Page 3 of 5 FirstFirst 12345 LastLast
Results 21 to 30 of 43

Thread: Ronnie Oneal III Sentenced to 3 Life Sentences Plus 60 Years in 2018 FL Murder of Kenyatta Barron and Ron’Niveya Oneal

  1. #21
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    20,875
    Son, witness to Riverview killings, testifies in dad’s murder trial

    Ronnie Oneal III, representing himself, cross-examined the boy, questioning his recollection of the attack

    By Dan Sullivan

    Tampa Bay Times

    TAMPA — The boy is almost 12. He’s about to start sixth grade. His favorite subject is science, and he likes learning about space. He plays Xbox games like Call of Duty and Rocket League. He wants to be an actor when he grows up. He’s gotten to know a golden retriever named Tibet.

    On Wednesday, the boy known as Ronnie Oneal IV appeared on a TV screen and calmly told a jury in a Tampa courtroom about the night three years ago when authorities say his father murdered his mother and sister and tried to kill him, too.

    The boy was at once a witness whose testimony is crucial to the case against Ronnie Oneal III and a victim deemed so vulnerable that he couldn’t be in the same room with him.

    The elder Oneal is representing himself in his murder trial. During the boy’s testimony, he was allowed to ask him questions.

    But there was no drama, no meanness, no hurtful or inappropriate comments.

    Oneal instead treated the witness with the kind of respect and attention a lawyer would, while highlighting a series of inconsistencies between the boy’s courtroom testimony and what he’d previously told investigators.

    Jurors watched the child intently, along with a crowd of spectators.

    The boy sat at the end of a brown table in a small room at Mary Lee’s House, a Tampa organization that helps victims of child abuse. His adoptive mother and a service dog handler sat behind him. Occasionally, he leaned down to pet Tibet, the dog. He kept his arms folded on the table, sometimes resting his chin on his wrists. Sometimes he leaned back and touched his face. He spoke softly, his answers short.

    Hillsborough Circuit Judge Michelle Sisco, who is overseeing the trial expected to last most of this week, asked him about himself and about whether he understood what it means to tell the truth.

    “If I were to tell you that Tibet is actually a Persian cat, would that be the truth or a lie?” the judge asked.

    “A lie,” he answered.

    He raised a hand and swore to only tell the truth.

    Then, Assistant State Attorney Ronald Gale asked him about the night of March 18, 2018.

    This is what he said:

    He was sitting in his bedroom when he saw and heard his mom and dad arguing. He heard screaming. In the next room, he could see his dad holding a shotgun.

    His mom, Kenyatta Barron, ran into his sister’s room, next to his own, and hid in the closet. His father followed with the shotgun in hand.

    His sister, Ron’Niveya Oneal, was autistic and had a disability that made it difficult for her to walk. She used a wheelchair, he said.

    He stayed in his room. His sister was on her bed.

    His dad asked him to walk around and say some words. They were “Allahu Akbar.”

    He walked into the living room and did as he was told. He heard a single shotgun blast. His father asked him to get a knife from the garage. He looked, but couldn’t find one.

    He saw his mother stumble past. She went out the front door. He couldn’t remember if she was saying anything. His father chased her. He still had the shotgun.

    The boy didn’t go outside. He didn’t hear anything. His father came back a minute later, went to the garage and got an axe. His father dragged his sister into his parents’ room. He saw his father hit his sister in the head with the axe. She cried. He saw blood.

    She later stopped crying.

    He saw his father spread gasoline throughout the house, he said. He saw him use a match to light a tissue. His father then went to the garage and he followed.

    “He put me on the ground,” the boy said. “And he had his foot on top of me. And he was holding me down. And he was lighting a match with the tissue. And then he threw it down. And, um ...”

    The boy trailed off.

    He remembered going back in the house. He remembered coming outside and seeing flashing lights.

    Emergency workers and sheriff’s deputies previously testified that the boy staggered from the home with burns on his body and a gaping wound in his abdomen.

    “Do you still see doctors for your injuries,” Gale asked.

    “Yes.”

