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Thread: Justen Charles Sentenced to Four Life Terms in 2013 FL Murder of Christopher Jemery

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    Justen Charles Sentenced to Four Life Terms in 2013 FL Murder of Christopher Jemery


    Christopher Jemery


    Christian Cruz and Justen Charles


    Related:

    Killers kidnapped wrong man from Deltona apartment, prosecutor tells jurors in death penalty trial


    Christian Cruz and Justen Charles decided one night 6 years ago to rob a drug dealer who they thought lived in the Bell Tower Avenue apartments in Deltona, a prosecutor told jurors on Monday.

    The drug dealer, though, had moved out. The apartment was now occupied by 25-year-old Christopher Jemery, a young father who didn’t use or deal drugs. On the night of Aug. 26, 2013, Jemery was alone, sitting on his couch eating a late dinner and watching television.

    That’s when Cruz and Charles burst into the apartment, bound and gagged Jemery with duct tape and speaker wire, shot him in the head and, near death, dumped him in an industrial area in Sanford, the prosecutor said during opening statements in the first-degree murder trial of Cruz. He faces the death penalty if convicted.

    “Presumably they were there in search of drugs. The only problem is Christopher Jemery isn’t a drug dealer,” Assistant State Attorney Ryan Will told jurors. “Christopher Jemery isn’t a drug user. He merely lived in an apartment where the former tenant used and smoked and sold small quantities of marijuana. Christian Cruz and Justen Charles made a terrible mistake.”

    Only Cruz, who lived in Lakeland but has been held in the Volusia County Branch Jail since his arrest in 2013, is on trial before Circuit Judge Raul Zambrano at the S. James Foxman Justice Center. Charles, 30, will be tried separately at a later date.

    Cruz, 25, was indicted on charges of 1st-degree premeditated murder, burglary while armed, robbery with a firearm and kidnapping. A jury of 8 men and 6 women, including 2 alternate members, began hearing testimony on Monday for the trial which is expected to last several weeks. A 3rd alternate was dismissed Monday morning because he was ailing with a cold.

    Cruz looked significantly different from the mugshot of his arrest as he sat between his two defense attorneys, Clyde Taylor Jr. and his son Clyde Taylor III. Cruz looked a little heavier. 2 long, thick dreadlocks were gone and his hair was cut short to his skull.

    Taylor Jr. made the opening statement for the defense telling jurors that they would find reasonable doubt in the evidence. He said that no one saw Jemery being taken from the apartment or heard anything going on in the apartment.

    “All of the evidence, and we will be here for a month, will not show you or prove to you in any way who shot Jemery,” Taylor Jr. said. “As a matter of fact, I don’t believe the evidence will show actually when the young man was shot or even where he was shot. ”

    Cruz wrote occasionally on a legal pad and sometimes leaned over to talk to one of his attorneys. He yawned widely several times during testimony.

    Cruz looked up without emotion at an overhead screen showing a picture of Jemery’s bruised, bloodied and bandaged head.

    Even though Cruz and Charles had the wrong person, they did not stop their attack, according to Will, who is prosecuting the case along with Assistant State Attorney Tammy Jacques.

    “The 2 men continued to use force and violence pushing this terrifying scenario to its extreme and unnecessary end,” Will said. “Bound and gagged, injured and bleeding Christopher Jemery was en route to the scene of his murder,” Will said. That scene was the end of 2291 W. Airport Blvd in Sanford, an industrial commercial area.

    They left him barely alive in some bushes off a parking lot. That’s where a man coming to work found him the next morning and called 9-1-1. Jemery was taken to Orlando Regional Medical Center where he died three days later.

    Investigators found that Jemery’s apartment had been ransacked, a pool of blood and an unfired .22-caliber bullet near a door.

    “When the beating and threats did not yield acceptable answers they took him as their prisoner,” Will said.

    Investigators also found fingerprints and DNA for one or both of the defendants in the victims’ apartment. Both Cruz and Charles’ DNA were found in Jemery’s car, which he had rented only 2 days before the murder after he was involved in a traffic accident.

