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Johnathan Alcegaire Florida Death Row

Johnathan Alcegaire was sentenced to death by the State of Florida for three murders committed during a home invasion. According to court documents Johnathan Alcegaire and two other men would force their way into a Lakeland Florida home where they would shoot and kill David Washington, 24, Stacy Branch, 31, and Angelica Castro, 23. Johnathan Alcegaire would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Florida Death Row Inmate List

Johnathan Alcegaire 2021 Information

DC Number:	M61417
Name:	ALCEGAIRE, JOHNATHAN I
Race:	BLACK
Sex:	MALE
Birth Date:	01/30/1989
Initial Receipt Date:	03/13/2019
Current Facility:	UNION C.I.
Current Custody:	MAXIMUM
Current Release Date:	DEATH SENTENCE

Johnathan Alcegaire More News

Johnathan Alcegaire will go to Florida’s death row for the murders of three Lakeland residents in a January 2016 drug-related shooting, Circuit Judge Jalal Harb ruled Friday.

But before Harb announced his sentence, Alcegaire had a few words of his own.

“I have been wrongfully convicted, so all of you that want my life are wrong,” he said in court.

“To the prosecution: Y’all the killers. You all are the ones guilty of murder, and perjury, and robbery, and home wrecking.

“To the families of the departed: You all were here the whole trial and know the state did not prove the case against me, but your hunger for vengeance blinded you to all the facts.”

In September, a 12-member jury deliberated about six hours over two days before finding Alcegaire, 30, of Miami, guilty in the shooting deaths of David Washington, 24, Stacy Branch, 31, and Angelica Castro, 23.

Alcegaire is the first of three Miami men accused in the predawn home-invasion murders. During his trial, the lone survivor of the shooting, Felix Campos, told jurors he saw Alcegaire among the three assailants in Washington’s home that morning. They shot Campos, too, but he survived to identify the men who he said did it. He said he had known them from previous meetings at the house.

Alcegaire was found guilty of driving to Lakeland the morning of Jan. 6 with Jamaal Smith and another man and storming into Washington’s house demanding money. During the trial, court testimony revealed that Washington had been buying drugs from the Miami men, including Alcegaire’s brother, 38-year-old Andrew Joseph, and had just returned that morning from a trip down there.

Prosecutors alleged that the gunman, who they identified as Smith, killed Washington first, then the two women, who were sleeping in their respective bedrooms.

Defense lawyers for Alcegaire argued that he had come along on the ride up from Miami, but only so he could visit friends in Lakeland. They showed searches on Alcegaire’s phone for another location to support his reasons for visiting Lakeland.

After his conviction, Alcegaire’s lawyers told the court he did not want to present additional evidence in the penalty phase — when jurors hear testimony supporting either a life sentence or the death penalty. Jurors heard only evidence from prosecutors, and after deliberating 90 minutes, they returned with a unanimous recommendation that Alcegaire be sentenced to death for each of the three murders.

But in a defense sentencing memorandum filed in February, Alcegaire’s lawyers presented arguments for sparing his life — including that the jury heard no reasons to support a life sentence, that Alcegaire wasn’t the gunman and that he’s had no behavioral problems in the three years he’s been in the Polk County Jail.

Prosecutors had argued that the murder was committed in a cold, calculated and premeditated manner, that it was done for pecuniary gain, that the killings were committed during a robbery and that Alcegaire had prior convictions for capital crimes, with each murder in this case serving as a prior conviction to the other.

In his sentencing order, Harb said the state’s arguments supporting the death penalty outweighed the mitigating factors from the defense.

When addressing the court Friday, Alcegaire said he wasn’t seeking mercy from Harb.

“If I am to die,” he said, “then my only option is to die well — not like no stinking, begging coward. Therefore, I don’t want or expect any mercy from this court.”

Anna Branch, Stacy Branch’s former mother-in-law, said she was expecting Alcegaire to receive the death penalty.

“This is what I expected from sitting through the whole trial,” she said after Friday’s hearing. “He deserves this. He has no conscience. He has no feelings. What he said didn’t upset us — he can’t hurt us anymore.”

Christine Derby, Washington’s mother, said she’s satisfied that Alcegaire was sentenced to death.