    The boy told the jury he’d been adopted a few months after the crime by a detective who works for the Hillsborough sheriff’s office.

    Ronnie Oneal III entered the video frame for cross examination. He asked how the boy was doing.

    “Good,” the boy said.

    “It’s good to see you, man,” Oneal said.

    “It’s good to see you, too,” the boy said.

    Leaning forward, at times taking long pauses to read notes and transcripts, Oneal probed a number of inconsistencies between his testimony and things he had previously told investigators. He asked if he remembered going to football games with a detective.

    The boy said he did. He asked if they talked about the case. The boy said they did not.

    “Did you see me beat your mom?” Oneal asked.

    “No.”

    “Did you see me shoot your mom?”

    “No.”

    Oneal referenced a series of statements the boy made to a detective and a forensic investigator, including a statement that he “saw everything,” and whether he remembered saying that. The boy said he did not.

    The boy was asked if he remembered telling a detective that his dad did not hurt him. He said he did not.

    He was asked if he remembered telling a detective that his sister was hurt before his mother was shot. He said he did not.

    As Oneal continued, the boy sometimes made lengthy pauses before answering. A few times, the judge had to tell him to answer. He leaned back occasionally. He rubbed his chin. But he remained composed.

    At the end, the prosecutor asked more questions, noting that the boy has spoken to numerous people since the attack, and that his first interview with a detective occurred as he lay in a hospital bed, with tubes affixed to his body.

    “This all happened when you were 8 years old?” Gale asked.

    “Yes.”

    https://www.tampabay.com/news/hillsb...-murder-trial/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  2. #22
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    20,875
    Quote Originally Posted by maybeacomedian View Post
    Anybody know if there are videos of this trial on youtube?
    This is video of his full opening statement. This is FL so the trial is live everyday.

    https://www.fox13news.com/video/943985
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  3. #23
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2015
    Location
    Pennsylvania
    Posts
    4,795
    This is insane that a man that stabbed his own son and killed his family is now cross examining the son. I know of no other case like this.
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  4. #24
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    20,875
    ‘Thank you for all you’ve done’: Deputy who adopted child victim testifies in murder trial

    The former Hillsborough detective had a limited role in the case of Ronnie Oneal III before deciding to adopt the boy

    By Dan Sullivan
    Tampa Bay Times

    TAMPA — He was once a homicide detective, but is now a corporal who helps patrol suburban Hillsborough County. He’s also a husband and a father to several children. One of his children is a victim in a case he helped investigate.

    The man who adopted the boy known as Ronnie Oneal IV testified Thursday in the murder trial of the boy’s biological father.

    Ronnie Oneal III is accused of killing the boy’s mother, Kenyatta Barron, along with their daughter and the boy’s sister, Ron’Niveya Oneal. Prosecutors say Oneal also attacked his son, stabbing and burning him as he set the family’s Riverview home ablaze.

    The corporal told a jury Thursday about his involvement in the case, which was minimal, and his decision to adopt the child.

    The Tampa Bay Times is not naming the corporal to protect his son’s identity.

    He told the jury he arrived at the murder scene on Pike Lake Drive about 1 a.m. March 19, 2018. He helped author a search warrant for the fire-scarred home, but did little else.

    “I participated in nothing of that investigation except that initial night,” he said.

    The first time he met the child was 11 days after the crime. The boy was still in Tampa General Hospital recovering from stab wounds, collapsed lungs and burns that marked a quarter of his body.

    The boy was a football fan. Sheriff’s officials knew that the corporal had connections to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He was asked if he could get the team to do something for the boy. Team members later brought him Bucs shirts, jerseys, and footballs. “The Bucs, I think, cleared out the shop for him,” he testified.

    The same day of the Bucs visit, the boy asked if the corporal could stay and watch a movie. He and his wife spent the evening of March 30, 2018, with him. That night, they met the boy’s guardian ad litem, a court-appointed child advocate. The corporal said to call if the boy ever needed anything.

    The following August, he was told the boy had been in foster care, but needed to be moved to a new home with someone who could manage his medical care. His guardian ad litem asked if the corporal knew anyone who might take care of him.