    And investigators also found Cruz’s left thumb print on a piece of duct tape removed from Jemery’s body.

    A video shows Cruz making a withdrawal from Jemery’s account early on April 26, 2013.

    Will said: “The defendant took several hundred dollars from the account minutes after firing the shot that ended Christopher Jemery’s life.”

    (source: Daytona Beach News-Journal)
    "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

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    Junior Member Stranger babosula23's Avatar
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    This seems extra disturbing. don't rent. what a nightmare

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    Man guilty in kidnapping, killing of Deltona man, faces possible death sentence

    By Frank Fernandez
    The Daytona Beach News-Journal

    DAYTONA BEACH — A jury found Christian Cruz guilty of first-degree premeditated murder and felony murder for the beating, kidnapping and killing of a Deltona man who was wrongly targeted during a drug rip-off.

    On Monday, that same jury will begin hearing evidence on whether to recommend that Cruz be put to death. All 12 jurors must unanimously agree that Cruz deserves the death penalty for Circuit Judge Raul Zambrano to have the option of imposing it.

    Cruz and Justen Charles were accused of bursting into an apartment at the Belltower Apartments in Deltona on Aug. 26, 2013, and beating and binding with speaker wire and duct tape 25-year-old Christopher Jemery. Prosecutors said they then tossed Jemery’s body into the trunk of his rental car, drove him out to Sanford, carried his body to some bushes in an industrial park and shot him in the head.

    Only Cruz, who lived in Deltona but has been jailed since his arrest in 2013, is on trial before Circuit Judge Raul Zambrano at the S. James Foxman Justice Center. Charles, 30, will be tried separately at a later date.

    Cruz, 25, was indicted on charges of first-degree premeditated murder, burglary while armed, robbery with a firearm and kidnapping. A jury of six women and six men began hearing testimony on Monday and deliberated for about 3 1/2 hours before returning the guilty verdicts. Cruz faces the possible death sentence on the charges of first-degree premeditated murder or first-degree felony murder.

    Cruz stood still and showed no emotion. But Jemery’s mother softly cried as the verdicts were read as other family members put their arms around her and consoled her.

    Prosecutors said Cruz and Charles targeted Jemery’s apartment because they believed a small-time drug dealer named Mark Walters still lived there but the dealer had moved out. The pair had bought marijuana from Walters before.

    Walters was friends with Jemery and had allowed Jemery, who had recently moved from New Hampshire, to stay in the apartment until he got settled. Jemery had a girlfriend and the couple had a daughter and were planning to marry. But he had asked her not to stay at the apartment because he felt the area was not safe.

    When Cruz and Charles showed up they found Jemery instead of Walters but that didn’t matter, prosecutors said. Cruz and Charles are accused of throwing Jemery’s bound and gagged body into the trunk of his rented Nissan. Then they drove to an industrial park in Sanford where they dragged him into some woods off a parking lot. Then Cruz and Charles are accused of shooting Jemery in the head with a .22-caliber pistol.

    Assistant State Attorney Tammy Jacques, who is prosecuting the case along with Ryan Will, led jurors through the evidence in her closing, showing them pictures of shoe prints left in the blood on the apartment’s floor. She said those prints matched shoes from Cruz and Charles.

    She showed jurors a picture of an unfired .22-caliber Federal brand bullet found in the apartment. And she showed them a spent shell casing that was discovered near where the fatally wounded Jemery was found.

    She also reminded them that evidence showed that Cruz’s DNA was found in the passenger side of Jemery’s rented Nissan. And she said Charles’ DNA was found on the steering wheel and gear shifter.

    Jacques also showed them a picture of a strip of duct tape paramedics removed from Jemery. That duct tape had Cruz’s thumb print on it, Jacques said.

    Cruz is represented by the father-and-son legal team of Clyde Taylor Jr. and Clyde Taylor III. The father, Taylor Jr., handled the closing, eliciting some smiles from jurors when he said he wasn’t going to use the overhead projector because he was more of a paper person.