“It won’t bring them back, and it’s still going to be a long process,” she said. “I’m glad this is over.”

She said she’s disappointed that prosecutors dropped the murder charges against Tavaris Mack, who was thought to be the third person in the house that day. But their case against Mack hinged on Campos’ testimony, and he told them after Mack was charged he could not identify Mack as the third assailant. Without his testimony, prosecutors decided in December to dismiss the charges against Mack.

Charges remain pending against Joseph and Smith, 28. While authorities haven’t alleged that Joseph was at the murder scene, prosecutors maintain he orchestrated the execution-style slayings — which, under Florida’s felony murder law, would make him legally responsible for the killings if he’s convicted. He’s scheduled to stand trial Jan. 6. No trial date has been set in Smith’s case.

Smith and Joseph remain in custody at the Polk County Jail without bail.

https://www.jacksonville.com/news/20190308/johnathan-alcegaire-gets-death-sentence-for-home-invasion-triple-murder-in-lakeland/1

Donald Davidson Florida Death Row

Donald Davidson was sentenced to death by the State of Florida for the murder of a woman and the sexual assault of her daughter. According to court documents Donald Davidson, who is a convicted sex offender, would murder a thirty five year old woman before kidnapping and sexual assaulting her young daughter. Donald Davidson would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Florida Death Row Inmate List

Donald Davidson 2021 Information

DC Number:	J29399
Name:	DAVIDSON, DONALD H JR
Race:	WHITE
Sex:	MALE
Birth Date:	07/30/1980
Initial Receipt Date:	09/25/2019
Current Facility:	UNION C.I.
Current Custody:	MAXIMUM
Current Release Date:	DEATH SENTENCE

Donald Davidson More News

Convicted Middleburg rapist and murderer Donald Hugh Davidson Jr. was sentenced to death Wednesday for killing a 35-year-old Clay County mother and abducting and raping her young daughter.

Calling Roseann Welsh’s death “especially heinous, atrocious and cruel,” Circuit Judge Don Lester said he also gave great weight to the defendant’s previous 2010 felony conviction for aggravated battery on a pregnant woman as well as his sexual offender status from a 2005 conviction for lewd and lascivious molestation of someone younger than 12.

“The court finds the aggravating factors heavily outweigh the mitigating circumstances,” the somber-looking judge said. ”… The court concludes the appropriate sentence is death.

Wearing a striped jail jumpsuit, Davidson, 38, showed no emotion as Lester read the sentence. Davidson had previously waived his right to a jury trial after entering a guilty plea to charges of first-degree murder, attempted sexual battery of a victim older than 12 with force, plus four counts of sexual battery of a victim younger than 12, lewd and lascivious molestation, kidnapping and grand theft, according to the State Attorney’s Office.

“This case shocked the conscience of Clay County: a kidnapping of a child, and rape and murder of her mother,” State Attorney Melissa Nelson said. “Today brings an end to at least one chapter of the ongoing nightmare for Rosie Welsh’s children, her husband and family.”

Davidson’s lead attorney, Mark Wright, said “it is a sad day for everyone.”

“No one won here,” he told Times-Union news partner First Coast News. “Mr. Davidson has never wavered in his position of taking responsibility and being held accountable. And quite frankly he is not surprised that this day happened the way it did.”

The case began on Dec. 1, 2014, when Davidson entered Welsh’s Middleburg home, then strangled and stabbed her, the State Attorney’s Office said. Davidson forced her into unconsciousness before stabbing her in the neck several times.

Davidson knew the dead woman’s husband since childhood. When their son returned home several hours later, Davidson locked him out and told him his mother was not home, the State Attorney’s Office said. Davidson told him to go to a friend’s house down the street, which he did. Upon returning home, the boy found his mother murdered on the bathroom floor, while the family van and his younger sister were missing.

https://www.jacksonville.com/news/20190918/middleburg-sex-predator-sentenced-to-death-in-2014-slaying-of-woman-and-rape-of-daughter

Mark Sievers Florida Death Row

Mark Sievers was sentenced to death by the State of Florida for the murder of his wife Teresa Sievers. According to court documents Mark Sievers would hire two men to murder Teresa Sievers who would stage a break in and beat the woman to death. Mark Sievers would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Florida Death Row Inmate List

Mark Sievers 2021 Information

DC Number:	J80689
Name:	SIEVERS, MARK D
Race:	WHITE
Sex:	MALE
Birth Date:	03/02/1968
Initial Receipt Date:	01/17/2020
Current Facility:	UNION C.I.
Current Custody:	MAXIMUM
Current Release Date:	DEATH SENTENCE

Mark Sievers More News

The last time Dr. Teresa Sievers was seen alive in public, she was at Southwest Florida International Airport, returning to work from a family vacation while her husband and two daughters stayed behind.