    “What was your response?” asked Assistant State Attorney Ronald Gale.

    “I told her that—”

    Here, the corporal paused, his voice quaking with emotion.

    “I told her my wife and I would be happy to take him,” he said.

    The boy arrived at their home about 90 minutes later. They formally adopted him in November 2019.

    The prosecutor asked if the corporal had ever talked about the murder investigation with his son. He said he had not.

    “I told him early on that we would never have any of those conversations or any conversations about the case at all,” he said.

    Oneal, who is representing himself in his trial, had the chance to cross examine the corporal, but asked no questions.

    “Thank you for all you’ve done,” Oneal told him. “And I really mean that from the bottom of my heart.”

    https://www.tampabay.com/news/crime/...-murder-trial/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  5. #25
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    20,875
    Ronnie Oneal III rests after half-hour defense, will not testify in murder trial

    Oneal is accused of killing his wife and daughter in their Riverview home. He has represented himself in trial

    By Matt Cohen
    Tampa Bay Times

    TAMPA — Jurors in the double murder case against Ronnie Oneal III are expected to hear closing arguments Monday after Oneal rested his defense Friday, calling three witnesses.

    Oneal, 32, who is representing himself in a case that is gaining international attention, questioned the three over about a half-hour on Friday. His defense was littered with objections from prosecutors.

    Much of his case appeared geared toward showing inconsistencies on his T-Mobile call log on March 18, 2018, the night his girlfriend, Kenyatta Barron, 33, and 9-year-old daughter, Ron’Niveya Oneal, were killed.

    Oneal also is accused of stabbing his then-8-year-old son before setting the family’s Riverview home on fire.

    Judge Michelle Sisco dismissed one juror on Friday morning because of health issues. The first of two alternates was brought in to take the juror’s place.

    Oneal faces a potential death sentence if convicted. He elected Friday not to testify in the trial.

    One of the witnesses called by Oneal was Deputy Christopher Heaverin, who was asked about Oneal and Barron’s call logs. Barron’s shows a 911 call the night of the killings. Oneal’s does not, despite a recording of a 911 call he made, which prosecutors played earlier Friday.

    “I’ve just been attacked,” Oneal said in the recording, which according to testimony came less than 10 minutes after Barron called 911. “She tried to kill me.”

    Oneal spent hardly any time with his other two witnesses, and prosecutors only cross-examined Heaverin. Throughout his own defense, Oneal was visibly frustrated as the state objected repeatedly. He often gazed at the ground or glared at the prosecutors.

    Objections came when Oneal appeared to argue with witnesses or gave a narration instead of asking a question.

    Oneal asked only a few questions of his first two witnesses. They included a young man who lived near the Oneal home. He described seeing Barron run out of the house late that night with Oneal chasing her with a shotgun.

    The prosecution’s case rested just before 11:30 a.m. Friday, concluding a week in which jurors heard horrifying screams from 911 calls, saw images from the crime scene and heard from state witnesses, including law enforcement officers and Oneal’s family members.

    On Wednesday, Oneal’s son testified via video call so he wouldn’t be in the same room as the man accused of killing his mother and sister.

    Oneal’s stepfather, Billy Smith, told jurors Thursday about a call Oneal made just before midnight on March 18, 2018.

    “They’re trying to kill me,” Smith recalls Oneal telling him.

    That call was made just after Barron called 911, according to court testimony.

    Later Thursday, fire investigator and K9 handler Jefferey Batz detailed how his 9-year-old black Labrador, Booker, helped probe the house on the morning of March 19, just after the fire.

    When she sniffed the children’s clothes, Booker sat, an indication that she smelled gasoline. When she walked around the exterior of the house, she also sat multiple times. In Ron’Niveya’s bedroom, Booker sat five times. Forensic investigators also testified that items from the home tested positive for gasoline.

    Photos from the interior of the house showed curtain rods fallen off the wall and walls burned by the fire. They showed clothes and household items were charred. There were singed bed sheets and smoke stains near the stickers of Frozen princesses on Ron’Niveya’s bed.

