A DeLand mental health counselor accused of gunning down a homeless man plans to file a stand-your-ground defense in the murder case against him.
But first, Travis McBride, the counselor, must cash out some of his bitcoin which is being held for him by a former major league baseball player from DeLand. The money would go toward retaining experts who could testify for his defense.
The developments came to light during a hearing on a motion to continue McBride’s case, which had been set to go to trial this year. But that was before legal fighting flared over a search warrant involving a surveillance video and now a plan to file a stand-your-ground defense.
Circuit Judge A. Christian Miller granted the defense motion to continue the trial into next year.
McBride, 48, has been held without bond at the Volusia County Branch Jail since Jan. 18, 2024 on charges of first-degree murder and tampering with physical evidence.
McBride is accused of killing Clinton Dorsey, a 51-year-old homeless man who had been living in some woods behind the therapist’s office. McBride shot Dorsey on Jan. 18, 2024, police said. DeLand Police found Dorsey’s body in McBride’s car, according to a report.
A witness told police that McBride went to her house looking for Dorsey and told her he was going to kill Dorsey, an affidavit stated. McBride claimed “Clinton had put glass in a jar for his dogs and he was done with it,” the affidavit stated.
Accused to claim stand-your-ground in killing
McBride’s defense attorney, Michael Lambert, said during an Oct. 31 hearing on the motion to continue the case and delay the trial, that McBride had asked him to file a stand-your-ground self-defense motion. Lambert said he needed to retain experts for the defense.
Judge Miller asked why nearly two years into the case the experts were not retained or thought about until recently.
Travis McBride, a DeLand therapist accused of killing a homeless man, talks with his attorney Bryan Lambert, Wednesday January 15, 2025 during a hearing before Circuit Judge Karen Foxman at the Justice Center in Daytona Beach.
Lambert responded “that particularly with the autism” it had to do with a development in the law. Lambert said that in October the Florida Supreme Court indicated that PTSD and “like illnesses” are admissible for the “subjective” part of a stand-your-ground defense.
Lambert said he had an expert on autism lined up for the case.
Lambert cited the state Supreme Court opinion from Oct. 9 in the case of Oquendo vs State from the 2nd District Court of Appeal. In that case, the Supreme Court stated that self-defense claims involve an “objective component” in which the “reasonable person standard applies” and a “subjective component.”
The state Supreme Court found that the 2nd District Court of Appeal was wrong in deciding that a defendant’s “misunderstanding of reality as altered by a disorder such as PTSD” was not relevant to the “subjective component” in a self-defense case, according to the opinion.
Bitcoin for accused being held by former DeLand Major League Baseball player
Lambert said that he also had to wait for McBride to get the money to hire those experts.
Lambert told the judge that McBride is paying for the experts by tapping into the value of his cryptocurrency which is being held for him by Luke Scott, a former Major League Baseball player from DeLand High School.
Travis McBride, a mental health counselor who is charged with first-degree murder in the killing of a homeless man in DeLand, appears in court on Sept. 11, 2025, for a hearing in Daytona Beach.
Scott played with the Houston Astros, Baltimore Orioles and Tampa Bay Rays in the major leagues, with his last season in 2013 in Tampa Bay, according to MLB.com.
But Lambert said during the Oct. 31 hearing that Scott was unavailable at that time.
Lambert said that McBride had gotten into bitcoin “very early” and had assigned a lot of his bitcoin to his “power-of-attorney,” which Lambert said was Scott.
Lambert said that Scott paid his retainer in the McBride case.
He said that Scott was “out in the wilderness” but he expected he would be back soon.
When McBride needs money, Scott gives money to McBride but holds on to the bitcoin.
Scott is keeping the bitcoin because it appreciates, Lambert said.
“This person is still holding the bitcoin and giving him his U.S. currency and then applying it against the value of the bitcoin to date,” Lambert said.
The judge asked if it was like McBride was borrowing against the value of the bitcoin and Lambert said “exactly.”
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: DeLand counselor murder case continues with stand-your-ground defense