But Sievers didn’t show up at the medical office the next day. A few hours later, a neighbor, sent by Sievers’ husband to check in, found her bloody body on the kitchen floor, beaten to death with a hammer.

“She’s bashed in the back of the head,” a panicked Dr. Mark Petrites told a 911 operator in an audiotape that can be heard by viewers on the premiere episode of A&E’s Killer Cases that deals with Dr. Sievers’ murder. [Watch the episode here. New episodes air Thursdays at 10/9c.]

“And she’s cold,” Petrites says. “She’s dead cold.”

Initially, investigators were stumped. The house hadn’t been ransacked, and a safe with more than $40,000 cash in it had gone untouched—suggesting that burglary hadn’t been the driving motive behind the bloodshed. But Dr. Sievers’ husband Mark Sievers was out of state with their daughters at the time of the murder, thereby also ruling out the possibility of the murder coming from inside the immediate family.

There were also red herrings early on. Dr. Sievers had been a practitioner of holistic medicine, and online conspiracy theorists noted that two other Florida-based holistic doctors had also been murdered that month, leading to local media speculation about the possibility of a holistic medicine serial killer. Investigators dutifully followed that lead, but quickly hit a dead end.

“There was absolutely no trace evidence,” prosecutor Cynthia Ross told Killer Cases. “This was almost the perfect crime.”

Two weeks into their investigation, detectives caught a break. A tipster in Missouri called investigators to report that Curtis Wayne Wright, a career criminal with a lengthy rap sheet, had confessed the crime to him or her. Investigators homed in on Wright and soon thereafter expanded the investigation to a second suspect: Jimmy Ray Rodgers, also a career criminal.

When initially questioned, both men denied involvement, but detectives gathered GPS data from a rental car the men had borrowed, which allowed them to prove that the pair had driven from Missouri to Bonita Springs immediately before the crime. Their case was further strengthened by surveillance video taken at a Florida Walmart, which showed the men purchasing several suspicious items, including black towels, black shoes and a lock-picking kit.

Investigators later spoke with Rodgers’ girlfriend, Taylor Shomaker, who told them Rodgers had confessed the murder to her. She took them to a spot where Rodgers had disposed of bloody clothing from the crime scene.

Jimmy Ray Rodgers was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life.

Curtis Wayne Wright pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and got 25 years, a lesser sentence because he was willing to rat out the mastermind behind the massacre.

According to Wright, the homicide had been orchestrated by his high school best friend—Dr. Sievers’s husband, Mark.

Detectives were not surprised when evidence began mounting against Mark Sievers. During Sievers’ interrogation, his grief had come across as overplayed.

“We’ve met a lot of people who have lost a loved one, and he seemed fake,” Lieutenant David Lebid told Killer Cases. “I saw a lot of simulated favor. It didn’t seem real.”

According to Wright’s testimony, Sievers recruited the two men to kill his wife, motivated by marriage problems and a fear of losing custody of his two daughters.

Sievers’ attorney attempted to convince the jury that Wright—the prosecution’s key witness—was an unreliable source of information, given that he himself was a murderer who had already admitted to lying to authorities earlier in the investigation.

But prosecutors presented other evidence at Sievers’ trial. Cell phone data indicated that Sievers and Wright had communicated via burner phones (i.e. disposable cell phones) in the weeks leading up to Dr. Sievers’ death, and Wright’s phone had pinged near the Sievers’ home on the morning of Dr. Sievers’ murder.

Ultimately, the jury was convinced by the prosecution’s version of events: After just four hours of deliberation, they convicted Sievers of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

The jury that convicted Mark Sievers recommended that he be given the death penalty for his crimes, but Lee County Judge Bruce Kyle had final authority over the sentence.