    Taylor Jr. referred jurors to the movie “Forrest Gump,” reminded jurors that the main character fought in Vietnam and always obeyed his commanding officer, Lt. Dan.

    Taylor said that in that manner, Cruz looked up to and obeyed Charles. Taylor said Charles was 6-feet 1-inches tall and older than Cruz, who was 19 at the time of the killing. He said Charles was a hothead and a known fighter.

    Taylor asked jurors to consider who would be more likely to be carrying the gun in such a situation: the 19-year-old or the older, larger more experienced man.

    He also said that the drug-dealer who used to live in the apartment, along with his girlfriend, still had keys to the unit and still had some of his possessions there.

    In her rebuttal, Jacques said there was no evidence that Charles was a hothead and it was immaterial whether the former resident still had keys to the unit.

    Jacques said the killing happened between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. and those times bookend when Cruz and Charles left a friend’s apartment, and when Cruz was captured on video withdrawing $440 from Jemery’s bank account at an ATM in Casselberry.

    https://www.news-journalonline.com/n...death-sentence
    "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

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    Deltona killer wrote aunt that he doesn’t want to sit on death row waiting for execution

    By Frank Fernandez
    The Daytona Beach News-Journal

    DAYTONA BEACH — Killer Christian Cruz wrote to a family member while awaiting trial that he did not want to go on death row, and that jailhouse letter was read to jurors Wednesday as testimony in his penalty phase drew to a close.

    On Thursday, the 12-person jury will begin deliberating whether he should be sentenced to death for beating, kidnapping and killing a Deltona man. A recommendation of death must be unanimous for that sentence to be handed down by a judge.

    Cruz was convicted last week in the kidnapping and killing of Christopher Jemery, 25, of Deltona, on Aug. 26, 2013. Cruz and an accomplice beat and bound Jemery and then tossed him in the trunk of his rental car, drove him out to an industrial park in Sanford and shot him in the head.

    Cruz wrote the letter to his aunt Lizzette Perez Cruz of New York in 2015. She read the letter on Wednesday as part of the defense case in Circuit Judge Raul Zambrano’s courtroom at the S. James Foxman Justice Center.

    “I rather do like, in an open populated, facility than go on death row being locked down twenty-four seven for 20 to 30 years till they decide to kill me,” she read.

    In the letter Cruz did not write about the crime or his victim. He appeared to say he wanted to be in the general prison population.

    “I rather hang out and be able to keep myself occupied,” she read.

    Cruz had spent several months with Perez Cruz and her family in New York before returning to Deltona. Perez Cruz is married to the brother of Cruz’s mother. She read his letter as part of her questioning by attorney, Clyde Taylor III, who along with his father, Clyde Taylor Jr., is defending Christian Cruz.

    Assistant State Attorneys Ryan Will and Tammy Jacques are prosecuting the case in which Cruz was convicted both of first-degree premeditated murder and first-degree felony murder.

    Sometime after writing the letter, Cruz attempted suicide at the jail, according to testimony.

    Cruz began the letter by saying he was being disciplined in the jail, using the term “box” for the punishment handed down in November 2015. He did not say why he was being punished and Volusia County officials had not responded.

    “I’m doing alright, just here in the box starving. LOL,” Cruz said.

    Cruz worried about his case.

    “I’m not sure what I’m going to do with my case,” she read from his letter. “I know I’m in a bad position but keep telling me hands of God is going to do a miracle.”

    He complains that his mother is not sending him enough money.

    “She acts like she cares so much but I don’t see it. She sends me like 20 dollars every three or four months,” Perez Cruz read. “How am I supposed to make that last for three or four months?”

    He complains about the loneliness.

    “I’m tired of having problems. The only thing worse than doing time is doing time by yourself,” she reads.

    He also reminisced about a family barbecue in New York. He wrote the barbecue was a lot of fun and that he wasn’t used to socializing that much.

    And he asked about his female cousins in New York.

