A jury recommends the death penalty for a former trainee prison guard who murdered five women at a Florida bank

A jury on Wednesday recommended that a former prison guard trainee be sentenced to death for the execution-style murders of five women at a Florida bank five years ago. It was a massacre that fulfilled his long-expressed desire to kill.

Jurors voted 9 to 3 to recommend that Zephen Xaver receive the death penalty for the murders that occurred on Jan. 23, 2019, at SunTrust Bank in Sebring, about 80 miles (135 kilometers) 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 District 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 Florida law set for 2023, a jury only needed to vote 8-4 in favor of the death penalty for Cowden to impose the sentence. State law required a unanimous jury recommendation for a judge to impose the death penalty, but Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Legislature changed that after a 9-3 jury vote spared the shooter who murdered 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland in 2018.

Last year, Xaver pleaded guilty to five counts of first-degree murder, denying a scheduled trial that was delayed for years by the Covid-19 pandemic, legal wrangling and a lawyer’s illness.

Xaver’s victims included client Cynthia Watson (65), who got married less than a month ago; bank teller coordinator Marisol Lopez, 55, mother of two; bank intern Ana Pinon-Williams, a 38-year-old mother of seven children; bank teller Debra Cook, a 54-year-old mother of two and grandmother; and banker Jessica Montague, 31, mother of one and stepmother of four.

He ordered them to lie on the floor and then shot each of them in the head as they screamed, “Why?”

Earlier Wednesday, prosecutor Bonde Johnson said in closing arguments that Xaver deserved the death penalty because the massacre was long-planned, “shockingly evil” and fulfilled his long-held desire to experience killing.

“He didn’t murder one person to really know what it would be like to kill. He killed five. He watched them lying on the floor. They were under his control, for his pleasure, as he shot each of them,” she said.

But defense attorney Jane McNeill urged jurors to spare Xaver, saying he was mentally ill and had heard voices since childhood telling him to kill himself and others. She added that he was looking for help, but he didn’t actually get it.

“We are asking you to show Zephen the least he deserves – compassion, grace and mercy,” McNeill told the panel, her voice breaking as she said that “sentencing Zephen to life in prison is the right decision.”

During the two-week trial, prosecutors portrayed Xaver as a cold and calculating killer who pretended to hear voices to conceal his violent impulses. His lawyers countered that he had long suffered from psychotic episodes.

In 2014, the principal of Xaver High School in Indiana contacted police after he told a counselor that he had dreams about killing classmates. His mother, Misty Hendricks, promised to get him psychological help. At trial, she testified that she stopped taking her medication at age 17 because it seemed to make her feel better.

He joined the military but was discharged in 2016 during boot camp due to suicidal thoughts. These thoughts continued.

“This is all I can think about, this is all I hear every day, this is all I see every day. This is all I feel and taste every day: blood, death and murder. This is all that happens 24/7,” Xaver wrote to a friend. He posted similar posts online.

In 2018, he moved to Sebring and was hired at the local prison, but quit after two months. It was the day after he bought the gun and two weeks before the massacre.

On the morning of the murder, he had a long text conversation with his girlfriend in which he told her it would be “the best day of his life” but would not say why.

He finally told her just before entering the bank that he was about to die. Then he added “the fun part.”

“I’m taking a few people with me because I’ve always wanted to kill,” he wrote.

Later, Xaver threatened suicide, but eventually gave in.

Defense witnesses testified that Xaver was a quiet, nice child but struggled at school and took a dark turn during adolescence.

Melissa Manges, his high school counselor, testified that Xaver needed more help for his troubling thoughts, but no long-term residential program would accept him.

“The system failed Zephen,” she said.

Brian Haas, the local state’s attorney, welcomed the verdict but said in a statement that the focus should be on the victims, “not the monster who committed these crimes.”

“Five women who were mothers, daughters, sisters, wives and much more to many people lost their lives on that fateful day in January 2019. Their families suffered so much without them while waiting for justice,” he said.

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