His decision was complicated by the plea of one of Sievers’ daughters, who wrote and asked that the court show mercy on her father. Having already lost her mother, the young girl argued that losing her father’s life as well would be unbearable, according to Killer Cases.

At his sentencing hearing, Sievers read from a prepared statement, in which he maintained his innocence and emotionally pleaded for his life along similar lines.

“Our girls have tragically lost their mommy, and now they’re about to lose their daddy as well. Therefore, I respectfully ask the court for life, as not to compound their loss and suffering,” Sievers said.

Judge Kyle was unmoved and sentenced him to death on January 3, 2020.

“I judge people’s actions. I don’t judge people’s souls,” Kyle said. “And if I’m wrong, hopefully, God will have mercy on both of us.

https://www.aetv.com/real-crime/why-teresa-sievers-florida-physician-and-mother-of-two-was-bludgeoned-to-death

Michael Gordon Florida Death Row

Michael Gordon was sentenced to death by the State of Florida for a double murder. According to court documents Michael Gordon was fleeing from an armed robbery when he would force his way into a home and stab to death Patricia Moran, and Deborah Royal. Michael Gordon would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Florida Death Row Inmate List

Michael Gordon 2021 Information

DC Number:	H07698
Name:	GORDON, MICHAEL A
Race:	BLACK
Sex:	MALE
Birth Date:	02/15/1980
Initial Receipt Date:	02/13/2020
Current Facility:	UNION C.I.
Current Custody:	MAXIMUM
Current Release Date:	DEATH SENTENCE

Michael Gordon More News

A year ago, 12 jurors agreed that convicted murderer Michael Anthony Gordon should die for the home-invasion murders of two Haines City women who were fatally stabbed in Gordon’s attempt to flee capture for an unrelated armed robbery.

On Friday, Circuit Judge Jalal Harb carried out that recommendation and sentenced Gordon to death for the brutal killings.

But before Harb announced his sentence, Gordon said this:

“I’m an innocent man who’s been recommended for the death penalty,” he said. “I’m a victim in this case, too, and my heart goes out to the victims who were.”

After the hearing, Mary Feiock, who lost her mother, Patricia Moran, and her sister, Deborah Royal, in the killings, dismissed Gordon’s sympathy, saying he deserved the death penalty.

“I just want him to go off and wake up every day, knowing that there are consequences for what he did because he gave them no mercy whatsoever. He could have pushed them down, he could have knocked them out of the way, but what he did to them…” as words escaped her.

“I just want him sitting every day knowing that he’s going to die for what he did to them. I just hope it’s in my lifetime because we’ll be there, too.”

Gordon, 39, becomes the 15th convicted murderer from Polk County on Florida’s death row.

Gordon of Lakeland is the third of four co-defendants to be convicted and sentenced for the January 2015 crime rampage that took law enforcement on a high-speed chase from Auburndale to Haines City. The other two – Terrell Williams, 34, and Devonere McCune, 27, both of Haines City — were sentenced to mandatory life imprisonment.

The fourth defendant, Jovan Lamb, 34, also of Haines City, is scheduled to stand trial March 2021.

The events that led to the three convictions began Jan. 15, 2015, in the late afternoon when three armed men, wearing masks and gloves, stormed into the Cash America Pawn Shop in Auburndale and ordered the two employees, at gunpoint, to get on the floor. After smashing the jewelry case, they scooped out the contents and grabbed an employee’s cell phone before fleeing in a red GMC Jimmy.

Among the jewelry they stole was a piece containing a GPS tracker, according to court testimony. That, and the tracking device in the employee’s cell phone, enabled law officers responding to the armed robbery to locate and follow the fleeing suspects.

A high-speed chase ensued, with the suspects firing on the three patrol cars, until the suspects’ car crashed near the entrance to the Chanler Ridge subdivision in Haines City, according to the officers’ trial testimony.

Gordon, like the other suspects, ran into the subdivision. Moments later, a neighbor of Moran and Royal called 911 saying she had heard someone inside their home screaming for help.

As deputies responded to the house, Gordon crashed through the garage door driving Moran’s car. Deputies opened fire as Gordon drove through a nearby open field and crashed into an embankment along the shoreline of Lake Confusion.