    The state’s last witness was Thomas Dirks, the case detective. During cross-examination, Oneal asked Dirks if he could say for certain if Oneal committed murder.

    “Yes, that’s why I arrested you,” Dirks said.

    “I’m being treated guilty until proven innocent,” Oneal later said.

    Jurors were sent home for the weekend soon after noon Friday. They will return Monday for closing arguments and the beginning of deliberations.

    Judge Sisco told them to bring an overnight bag.

    https://www.tampabay.com/news/hillsb...-murder-trial/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  6. #26
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    20,875
    Ronnie Oneal III found guilty in Riverview family slayings

    Oneal gave a fiery closing argument, saying jurors would know the truth “in this trial or the next one.”

    By Dan Sullivan

    Tampa Bay Times

    TAMPA — Ronnie Oneal III is a murderer, a jury decided Monday.

    After a week of testimony, the panel of nine men and three women took 4 ½ hours to find Oneal guilty of two counts of first-degree murder in the 2018 slayings of his girlfriend and their 9-year-old daughter, and the attempted murder of their then-8-year-old son.

    The jury also convicted Oneal of arson for setting fire to the family’s Riverview home, along with two counts each of aggravated child abuse. The case will now enter a penalty phase, which could last the rest of the week. Prosecutors will ask the same jury to recommend a death sentence.

    Oneal showed no reaction as the verdict was read just after 7 p.m.

    Jurors were told to return to court Wednesday. After they filed out of the courtroom, Hillsborough Circuit Judge Michelle Sisco encouraged Oneal to discontinue representing himself.

    “It’s no more serious for any defendant in any criminal courtroom in this country than what you are facing now,” the judge said. “I respect the fact that you chose to represent yourself. I have to tell you, I think in another lifetime, you would have been an outstanding lawyer. ... However, as we move into penalty phase, I really am going to strongly encourage you to allow counsel to now step in and represent you.”

    Oneal nodded as the judge spoke, but voiced no immediate decision.

    In a fiery, hourlong closing argument Monday morning that echoed his vociferous opening a week earlier, Oneal reiterated to the jury his claims that government officials distorted evidence to bolster the case against him.

    “Like I told you earlier, you will know the truth whether in this trial or the next one!” Oneal yelled. “If you think I’m here to play around with y’all, g--damn it, I’m not!”

    The judge advised Oneal not to use profanities.

    Late the night of March 18, 2018, prosecutors say Oneal attacked his girlfriend, Kenyatta Barron, in their Riverview home, wounding her with a shotgun blast to her shoulder. Barron, 33, dialed 911 from a cell phone.

    The call was the centerpiece of the state’s case. Barron’s screams echoed in the cavernous courtroom throughout the weeklong trial.

    Assistant State Attorney Ronald Gale once again played snippets of the call in his closing argument Monday, telling the jury to listen closely.

    “Every time you listen to this, you’ll hear something new,” Gale said.

    The prosecutor noted moments when Oneal can be heard telling Barron that “the kids are mine now, bitch.” He can be heard yelling at his son, telling him to sit down “before I kill you.” He can be heard telling the boy to say “Allahu Akbar” and the boy repeating the same.

    He can be heard telling the boy to go get a knife, Gale said. Barron can be heard screaming before Oneal asks the boy where the knife is. The boy can then be heard crying, Gale said.

    It was then that Barron, hysterical and bleeding, ran out through the front door and into a neighbor’s yard. Oneal chased her. The recording captured her screams as Oneal uttered expletives amid a series of thumping sounds.

    A neighbor opened a front door to see Oneal beating Barron with the broken shotgun.

    “You don’t understand,” Oneal told him. “She killed me.”

    He then ran back to his own home, prosecutors said. Inside, he dragged his 9-year-old daughter, Ron’Niveya Oneal, from her bedroom. The girl was autistic and had cerebral palsy and could not talk. Her father picked up a hatchet, striking her repeatedly in the head and neck, the state said. He then attacked his 8-year-old son, stabbing and slashing him with a knife. Amid the mayhem, Oneal spread gasoline throughout the house and set it ablaze.

