What’s New
Zephen Xaver, the Sebring bank killer accused of murdering five women in 2019, was sentenced to death this week.
Zephen Xaver, 27, appeared to gulp but otherwise remained expressionless as Circuit Judge Angela Cowden delivered the sentence at the Highlands County Courthouse in Sebring. Following a two-week penalty trial, a jury voted 9-3 in June to recommend the death penalty for Xaver.
Why It Matters
Judge Angela Cowden cited Xaver’s weeks of planning leading up to the 2019 murders at Sebring’s SunTrust Bank, the scale of the crime, and the terror the victims experienced as they were shot as reasons for her decision.
She said these factors far outweighed the two dozen mitigating arguments presented by his attorneys, including his mental health history, a benign brain tumor and his reported embrace of Christianity while in jail.
What To Know
Xaver pleaded guilty last year to five counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of 65-year-old customer Cynthia Watson; Marisol Lopez, 55, a bank teller coordinator; Ana Pinon-Williams, 38, a banker trainee; Debra Cook, 54, a teller; and Jessica Montague, 31, a banker. At gunpoint, Xaver forced the women to lie on the floor and shot each of them in the head as they pleaded for their lives…