While Gordon was taken into custody, deputies discovered the bodies of Moran, 72, and Royal, 51, inside the house at 618 Astor Drive. Each of them had been stabbed more than 50 times and their throats slit – Royal’s so severely that she was nearly decapitated. Not far from where they were killed, the water was still running in the shower.

Inside the house, deputies also found a single men’s tennis shoe and a pair of gloves bearing the same logo that could be seen in video surveillance at the Auburndale pawn shop, according to trial testimony. They also discovered bloody clothing in the women’s washing machine that matched the clothes Gordon had been wearing in the pawn shop video. One of the bloody shirts had Gordon’s DNA on the collar.

In February 2019, the same jurors who recommended the death penalty for each of the two killings also convicted Gordon of armed robbery, conspiracy to commit armed robbery, burglary, fleeing to elude law enforcement, two counts of grand theft and five counts of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer.

https://www.theledger.com/news/20200207/gordon-gets-death-for-haines-city-double-murder

Granville Ritchie Florida Death Row

Granville Ritchie was sentenced to death by the State of Florida for the sexual assault and murder of a nine year old girl. According to court documents Granville Ritchie would abduct, sexually assault and murder Felecia Williams. Granville Ritchie would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Florida Death Row Inmate List

Granville Ritchie 2021 Information

DC Number:	T85161
Name:	RITCHIE, GRANVILLE A
Race:	BLACK
Sex:	MALE
Birth Date:	12/05/1978
Initial Receipt Date:	09/15/2020
Current Facility:	UNION C.I.
Current Custody:	MAXIMUM
Current Release Date:	DEATH SENTENCE

Granville Ritchie More News

Nearly a year after a jury recommended Granville Ritchie be put to death for the rape and murder of a 9-year-old girl, an emotional judge agreed, and sentenced him to death on Friday morning.

“The child victim suffered a horrendous, physically painful, psychologically torturous death,” Hillsborough Circuit Judge Michelle Sisco said with her voice cracking, before removing her glasses to wipe away tears

Investigators said, back in 2014, Ritchie assaulted and strangled young Felecia Williams before stuffing her body in a suitcase and dumping her into the water near the Courtney Campbell Causeway

Investigators said, back in 2014, Ritchie assaulted and strangled young Felecia Williams before stuffing her body in a suitcase and dumping her into the water near the Courtney Campbell Causeway.

At the time, they said she was left alone with Ritchie after the woman who was babysitting her left to purchase drugs.

In September 2019, all 12 jurors agreed Ritchie, who grew up in Jamaica, should face the death penalty.

Friday’s sentencing included testimony from Felecia Demerson, the 9-year-old’s mother.

“I am here to bury this Jamaican today,” she said during the hearing. “The only thing I regret today is I cannot ask for his fate…that would be for him to be hung. For him to feel what she felt. I feel like death is appropriate. All I know is he needs to be like her.”

After she completed her testimony, Judge Sisco said she had struggled with how to convey her thoughts toward Demerson, but told her the following:

“I’ve thought long and hard about what I was going to say to you. First, I am in awe of your bravery and your tireless advocacy for your daughter. And the fact that you were able to sit through this trial with the horrific facts. You’re a better stronger woman than I am. That is true.

I think most parents have a moment when a child runs away from them, they can’t find a child, a call or text message goes unanswered for a period of time. Each parent has that sick feeling of dread that something happened to their child.

For most parents, that moment passes but for a few unfortunate ones, it doesn’t. Instead, it becomes a first step of a neverending nightmare you never wake from. My heart breaks for you. I know you’re a woman of deep faith. I know that you know that you and Felecia will have a joyous reunion. I wish you all of the best.”

No one spoke on behalf of Ritchie during Friday’s testimony.

“I don’t know what your spiritual leanings are…however, if you do ever pray to a higher power, either now or at some point, and you truly seek forgiveness…I hope that it is granted. I do still see the humanity in you,” Judge Sisco said after delivering the death sentence.

“May God have mercy on your soul, Mr. Ritchie.”

https://www.fox13news.com/news/granville-ritchie-sentenced-to-death-for-2014-rape-murder-of-9-year-old-felecia-williams