Doc AVOIDS jail for murder! Plea deal lets Florida's Rafael Azulay evade prison after killing dad
FROWARD COUNTY, FLORIDA: A Florida doctor who gunned down his father while he was out on bond for strangling his girlfriend has been slapped with community control probation as part of a plea deal that was reached on Friday, February 18. 27-year-old Rafael Azulay has been charged with second-degree murder for shooting his father dead at a home in Weston in May 2018 and then shooting himself in the stomach and head. Officials said that the incident was a case of attempted murder-suicide. Under the plea deal, the murder charge was changed to manslaughter with a firearm, while the assault charge was dropped.
At the time of the shooting, Azulay was out on bond for domestic battery after he allegedly strangled his former girlfriend in March 2018. This was his third arrest for domestic abuse. He had also been charged with aggravated assault for threatening his mother, Dina Azulay. Dina, however, denied that he had threatened her and also said that the shooting was accidental.
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Azulay will have to spend two years under GPS-monitored house arrest with his mom. He will then face 10 years of probation for the manslaughter charge. For the time he served on the battery charges, Azulay was given one year of community control and credit. He had to surrender his medical license.
An attorney for Azulay, Hilliard Moldof, said told NBC 6 that the doctor suffered a traumatic brain injury when he had shot himself in the head. He insisted that Azulay was incompetent to stand trial. “He could understand the ramifications of taking a plea, but in a trial he couldn’t,” Moldof said. “The experts said he couldn’t testify relevantly or assist a lawyer in his defense.”
Azulay's former girlfriend, who identified herself as only Angela, said that he fears for her life. “How has life been for me leading up to this? It’s been awful,” Angela said. “I’m worried about my safety, my family’s safety,” “I think he is going to find me, and he is going to kill me, and then he is going to kill himself," she added.
Angela had reportedly previously refused to cooperate with law enforcement as Azulay owned a gun and threatened to “bring her to her mother in a body bag", the arrest report claimed. “He also warned her he will never go back to jail and will take as many people down as [necessary] before going back to jail,” the arrest report said. Angela claimed that she requested a 12-year no-contact order from prosecutors when she was informed that there could be a plea bargain.
Modolf has insisted that his client is not dangerous. “He’s not a danger at all. I mean, back then whatever was going on I didn’t represent him. But he’s on a very strict plan,” Moldof said. “[Angela] said in open court she wants him out, she wishes him well.”