    “How are the girls doing?” Perez Cruz read. “I wish I could have hung out with the girls more. Now that they are older we could have went partying and stuff. I could have beaten up their boyfriends and all that good stuff.”

    https://www.news-journalonline.com/n...-for-execution
    "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

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    Jury recommends death for Florida man who killed man he thought was drug dealer

    Christian Cruz convicted of first-degree murder, felony murder

    By WKMG News

    DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - A jury has recommended death for a Florida man convicted in the kidnapping and fatal shooting of a man he mistakenly thought was a drug dealer.

    The jury, made up of six men and six women, unanimously recommended the death sentence for 25-year-old Christian Cruz following a three-day sentencing hearing, according to State Attorney R.J. Larizza.

    Larizza said the decision brings them closer to justice for the victim.

    "The defendant in this case beat, bound, gagged, robbed and shot the victim execution-style in the head. Then the defendant left the victim for dead in a ditch by the side of the road. Ten days after this horrific robbery and murder, the defendant robbed a Hungry Howie's Pizza -- pistol-whipping the workers in the process. The jury's unanimous death recommendation brings us one step closer to holding the defendant accountable for his actions," Larizza said.

    Cruz was found guilty last week of first-degree murder and felony murder. The same jurors who convicted him recommended the death penalty Thursday.

    Authorities say Cruz and Justen Charles, 30, broke into a Deltona apartment in August 2013. They grabbed Christopher Jemery, 25, threw him in the trunk of a car, took him to a wooded area in Sanford and shot him in the head, offcials said.

    Investigators say Cruz and Charles had been planning to rob a drug dealer who had previously lived in the apartment but moved out.

    Charles is still awaiting trial.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

    https://www.clickorlando.com/news/ju...as-drug-dealer
    "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

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    Death penalty trial begins in 2013 kidnapping, murder of Deltona man

    By Frank Fernandez
    Daytona Beach News-Journal

    DAYTONA BEACH — Christopher Jemery had just sat down on his couch to eat a late dinner of chicken nuggets from McDonald’s by his TV one night in 2013. The future for the 25-year-old Jemery included plans for a wedding to his girlfriend with whom he had a child.

    But that future would never arrive. Instead, Justen Charles and Christian Cruz burst into his apartment and beat him, kidnapped him and killed him, prosecutors said.

    Testimony in Charles’ trial began Thursday before Circuit Judge Raul Zambrano at the S. James Foxman Justice Center in Daytona Beach. If convicted of first-degree murder, Charles could face the death penalty.

    A jury of nine women and five men, including two alternates, are hearing the case. It took seven days to pick the jurors from a pool of just over 200. If he jury convicts Cruz of first-degree murder then the trial will enter a penalty phase. If the jury unanimously recommends death, the judge has the option of sentencing Charles to death or mandatory life in prison. If just one juror does not recommend death, then Charles must be sentenced to life in prison without parole.

    Besides first-degree murder, Justen Charles, 30, is charged with burglary while armed, robbery with a firearm and kidnapping.

    Charles’ defense attorneys are Larry Avallone and Peyton Quarles. They did not make an opening statement.

    Jemery was not a drug dealer but he had a friend, Mark Walters, who was a small-time dealer, selling marijuana. Walters had moved out of his apartment, at the Belltower Apartments in Deltona but was letting Jemery stay there, said Assistant State Attorney Ryan Will in his opening statement. Jemery’s girlfriend and child were not there that night.

    Charles had helped Walters move out and knew he no longer lived there. But Charles and Cruz hatched a plan to go to the apartment that night on Aug. 26, 2013, looking for drugs and money, Will said.

    When they burst in through the back door they found Jemery. It didn’t matter to them that he clearly wasn’t Walters. Jemery is white. Walters is black.

    Charles and Cruz beat, pistol whipped and stomped Jemery, Will said.

    Prints from a size 11 sneaker belonging to Charles were found in Jemery’s blood in the apartment. Prints from that shoe were also found on Jemery’s white T-shirt, showing Charles stomped him, Will said.

    Investigators also found an unfired .22-caliber bullet on the floor.

    After beating Jemery, Charles and Cruz bound him with duct tape and speaker wire and then put him in the trunk of his rented car. Jemery was driving the rental because he had been in an accident two days earlier.