    The boy staggered out of the garage, a gaping wound in his belly, smoke rising from his little body.

    The elder Oneal followed close behind, his shirt and sneakers stained with his family’s blood.

    Oneal, 32, insisted on representing himself in the high-stakes trial, facing off alone against a trio of highly experienced and skilled state prosecutors. It was, at times, a rocky venture. He fumbled through the jury selection process and sometimes became visibly frustrated when a judge made rulings against him. He captivated a crowded courtroom in a histrionic opening statement, shouting throughout. He suggested that he killed Barron in self-defense after she attacked their children.

    His performance became smoother as the trial progressed. As state witnesses trooped into the courtroom one after another, he exhibited a soft-spoken style of cross examination, asking the kind of questions a lawyer would.

    Although he commanded his own defense, a trio of public defenders sat near Oneal throughout the trial. He occasionally turned to them and appeared to listen to whispered advice. The lawyers also sometimes spoke to the judge on his behalf.

    Spectators packed a set of long courtroom benches the day the surviving son testified. The boy has since been adopted by one of the homicide detectives who assisted in the investigation.

    Now on the cusp of adolescence, the boy spoke through a remote video feed, his adoptive mother and a therapy dog nearby as he described his memory of the night his biological mother and sister were murdered.

    The elder Oneal spent time scrutinizing the boy’s account, highlighting inconsistencies in what he’d previously told investigators.

    But the boy’s story was largely the same as that told by prosecutors.

    “Did I hurt you that night?” the elder Oneal asked him at one point.

    “Yes,” the boy said.

    “I did? How did I hurt you?”

    “You stabbed me.”

    In his closing argument, Oneal asserted that the boy may have been told what to say.

    Much of his closing oration focused on written records of phone calls he and Barron made the night of the killings. Some of the logs did not show a record of the 911 call Barron made that night, or another that Oneal made minutes later. That, Oneal said, was evidence that investigators tampered with the records.

    He also highlighted the testimony of a teenage neighbor, who said he saw Oneal chase Barron from their home and hit her three times with a shotgun. Oneal said Barron’s injuries were too severe to have been inflicted by just three blows.

    He suggested, with no evidence, that authorities put additional injuries on Barron’s body, that they manipulated the 911 recording to make it sound like he hit her 10 to 15 times, that they altered the audio to make it sound like he said things he never said.

    The prosecutor called Oneal’s claims absurd.

    “This is where the conspiracy theories fail,” Gale said. “Because they don’t make any sense.”

    https://www.tampabay.com/news/hillsb...mily-slayings/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  7. #27
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    20,875
    Ronnie O'Neal to have public defender for death penalty phase

    By Dalia Dangerfield
    Bay 9 News

    TAMPA, Fla. — Ronnie O'Neal said he will have a public defender represent him in the penalty phase of his double murder trial.

    O'Neal chose to represent himself earlier during the trial.


    In court Tuesday, Hillsborough Circuit Judge Michelle Sisco told O’Neal it was a wise decision.

    She told him how specialized that area of law was and said “I have confidence in them to represent you.”


    It took a jury about four and a half hours Monday to find O’Neal guilty on all counts on the 2018 murders of his girlfriend Kenyatta Barron and their 9-year-old daughter.


    O’Neal argued he killed Barron but only because she killed their daughter with special needs.


    The jury agreed with prosecutors that O’Neal brutally murdered them both before stabbing and setting fire to his then 8-year-old son, attempting to kill him, too.

    He faces the death penalty.


    The penalty phase begins Wednesday.

    https://www.baynews9.com/fl/tampa/ne...-penalty-phase
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  8. #28
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    20,875
    Jurors to consider death penalty for Ronnie Oneal III: ‘A human life is at stake.’

    Defense lawyers cited childhood abuse, a prior shooting, and mental health problems to argue against a death sentence

    By Dan Sullivan

    Tampa Bay Times

    TAMPA — A day after Ronnie Oneal III abandoned his efforts to represent himself in court, a team of defense lawyers asked a jury to spare him from a possible death sentence.

