Broward State Attorney seeking death penalty for Tamarac triple murder suspect

Broward prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Nathan Gingles, the U.S. Army veteran and defense contractor who, deputies say, shot and killed his wife, her father and a neighbor in a quiet Tamarac neighborhood last month.

The four-page document announcing the intent of seeking death was filed Thursday by Assistant State Attorney Kristine Bradley and details multiple legal reasons why the crime qualifies for capital punishment, including that “it was committed in a cold, calculated, premeditated manner without any pretense or moral or legal justification.”

Nathan Gingles, 43, is accused of using a silencer-equipped handgun to kill his father-in-law, 64-year-old David Ponzer, as he was drinking his coffee on his daughter’s back patio in the early morning of Feb. 16. He then chased down his wife, Mary Gingles, 34, as she ran away and into neighbor Andrew Ferrin’s unlocked house across the street.

There, he gunned down both Mary and Ferrin, deputies say. Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies found Ferrin, 36, dead in his bed lying underneath a blanket. Mary’s body was found lying under a window in Ferrin’s bedroom, investigators say.

The Gingles’ 4-year-old daughter Seraphine followed her father into Ferrin’s home and witnessed her mother’s murder, detectives say. An Amber Alert was launched in the immediate aftermath of the rampage, and BSO deputies found Nathan and Seraphine at a North Lauderdale Walmart that afternoon, where Nathan was arrested. Seraphine is now in state custody.

Gingles has pleaded not guilty to three counts of premeditated murder, kidnapping, child abuse, violation of domestic violence injunctions and interference with custody.

The murders followed a year of a contentious divorce process and Nathan violating a December restraining order by breaking into the Plum Bay house in Tamarac the couple once shared.

In the wake of the slayings, Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony suspended eight deputies and demoted a supervisor for how they handled Mary’s multiple domestic violence calls against her estranged husband, including failing to seize his dozen firearms, including six silencers, following the December restraining order.

Read More: Another deputy suspended – and top BSO officer demoted – after Broward triple murders

That month, Mary found a backpack in the garage left by Nathan that contained duct tape, plastic restraints, Saran Wrap and other items she felt were meant for her abduction and murder.

In a Feb. 6 filing that Mary filled out as part of the divorce proceedings, she indicated she was convinced Nathan was trying to kill her.

“Nathan has entered my home, left a backpack full of items that he would need to murder me, a note with, ‘Needle — Air Embolism, Psych Med OD, Waterboarding’ written on it, staged a ladder outside my house, and left windows in my house ajar.

“I think a reasonable person would consider those ‘steps to murder’ me,” Mary wrote, 10 days before she was killed.

Under the Dec. 30 restraining order, Nathan was prohibited from being within 500 feet of the home.

Accused Tamarac shooter told cops he didn’t have guns. BSO failed to confirm under red flag law

In a Dec. 29 call to BSO to report the break-in, Mary said she felt helpless. The Herald obtained a recording of the call through a public records request.

“I don’t know what to do. I’m at a loss. Obviously, the current court order is not doing anything,” she said.

In October, Mary discovered a tracker on her car and later found a receipt showing that Nathan had purchased an item from the tracker’s company, according to court documents. Her divorce attorney had recommended she look for the device on her car, according to a BSO incident report.

Mary, who is also an Army veteran, told the BSO operator she thought the tracker would be an “easy case” against Nathan.

However, a criminal probe didn’t happen until December, when Mary spoke at length with BSO Sgt. Brittany King — one of the eight BSO deputies suspended by Tony. King was the investigator assigned to several of Mary’s calls, according to BSO incident reports the Herald obtained.

From February 2024 to January 2025, Mary called the sheriff’s office 14 times about her husband’s increasingly erratic behavior, a BSO call log reviewed by the Herald shows.

Then, there is the issue of Nathan’s arsenal of sophisticated firearms, including the Sig Sauer P320 semiautomatic handgun that police believe he used in the murders. BSO divers fished the handgun and silencer out of a nearby lake, the agency said.

In February 2024, a Broward judge ordered Nathan to surrender his weapons due to issuing a domestic violence restraining order against him. But BSO returned the 12 weapons, silencers and 650 rounds of ammunition in September after the restraining order was lifted as part of the divorce proceedings. Mary and Nathan agreed to a “no-harmful contact order” so they could share custody of Seraphine.

A judge again ordered Nathan to surrender his weapons in the second restraining order on Dec. 30, but when a deputy went to his Lauderhill apartment on Jan. 5, Nathan told him he didn’t have the guns, according to court records.

The deputy left and never sought a risk protection order from a judge. Under Florida’s red flag law, enacted after the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting in Broward, law enforcement can seize a person’s weapon with a risk protection order if it’s deemed a person will endanger himself or others.

The deputy who served the restraining order, Joseph Sasso, relayed to other deputies what Nathan said about not having the weapons, according to a law enforcement source. But, those deputies, who were familiar with Mary’s calls, never followed up on the weapons, the source said.

Sasso is one of the officers Tony suspended with pay.

During a press conference Tony held announcing the deputies’ suspensions, he said he believed procedures on the books meant to prevent such tragedies were not followed.

“When we do our risk protection orders, we’re following these things, the courts are also involved in that process, right? So the biggest thing I look at is, ‘Did we follow all the procedural elements to submit this one in a timely manner?’ ... I don’t see that happening,” he said.

This story was originally published March 14, 2025 at 1:29 PM.

David Goodhue

Miami Herald

305-923-9728

David Goodhue covers the Florida Keys and South Florida for FLKeysNews.com and the Miami Herald. Before joining the Herald, he covered Congress, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy in Washington, D.C. He is a graduate of the University of Delaware.