    DNA evidence shows that Charles was driving the car and Cruz was in the front passenger seat, Will said. Charles drove to an industrial park in Sanford, where Jemery was removed from the trunk and shot in the head with a .22-caliber bullet. Jemery was dumped him in some brush and trees near a parking lot.

    Workers on a smoke break noticed the man in the bushes and called 9-1-1. A paramedic found Jemery barely alive. He never regained consciousness.

    On Thursday, Charles sat next to his attorneys and would look up at the crime scene photos of pieces of duct tape, speaker-wire and Jemery’s clothing but he did not show a reaction.

    Jemery’s mother held back tears throughout Will’s opening statement. She stifled a sob when a Sanford paramedic said he had squeezed Jemery’s hand in the ambulance as they rushed him to Orlando Regional Medical Center and the fatally wounded man had squeezed his hand in return.

    Will said that Charles later told investigators that he had not been involved. Charles said he had spent the night with his girlfriend at another apartment in Deltona. But Will said that Charles’ girlfriend had been texting him that night asking him where he was.

    And Charles’ cellphone signal was pinging off a tower in Sanford.

    And near that tower was a bank where video cameras filmed Cruz withdrawing money from Jemery’s bank account.

    At the first trial, Assistant State Attorney Tammy Jaques said the killing happened between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. and those times bookend when Cruz and Charles left a friend’s apartment, and when Cruz was captured on video withdrawing $440 from Jemery’s bank account at an ATM in Casselberry.

    Cruz has already been convicted by a different jury of first-degree premeditated murder and felony murder for killing Jemery. The jury in his case recommended that Cruz, 26, be put to death but the final decision is up to Zambrano who has set sentencing for Nov. 8.

    https://www.news-journalonline.com/n...of-deltona-man
    "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

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    Senior Member Frequent Poster NanduDas's Avatar
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    Prosecutor says man drove kidnapped Deltona victim to place of killing

    Jurors will begin deliberations Wednesday morning in the case against Justen Charles who is charged with first-degree murder, burglary while armed, robbery with a firearm and kidnapping.

    By Frank Fernandez
    The Daytona Beach News-Journal

    DAYTONA BEACH — Justen Charles claims that he was just the lookout in the beating, kidnapping and killing of a man who was tossed in a car trunk and driven to Sanford where he was shot in the head, a prosecutor told jurors Tuesday.

    But Charles was driving the car with the bound and pistol-whipped man trapped in the trunk, the prosecutor said, and the man in the trunk was on his way to be killed.

    “He’s a full participant and he is in the driver’s seat of this crime,” Prosecutor Tammy Jaques said of Charles during her closing argument.

    Jurors will begin deliberations Wednesday morning in the case against Charles who is charged with first-degree murder, burglary while armed, robbery with a firearm and kidnapping. If convicted of the murder charge, Charles could face the death penalty. Circuit Judge Raul Zambrano is presiding at the S. James Foxman Justice Center.

    Charles and another man named Christian Cruz were looking to steal money and drugs from apartment B-1 at the Belltower Apartments where a small-time drug dealer had lived and still visited to sell marijuana, prosecutors said. But when they burst into the apartment they found only Christopher Jemery. Jemery, 25, was alone in the apartment because he had told his girlfriend to take their daughter and spend the night with her family because he didn’t think the complex was safe, said Jaques, who is prosecuting the case along with Assistant State Attorney Ryan Will.

    Jemery was pistol-whipped, beaten, bound with duct tape and wire and taken to an industrial park in Sanford where he was shot in the head with a .22-caliber pistol. After that Cruz withdraw $440 from Jemery’s bank account, Jaques said.

    Jaques said investigators could not say which one, Charles or Cruz, pulled the trigger but they were both equally responsible.

    Investigators found physical evidence linking Charles including a drop of his own blood found on a wall near the apartment’s front door. And she said that prints from Charles’s sneakers were found in the apartment, and on a t-shirt Jemery was wearing.

    Charles sat next to his two court-appointed defense attorneys, Larry Avallone and Peyton Quarles, and would sometimes lean over to speak to them. He would look up a times at a large screen next to him on which Jaques projected crime scene photographs, including pictures of the injuries to Jemery’s head and back.

    During his closing, Avallone said there was no evidence that Charles was guilty of first-degree murder. He said that Charles had been scared when confronted by two Volusia County sheriff’s detectives so he had initially lied. But Avallone said that Charles did not pull the trigger.

    Avallone worked to shift the responsibility to Cruz throughout the day. Cruz has already been convicted of first-degree murder and other charges earlier this year for Jemery’s killing. A different jury recommended Cruz be put to death. Zambrano has scheduled sentencing for Nov. 8.

    The defense put on a brief case. Charles declined to testify. Quarles, called their only witness: Orlando Police Detective Graham Cage, who said that Cruz was arrested in Orlando on May 9, 2013 when he tried to run from police who were investigating a fleeing vehicle.

    https://www.news-journalonline.com/n...ace-of-killing
    Last edited by NanduDas; 10-24-2019 at 10:34 AM.
    "The pacifist is as surely a traitor to his country and to humanity as is the most brutal wrongdoer." -Theodore Roosevelt

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    Man guilty of kidnapping, killing Deltona father faces possible death sentence

    Justen Charles will face a possible death sentence now that he has been convicted of 1st-degree murder in a brutal kidnapping and murder in 2013.

    Justen Charles showed no emotion as he stood in a courtroom Wednesday and heard the verdict that brings him one step closer to a possible death sentence: Guilty of 1st-degree murder for kidnapping and killing a Deltona father in 2013.

    A jury of 9 women and 3 men took about one hour and 20 minutes to find Charles guilty of 1st-degree murder and first-degree felony murder, burglary while armed, robbery with a firearm and kidnapping.

    Jurors will return on Monday to begin the penalty phase when they will decide to recommend whether Charles should be sentenced to death or life in prison

    Charles and another man, Christian Cruz, 26, kidnapped and killed Christopher Jemery, 25, on April 26, 2013, from an apartment in Deltona.

    The penalty phase of the trial is expected to last through Wednesday at the S. James Foxman Justice Center in Daytona Beach.

    Jurors will also get the rest of the week off per judge’s order. Circuit Judge Raul Zambrano ordered them not to return to work until they complete the penalty phase as he tries to keep them from exposure to information about the case that could impact their decision.

    The 6-year-old case was delayed, like other death-penalty cases, because the state was working to overhaul the death penalty in the face of court decisions. The biggest change in the death penalty is that jurors must be unanimous in their recommendation for death. If only 1 juror votes against death, then the judge has no option but to sentence Charles to life in prison. Before, a vote of at least 7 to 5 for death would have been enough for the judge to condemn a person to death row.

    Charles, 30, had helped a small-time drug dealer named Mark Walters to move out of apartment B-1 at the Belltower Apartments in Deltona. Jemery and his girlfriend and young child had recently returned to Florida and were looking for a place to stay. Walters allowed Jemery to stay in the apartment but Walters would still return to conduct drug deals from a room in the unit, according to to prosecutors Ryan Will and Tammy Jaques. But Jemery himself did not deal drugs.

    Charles and Cruz hatched a plan to break into the apartment to steal drugs and money. Inside, they found Jemery. They beat him, stomped him and wrapped duct tape around his hands and head and mouth. They then put
    Jemery into the trunk of his rental car and drove him to an industrial park in Sanford where they took him to some brush off a parking lot. Then one of them shot Jemery in the head with a .22-caliber pistol.

    Charles’ court-appointed defense attorneys, Peyton Quarles and Larry Avallone, tried to shift the blame to Cruz, whom another jury recommended be put to death.

    Jemery’s mother, Leslie Welch, 52, sat through the recent trial, battling back emotions and tears as her son’s final violent hours were replayed for the jury.

    She said “after 6 years, it’s finally justice.”