    In contrast to his antics in the trial’s first phase, Oneal sat quietly Wednesday at a defense table. His three public defenders for the first time addressed the nine men and three women who found Oneal guilty Monday of two counts of first-degree murder in the 2018 slayings of his girlfriend and their 9-year-old daughter.

    Assistant Public Defender Dana Herce-Fulgueira told the panel that Oneal had exercised a constitutional right to represent himself in the trial’s first phase. She asked the jurors to refrain from letting this — and the fact Oneal has changed his mind on representation — influence their deliberations or their verdict.

    “The decision you are about to make is now an individual decision,” Herce-Fulgueira said. “It’s a personal decision because a human life is at stake. The decision is probably the most important decision you’ll ever make, as it should be when a human life is at stake.”

    The defense cited factors that could weigh against the death penalty. They include childhood abuse Oneal endured, an incident in which he was the victim of a random shooting, and mental health problems.

    When he was 5, Oneal was left alone with a group of extended relatives, who sexually abused him, the lawyer said. No one was ever held criminally responsible for it. Oneal never received any kind of therapy.

    A substantial focus was Oneal’s involvement in the Nation of Islam and a related local group known as Build Your Community.

    Known as the BYC, the group would visit impoverished neighborhoods in Tampa to mentor youth, train kids in boxing and pick up trash. Members said their goal was to prevent community violence.

    One of the group’s leaders, Jihad Mohammad, recalled meeting Oneal in 2010 at an east Tampa community center. Oneal was interested Islam and began taking classes on religion and self improvement. He became an enthusiastic BYC member, visiting inner-city areas with the group to promote peace.

    Five months before the killings, Oneal was wounded in a random drive-by shooting while attending a BYC event in the Robles Park area of Tampa. His injuries were described as life threatening. He spent time in a hospital and took months to recover.

    Oneal later spoke about the shooting in a radio appearance with other BYC members on Tampa station WTMP. The defense played a recording of the show in court. In it, Oneal describes how the shooting reaffirmed his commitment to working to prevent violence. He said that he “died four times” during surgery.”

    “I knew that God had me,” he said.

    Mohammad was asked what Oneal’s demeanor was like as he recovered.

    “Love,” he said. “I never heard him raise his voice. In the presence of people, it was always love.”

    Iesha Robinson had a son with Oneal in 2016 while he was living apart from Barron and his other children. Robinson described him as an involved father who still visits and writes to his son.

    Herce-Fulgueira told the jury that Oneal developed post-traumatic stress disorder. A psychologist is expected to testify that he also has a delusional disorder that includes a preoccupation with religious themes.

    His biological father testified about his own struggles with mental illness, including a diagnosis of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Lawyers suggested Oneal may have a genetic predisposition to mental illness.

    “We ask,” Herce-Fulgueira said, “that you remember that the very least that can happen to Mr. Oneal after this is done is that he will spend the rest of his life in prison — every day, every minute, every second of his life in prison.”

    Assistant State Attorney Scott Harmon emphasized the suffering of the victims. He played, once again, a recording of Kenyatta Barron’s 911 call from the night she died. Jurors again heard her screams and desperate pleas for help after she’d been shot with a shotgun and before Oneal beat her to death.

    “The last moments that she spent on this earth were spent suffering,” Harmon said.

    On a TV screen, Harmon displayed a photo of Ron’niveya Oneal. In it, the girl wears a pink shirt with a large white heart on it and the words “boy, bye.” She was born premature, he said, and had difficulty walking due to cerebral palsy. She was also diagnosed with autism and could not talk, but had learned to communicate through sign language.

    Her condition, the prosecutor noted, did not prevent her from experiencing pain.

    Her father killed her with blows from a hatchet before setting her body on fire.

    Several of Barron’s family members read statements. They spoke of a woman who was attending college, who was devoted to her children, who wrote poetry and wanted to write a book about her life. They spoke of Ron’Niveya, a girl who liked to eat grapes and Oreo cookies, who would grab her aunt’s hand when she wanted to be picked up.

