TAMPA, Fla. — Prosecutors were expected to rest their case Monday against the man accused of stabbing and killing a Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority (HART) bus driver in 2019.
However, the judge granted a request from lawyers to give them a week to put together their final arguments. Closing arguments are now expected March 7.
Justin Ryan McGriff is charged with first-degree murder in the death of driver Thomas Dunn, and if convicted, he could face life in prison.
Tampa police say McGriff boarded a HART bus around 4 p.m. on May 18, 2019, armed with a weapon hidden in his right hand.
According to an arrest affidavit, McGriff told Dunn, "God bless you" twice before slitting his throat.
In court last week, the state played surveillance video captured on the bus that day. Witnesses told investigators there was no provocation before the attack, which was supported by the surveillance footage.
The state then called to the stand several witnesses, including passengers on the bus and several members of law enforcement.
Officer Travis Richards was among them. He testified through body camera video that McGriff ran away before several law enforcement partners aided Richards in arresting McGriff near the road.
The death penalty is no longer on the table for McGriff after The Hillsborough County State Attorney’s Office in 2020 said it learned of evidence of his mental illness.
“This awful attack on a public servant shocked us all, and our office remains focused on obtaining justice for the victim’s family through a murder conviction,” a spokesperson for the state attorney's office said at the time.
In 2019, McGriff was found incompetent to stand trial and sent to a state hospital, where doctors worked to restore his competency.
Following Dunn's death, both HART and the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA) installed safety barriers on their buses in an effort to protect drivers.
The custom-fit protective barriers have extended tempered glass shields that cover the drivers' space. Signs on the shields warn passengers that assaulting a driver is a crime.
HART also upgraded its surveillance camera systems, armed the security guards at transit stations, and had its drivers do de-escalation training with Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.
10 Investigates found that attacks on bus drivers in Hillsborough County spiked the year Dunn was killed, with nearly 500 bus drivers between 2017 and 2019 reporting they had been physically or verbally attacked by passengers.