    (source: Daytona Beach News-Journal)
    "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

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    Jury chooses prison for Deltona killer Justen Charles

    By Frank Fernandez
    The Daytona Beach News-Journal

    DAYTONA BEACH — Justen Charles was sentenced to four life terms in prison for the killing and kidnapping of a Deltona man after a jury decided against the death penalty.

    Last week, the jury found Charles, 30, guilty of first-degree murder for the slaying of 25-year-old Christopher Jemery on April 26, 2013. Charles was also found guilty of kidnapping, burglary while armed and robbery with a firearm.

    The jury began deliberating about 5:20 p.m. Wednesday after hearing closing arguments in Circuit Judge Raul Zambrano’s courtroom. The jury deliberated for about two hours and 20 minutes before deciding that Charles should be sentenced to life instead of death.

    Circuit Judge Raul Zambrano immediately sentenced Charles.

    A different jury earlier this year found Charles’ accomplice Christian Cruz, 26, guilty of the same charges in Jemery’s slaying. That jury, though, recommended that Cruz, who according to testimony was the triggerman, be sentenced to death.

    Zambrano has set Cruz’s sentencing for Dec. 6.

    Charles’ lawyer Peyton Quarles, who along with Larry Avallone is defending Charles, emphasized to jurors that a jailhouse informant testified that Cruz said he had been the shooter.

    During his closing argument, Quarles reminded jurors of the testimony from Tijuan Isaac, who is serving a 40-year sentence for second-degree murder in an unrelated case. Isaac testified that Charles was alarmed when he realized that Cruz was planning to shoot Jemery.

    Quarles recalled Isaac’s testimony about Charles when he realized Cruz was planning to shoot Jemery.

    “And Mr. Charles said ”‘Wow, wait a minute. No. Let’s leave him out here. He’ll find his way back,’” Quarles said.

    But Cruz refused.

    “Mr. Cruz said ‘No, he knows who we are. He can identify us,’” Quarles said.

    Assistant State Attorney Ryan Will told jurors that even if Charles did not pull the trigger he was a participant with Cruz in the crimes that led to Jemery’s murder.

    He also reminded jurors that on the morning of the murder a friend of Charles named Timothy Walker had testified he received a call from Charles who said “He had hit a lick.” That meant he came up on some money, like in a robbery, Walker said.
    Will said that didn’t sound like Charles was upset at the killing.

    Will, who is prosecuting the case along with Tammy Jaques, said Charles and Cruz beat Jemery, who begged for his life before he was executed to eliminate him as a witness.

    Charles and Cruz beat and pistol-whipped Jemery, and then bound him around the head and hands with duct tape and wire. They then tossed him in the trunk of a rental car he had been driving because he had been in an accident a few days earlier.

    Charles drove the car with Cruz in the passenger seat to an industrial park in Sanford. There, Charles and Cruz either dragged, carried or forced Jemery to walk to some trees and brush. Then Jemery was shot in the head with a .22-caliber pistol.

    Charles and Cruz were looking for drugs in Jemery’s apartment at the Belltower Apartments in Deltona. But the drug dealer that used to live there had moved out.

    Earlier in the day, Quarles called Charles’ 10-year-old son to the stand.

    Quarles asked the child if he had visited his father. Charles has been locked up in the Volusia County Branch Jail since May 20, 2013.

    “Have you talked to him through a video screen,” Quarles asked.

    “Yes,” the boy said.

    And do you want to keep doing that?” Quarles asked.

    “Yes,” the child said with greater emphasis.

    “You love your daddy?” the attorney asked.

    “Yes,” the child replied.

    His father shook his head slightly as he looked down at the defense table during his son’s testimony.

    Jemery was, like Charles, a father. Jemery had told his girlfriend and child not to spend the night there because he didn’t think it was safe.

    Volusia County Sheriff’s Office Detective Charles Lee testified on Tuesday that he believed it was Cruz who shot Jemery.

    https://www.news-journalonline.com/n...tter_DBNJcrime
    "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. #10
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mastro Titta's Avatar
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    I watched the trial live on a YouTube channel, and I saw this verdict coming when defense called Charles' little kid as a witness. It was a coup de théâtre, indeed.

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