    “Celebrating their birthdays and holidays at the grave sites is one of the hardest things I never thought I’d have to do,” said Daisatta Barron, Kenyatta’s sister.

    “The amount of pain I’m in, especially emotionally, has prevented me from eating and sleeping properly,” said her mother, Carrie Lloyd. “There has been an unfillable hole in my heart since that horrible night.”

    In anticipation of the defense arguments, Harmon described Oneal as growing up with good parents, as a good student who played high school sports. He maintained steady employment, and was always known as a happy, upbeat and positive person, the prosecutor said.

    “The evidence will prove to you, beyond any doubt, that there is only one right, fair and just sentence in this case,” Harmon said. “That sentence is death.”

    https://www.tampabay.com/news/hillsb...e-is-at-stake/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  9. #29
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    20,875
    Life or death? Closing arguments begin for sentencing phase in Ronnie Oneal trial

    By Fox 13 News Staff

    TAMPA, Fla. - Ronnie Oneal could finally learn his fate as soon as Friday.

    On Friday morning, closing arguments began for the penalty phase of the double-murder trial. Earlier this week, Oneal was convicted of murdering his girlfriend and their 9-year-old daughter – and attempting to kill his 8-year-old son in 2018.

    The sentencing phase of the trial began Wednesday with the prosecution urging the jury to consider the violence and carnage he inflicted on his family. They told the jury that Oneal should pay with his life for the crimes he committed. That afternoon, the jury heard from the victim’s family. Prosecutors called several members of Kenyatta Barron’s family, including her mother Carrie Lloyd, who said her daughter was a beautiful person and wonderful mother.

    "There has been a hole in my life since this happened," said Lloyd.

    Oneal faces the death penalty, but his defense is hoping to get him life in prison. They spoke about the mental and physical abuse he suffered as a child. A psychologist testified that Oneal was diagnosed with PTSD and delusional disorder.

    Oneal’s mother, who wanted to protect her identity, also told the jury about a random drive-by shooting that nearly took Oneal’s life just months before the murders.

    In Florida, the jury must be unanimous to hand down a sentence.

    https://www.fox13news.com/news/life-...ie-oneal-trial
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  10. #30
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2019
    Location
    Tennessee
    Posts
    7,316
    Prosecutors push 911 call during closing arguments as jury decides O'Neal's fate

    HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. - Closing arguments began Friday in the death penalty phase for Ronnie O'Neal's double-murder trial.

    It took the jury about four and a half hours Monday to find O’Neal guilty on all counts in the 2018 murders of his girlfriend Kenyatta Barron and their 9-year-old daughter.

    O’Neal argued he killed Barron but only because she killed their daughter with special needs.

    The jury agreed with prosecutors that O’Neal brutally murdered them both before stabbing and setting fire to his then 8-year-old son, attempting to kill him, too.

    The 12-person jury must unanimously recommend capital punishment, otherwise, O'Neal will serve life in prison without parole.

    Prosecutors began with the 911 call Barron had made after O'Neal shot her.

    "That screaming is the defendant shooting her for the second time. What you hear is her pleading," Prosecutor Scott Harmon said of the 911 call. "She knew she was going to die. That's what those screams were all about."

    Harmon said O'Neal gave Kenyatta "no pity or mercy" after he had shot her twice and she was trying to escape to a neighbor's home.

    "The last sound out of this woman's body was an expression of pain. This woman suffered. Every single second she suffered," he continued.

    During closing arguments, Hillsborough County Public Defender Jennifer Spradley argued that O'Neal's life experiences had shaped him.

    "Ronnie O'Neal is more than the worst things that he has ever done. He is a human being," she said. "Mr. O'Neal is not beyond redemption. Under no circumstances should you vote death."

    Prosecutor Harmon acknowledged that O'Neal was sexually abused as a child and said the jury should consider that. He said it's up to the jurors to decide how much weight that carries when deciding where O'Neal lives or dies.

    https://www.baynews9.com/fl/tampa/ne...-o-neal-s-fate
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

Page 3 of 5 FirstFirst 12345 LastLast

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •