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Thread: Death Penalty Trial: Zephen Allen Xaver Pleads Guilty in 2019 FL Multiple Murders

  1. #11
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Florida man guilty in 2019 fatal shooting of 5 women at bank

    FL man faces life in prison or a death sentence during next year's penalty phase

    By Associated Press

    A Florida man has pleaded guilty to fatally shooting five women at a small-town bank branch in 2019 and will face either life in prison or a death sentence during the penalty phase next year.

    Court records show 25-year-old Zephen Xaver entered guilty pleas Tuesday to five counts of first-degree murder. He had previously pleaded not guilty, with a trial initially set for January in Sebring, located about 84 miles southeast of Tampa.

    Now, a Highlands County judge has set the penalty portion of the case to begin Jan. 16, 2024.

    Xaver admitted shooting four employees of a SunTrust Bank branch and one customer on Jan. 23, 2019. All five female victims were ordered to lie on the floor and then were shot one by one, investigators said. They added that robbery did not appear to be a motive and that Xaver had no connection to the victims.

    "We believe it was a random act," Sebring Police Chief Karl Hoglund said shortly after the slayings. "Aside from perhaps driving by and seeing it was a bank, we have no known evidence that he targeted this bank for any particular reason."

    Investigators said Xaver called 911 from the bank and told a dispatcher what he had done, then refused to come out of the bank building when heavily-armed police arrived. After a two-hour standoff, Xaver finally surrendered and was taken into custody where he has remained ever since.

    The four SunTrust employees slain that day were Ana Piñon-Williams, Debra Cook, Marisol Lopez and Jessica Montague. The customer who died was Cynthia Watson. Police said one employee who was in a back break room escaped the carnage.

    There were troubling signs that Xaver, who previously lived in Indiana, was fascinated with guns and killing people. A former girlfriend said after the killings that Xaver described having dreams while still in high school of hurting other students.

    "He got kicked out of school for having a dream that he killed everybody in his class, and he's been threatening this for so long, and he's been having dreams about it and everything," the ex-girlfriend, Alex Gerlach, said after the Florida killings.

    School officials in Bremen, Indiana, contacted police in 2014 after Xaver reported the dream and his mother agreed to take him to a behavioral health center, according to police records. No other action was taken. Police in Michigan released information about a 2017 incident in which he was messaging a girl in that state about "possibly thinking of suicide by cop and taking hostages."

    Prior to the shootings, Xaver trained for about two months to be a correctional officer at the nearby Avon Park Correctional Institution. He resigned two weeks before the bank killings.

    https://www.foxnews.com/us/florida-m...g-5-women-bank
    "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. #12
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    This seems to be the strategy in these horrific dp cases, plead guilty and then take the stand and beg for your life. All it takes is one person to gum up the works.
    "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. #13
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    He probably saw what happened with Nikolas Cruz
    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

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  4. #14
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    The one in ARK who raped his son with a stick and let him die from sepsis and the cop killer in TX both took the stand. And it worked.

    Cruz pled guilty but didn't take the stand.
    "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. #15
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    I meant both him and Cruz being mass murder in Florida
    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

  6. #16
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Paywall:

    Xaver lawyer argues against death penalty

    By Highlands News-Sun

    SEBRING - Zephen Xaver's lawyer - arguing that evolving decency standards are making executions less common - asked a circuit court judge on March 30 to declare the death penalty unconstitutional.

    https://spotonflorida.com/southwest-...h-penalty.html
    "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. #17
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Xaver faces 8-4 death penalty jury

    By John Guerra
    Highlands News-Sun

    Only eight of 12 jurors will be needed to recommend Zephen Xaver’s execution for the murder of five local Sebring women, a local judge ruled earlier this week.

    The Legislature passed a new law in the spring that allows death sentence recommendations on an 8-4 jury vote. The law, which Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law April 20, replaced the previous requirement that only a unanimous jury can recommend death.

