Jury recommends death penalty for man who killed 5 at Florida bank
A jury on Wednesday recommended a former prison guard trainee be sentenced to death for his execution-style murders of five women inside a Florida bank five years ago, a massacre that fulfilled his long-stated desire to kill.
A jury on Wednesday recommended a former prison guard trainee be sentenced to death for his execution-style murders of five women inside a Florida bank five years ago, a massacre that fulfilled his long-stated desire to kill.
Jurors voted 9-3 to recommend Zephen Xaver receive the death penalty for the Jan. 23, 2019, murders at the SunTrust Bank in Sebring, about 85 miles southeast of Tampa.
Xaver, 27, stared straight ahead and showed no emotion as the verdicts were read after the Highlands County jury deliberated for less than three hours.
The final decision rests with Circuit Judge Angela Cowden, who could reject the jury’s recommendation and sentence Xaver to life in prison without parole. She said she will set a sentencing date after a hearing next month.
Under a 2023 Florida law, the jury only had to vote 8-4 favoring the death penalty for Cowden to impose that sentence. State law had required a unanimous jury recommendation for a judge to impose death, but Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Legislature changed it after a 9-3 jury vote spared the shooter who murdered 17 people at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018.
Rating: 5