Florida jurors to decide on first death penalty case since Nikolas Cruz ruling
In Florida’s first death sentence case since a jury opted against the punishment for Parkland killer Nikolas Cruz, prosecutors are demanding execution for a man convicted of brutally killing two brothers aged 12 and 14.
In what the local sheriff described as one of grisliest crimes he’d ever encountered, Mark Wilson beat the defenseless victims to death with a hammer and cut their throats in August 2020.
A jury — who are expected to begin deliberations tomorrow — will now face the same decision as the Cruz jurors: Whether to send him to prison for life or condemn him to death.
Wilson was dating the aunt of boys he murdered and was convicted of the crimes last month.
He confessed the crimes to his mother, Chrissy Adkins, in a recorded phone call set up by police.
After begging her son to reveal his motive, Wilson — who routinely abused methamphetamines — confessed he killed the boys because he had delusional thoughts that their family planned to call child protective services on him and his girlfriend for mistreating their daughter and that they had planned to harm her.
Relatives of Tayten Baker, 14, and his brother, Robert, 12, have adamantly demanded Wilson’s execution.
“We don’t want to work and pay taxes for him to live [in prison]. Point blank. Period,” said cousin Kelli Coco.
Wilson and his girlfriend were living with the Bakers before the attack after falling on hard times.
The victims’ mother, Sarah Baker, said her generosity would eventually lead to the death of her two beloved boys.
She testified at trial this month that she recalled seeing Wilson sharpening a knife — later determined to be the murder weapon — on the night before the slayings.
In pushing for life in prison instead of death, attorneys for the defense are arguing Wilson had a psychotic episode during the bloody attack and that the crime was not premeditated — a death penalty requirement in Florida.
State law requires that all 12 jurors must unanimously vote for the the death penalty for it to be applied.
Prosecutors and Wilson’s attorneys are expected to give their closing statements Friday and a verdict could arrive soon after.
In a shock result, Nikolas Cruz, received a life term instead of death earlier this month after he killed 14 students and three staffers at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, one of the worst mass shootings in US history.
Jurors ruled that although the state had proved Cruz’s actions were enough to warrant the death penalty, “mitigating circumstances” presented at trial led the panel to opt for life in prison, after his lawyers argued he’d had a rough upbringing and may have been affected by fetal alcohol syndrome.
Immediately following the verdict, Dr. Ilan Alhadeff — whose daughter Alyssa was killed in the school shooting — slammed the decision.
He said at a press conference, “I’m disgusted with those jurors. That you can have 17 [murdered] and not give the death penalty.
“You set a precedent today, that you can do a mass shooting and get life in prison.
“I pray that animal [Cruz] suffers every day of his life in jail, and that he should have a short life.”