    Xaver’s prosecutors in June filed a counter motion asking Cowden to apply the new 8-4 jury recommendation.

    Prosecutor Paul A. Wallace and Assistant Public Defender Rachel Roebuck on June 8 each took a turn arguing their case before Circuit Court Judge Angela Cowden in June. Xaver, who pled guilty in March to the murder of five local women in SunTrust Bank in January 2019, purportedly threw in the hat in time to still be adjudicated under the unanimous jury rule.

    Roebuck argued before Cowden that the new sentencing law, requiring fewer jurors to recommend death – increases the likelihood that he will be executed.

    Such laws that increase punishment or criminal liability after arrest or conviction – known as ex post facto laws – are banned by the Constitution, she argued.

    Wallace, on the other hand, argued that requiring fewer jurors is simply a procedural change in the punishment phase of the trial and does not increase the likelihood that Xaver will be executed. Not only that, the law does not suddenly put the death penalty on the table. It was there before the change in the required number of jurors, he said.

    “It is not retroactive in perspective,” Wallace said. “This new law does not change the punishment at all.”

    Cowden noted that the change in the law increased Xaver’s chances of receiving the death penalty, a punishment he already faced, “but it has not changed the punishment.”

    “The state has consistently argued that the change … has not increased the punishment because Xaver’s maximum punishment has always been death,” the judge wrote in her ruling.

    Cowden’s ruling might not be the final word in Xaver’s case. Roebuck and Assistant Public Defender Jane Allie McNeill – Xaver’s lead defense attorney – can appeal Cowden’s decision to the Sixth District Court of Appeal.

    Other courts around the state are wrestling with whether to apply the new jury count. The Fifth District Court of Appeal in Daytona Beach recently ruled against a defense team that wanted to use the unanimous death penalty jury rule rather than the new law.

    The Deltona case involved the murder of six people in 2004, called the “Xbox mass murder” because one of the items stolen in the crime was an Xbox game console.

    That case is now in the hands of the Florida Supreme Court in Tallahassee, Wallace said.

    “My hope is that the Supreme Court understands that there are a number of (death penalty) cases around the state,” Wallace told the Highlands News-Sun June 8. “Some of them are on the verge of trial. Our hope is that they soon put this whole question to rest.”

    Lawyers will begin picking jurors to determine Xaver’s sentence on Jan. 16, 2024. It will not be a quick matter.

    Cowden told Prosecutor Paul A. Wallace and Assistant Public Defender Jane Allie McNeill last week that she expects to summon up to 1,000 potential jurors and stagger their appearance from Tuesday, Jan. 16, through Friday, Jan. 19, 2024. The following Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024, will be the fifth anniversary of the slayings.

    Cowden plans to call so many potential jurors because only about 25% respond to jury summonses in Highlands County. With 1,000 summonses, she told lawyers, she hopes between 250 to 300 prospective jurors will show up for jury selection.

    Lawyers will then take about two weeks to pick the jury, Cowden said, because prosecutors and defense lawyers go through a lengthy process of questioning jurors about their willingness to recommend death.

    Xaver entered the Sebring SunTrust Bank on Jan. 23, 2019, and shot five local women to death. They were SunTrust Bank employees Ana Piñon-Williams, Debra Cook, Marisol Lopez and Jessica Montague, and a customer, Cynthia Watson.

    https://www.midfloridanewspapers.com...%20this%20week.
    "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. #18
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Why are they waiting til next January 2024 to start the penalty phase?
    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

  9. #19
    Senior Member CnCP Addict one_two_bomb's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bobsicles View Post
    Why are they waiting til next January 2024 to start the penalty phase?
    That's probably when the trial would be held had he not plead guilty.

  10. #20
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    It’s just honestly sickening how long it takes for death penalty trials nowadays. Back in the day the average time between arrest and sentencing was a year. Now it’s 5 years at average
    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

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