Boynton man still faces charge of being a felon in possession of a handgun
De'Vante Moss during a May hearing in his double-murder trial. Moss was acquitted Sept. 10 of the two first-degree murder charges and an attempted murder charge stemming from a 2024 shooting at the Ocean 365 hotel on State Road A1A in Boca Raton. File photo/The Coastal Star
By Jane Musgrave
A 32-year-old Boynton Beach man, who insisted he fatally shot two people in self defense, has been acquitted of murder charges in connection with the 2024 double homicide at a Boca Raton beach hotel.
After deliberating for roughly six hours after a two-day trial, a Palm Beach County Circuit Court jury on Sept. 10 found De’Vante Moss not guilty of murder charges in the gunshot slayings of 49-year-old Christopher Liszak and 32-year-old Chandler Dill, both of Oakland Park.
Jurors also cleared Moss of a charge of attempted murder for shooting a third man outside the 365 Ocean extended stay hotel, across North Ocean Boulevard from South Beach Park.
Had he been convicted, it is likely Moss would have spent the rest of his life behind bars.
But, despite his acquittal, Moss remains in the Palm Beach County jail on a $50,000 bond.
He will return to court to be tried on a charge of being a felon in possession of a handgun in connection with the shooting.
His defense team asked that he be tried separately on the weapons charge because they didn’t want jurors to be swayed by knowing that Moss in 2022 pleaded guilty to a federal charge of distribution of fentanyl. No date for that trial has been set.
Caught on video
The key evidence in the murder trial was video captured by hotel security cameras. The two videos, shot from different angles, showed the chaos that erupted in the parking lot as Moss ran to his car after paying $100 to have sex with Dill.
During their deliberations, the jury twice asked to review the videos.
Also, in a rare move, Moss testified in his own defense, describing the events that unfolded.
After Moss and Dill had sex, Dill grabbed a pouch that Moss had brought with him to the hotel room and shoved it into her purse, according to court papers filed by Moss’ attorneys, Assistant Public Defenders Stephanie Gagerie and Michael Work. The pouch contained Moss’ cellphone and illicit drugs.
When Dill refused to return the pouch, Moss snatched her purse and fled. With Dill chasing him, Moss ran toward his 2017 silver Jaguar, the attorneys wrote, describing the scene that was recorded on the videos. As Moss approached his car, Liszak and Tuan Duy Hoang Ho joined the melee.
Ho told Moss, “I’ll shoot you,” grabbing his waist, indicating he was armed. Moss opened the passenger door of the Jaguar, grabbed a gun and climbed into the driver's seat, the attorneys said.
While Dill continued to attack Moss through the open passenger door, Moss managed to retrieve his cellphone and drugs from the purse and tossed it aside.
By then, Ho had pulled out a gun and was aiming it at Moss, the attorneys said.
How the shootings took place
In a desperate attempt to get away, Moss hit the gas. But, because the car door was open, the Jaguar only moved a couple of feet before the car’s automatic brakes locked, preventing his escape. In that split second, Ho reached into the car and grabbed Moss' phone.
Surrounded, with a disabled car and no way to call for help, Moss jumped out of the car and began shooting, Gagerie and Work wrote.
In an instant, Liszak and Dill were dead. Ho, who was also shot, crawled toward the hotel, according to Boca Raton police. Moss followed him, retrieved his cellphone and, while Ho was on the ground with his arms raised, shot him again. Police said he was shot in the buttocks, thigh and scrotum.
Ho survived. He testified against Moss at the trial from the Broward County jail where he is being held on probation violation charges.
Jury deliberations
Before voting unanimously to acquit Moss, jurors struggled with his actions after the shootings.
“Presuming self-defense, does he have a legal responsibility to call 911?” they asked at one point during their deliberations.
Neither Gagerie, Work or Assistant State Attorney Chrichet Mixon would comment on the verdict because Moss still faces the weapons charge.
But, during a hearing in May, Mixon argued that Moss set off the deadly chain of events by stealing Dill’s purse.
Circuit Judge Scott Suskauer agreed. In a sharply-worded order, he rejected Moss’ contention that his actions were protected by the state’s Stand Your Ground law. The measure allows judges to give someone immunity from prosecution if they used deadly force “to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the imminent commission of a forcible felony.”
The law was designed to protect “law-abiding citizens,” not “a robber/convicted felon” like Moss, Suskauer wrote in the May order, setting the stage for the September trial.
"During the course of committing an obvious robbery, Mr. Moss, a previously convicted felon, armed himself with a gun and killed two unarmed victims, including an unarmed pantless robbery victim who chased after him to get her pocketbook back," he wrote. "He additionally shot the third surviving victim who only armed himself after the defendant grabbed a gun."
The shootings, he said, were “absolutely not justified self-defense.”
Four months later, a jury disagreed.
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