Schuler.

The phone conversations appear among the more than 30 jail recordings released Wednesday, many of them between him and the friend in Texas from the time period shortly after he was booked through last summer.

In several calls, Gingles repeatedly accused people within the justice system of colluding against him and complained about the food and other conditions. Multiple times, he said people were trying to “traffick” his daughter.

“Criminals set me up and criminals are trying to crucify me and child traffick my daughter,” he told his friend in one call, after discussing how “they finally got the psycho judge off the case” and described the Department of Children and Families and the guardian ad litem as “extremely biased.”

Gingles also asked his friend to pass on information about his sister-in-law to keep her from getting custody of the young girl. He described his sister-in-law as abusive and dangerous.

Nathan Gingles seen in interrogation room video. He is accused of killing his wife, father-in-law, and a neighbor in Tamarac. (Broward State Attorney's Office/Courtesy)

Nathan Gingles is seen in interrogation room video after his arrest. He is accused of killing his wife, father-in-law and a neighbor in Tamarac. (Broward State Attorney's Office/Courtesy)

In one call shortly after his arrest, Gingles told his friend that he had just been arrested but his only concern was his daughter.

“As long as my little girl gets out of here, that’s all I care about,” Gingles said.

The friend replied that Schuler “is pretty hot and heavy on that” and was “gonna try to get her as soon as possible.”

At one point, the friend also told Gingles, “it said that you were arrested for the violation of the injunction, not anything else.”

“Oh no, it was triple homicide,” Gingles replied calmly.

“Triple!?”

“Uh huh,” Gingles said.

“Holy shit,” the friend replied.

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2026/02/13/he-snapped-jail-calls-photographs-connect-fraught-custody-battle-to-tamarac-triple-murder/

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