A circuit judge sentenced a man to death today for the fatal stabbings of a mother and daughter in Haines City in 2015.
Circuit Judge Jalal Harb upheld the unanimous death penalty recommendation for Michael Gordon by a jury from 2019, writing in a sentencing order that Gordon’s actions were “consistent with the conclusion that he acted with indifferent reckless to the lives of the victims.”
“Consequently, this Court finds that the Defendant’s involvement was substantial and far from a codefendant who acted as a getaway driver to the robbery,” Harb wrote.
Harb continued that evidence presented showed that Gordon was the “most culpable actor in the events of January 15, 2015.” Gordon’s vehicle was used during the robbery, Gordon was the first to enter a pawn shop that was robbed, and it was Gordon alone who entered the victim’s home and killed her and her daughter.
During Gordon’s trial, Assistant State Attorneys Paul Wallace and Kristie Ducharme explained how Gordon and three co-defendants robbed an Auburndale pawn shop at gunpoint on Jan. 15, then led police on a high speed chase to the Chanler Ridge subdivision. Gordon forced his way into the home of Patricia Moran, 72, and her daughter, Deborah Royal, 51. He stabbed the women more than 50 times, then stole Moran’s car and drove through a garage door in an attempt to escape.
In January, a co-defendant, Devonere McCune, was sentenced to life in prison after jurors convicted him of second-degree murder, armed robbery and three counts of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer. In 2018, a second co-defendant, Terrell Williams, was sentenced to life in prison following his conviction of first-degree murder. The third co-defendant, Jovan Lamb, has also been charged with two counts of first-degree murder. His trial is scheduled for 2021.
During the death penalty phase of Gordon’s trial, Wallace argued that Gordon’s violent past, including a prison stabbing and a shooting in Lakeland should be given great weight.
Harb agreed in his order, stating that Gordon’s past along with the first degree murder convictions of Moran and Royal “amounts to a substantial aggravation.”
State Attorney Brian Haas thanks Assistant State Attorneys Wallace and Ducharme and the Polk County Sheriff’s Office for their work on the case.
https://www.sao10.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/0207gordon.jpg480400john chamblisshttps://www.sao10.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Office-of-the-State-Attorney-10th-Judicial-Circuit-Logo.pngjohn chambliss2020-02-07 16:48:152020-02-07 16:48:15Judge sentences man to die for fatal stabbings of mother, daughter
A Frostproof man was convicted Wednesday of robbery.
Wearing a mask over his face, Julio Aponte, 33, used a flare gun to rob two people in the La Botana restaurant food store in Lake Wales.
Jurors took 30 minutes to convict Aponte of robbery with a weapon, attempted robbery with a weapon, and providing false identification to a law enforcement officer. Circuit Judge Michael McDaniel is scheduled to sentence Aponte on Feb. 28.
Assistant State Attorney Jessica Fisher prosecuted the case.
During the trial, Fisher told jurors that Aponte walked into the store on Nov. 6, 2018, behind his friend, who continued toward the restaurant area. Aponte stayed at the front counter, then pointed an orange flare gun at a clerk and a customer paying for items he planned to buy.
As Aponte waved the gun and demanded money, the customer handed Aponte a few bills and Aponte and his friend left the store.
Fisher told jurors that surveillance video showed the robbery and that Aponte’s friend was an unwilling bystander. The only, question, she said, was the identity of the masked man.
But Aponte’s friend testified Aponte was the armed man. In addition, when Polk Sheriff’s detectives investigated they found clothing in Aponte’s room and tennis shoes still on his feet that matched the outfit the masked man was wearing in the store.
The robbery occurred a week after Aponte robbed a convenience store on State Road 60 in Lake Wales with a large knife. In that case tried in late 2019, Circuit Judge Larry Helms sentenced Aponte to two separate life sentences for the charges of robbery with a deadly weapon and burglary while armed.
State Attorney Brian Haas thanks Assistant State Attorney Fisher and Polk County Sheriff’s detectives for their work on the case.
https://www.sao10.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/1101aponte.jpg512414john chamblisshttps://www.sao10.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Office-of-the-State-Attorney-10th-Judicial-Circuit-Logo.pngjohn chambliss2020-02-07 10:16:352020-02-07 10:16:35Frostproof man convicted of robbing man in restaurant with flare gun
A 45-year-old Haines City man was convicted today of breaking into an 81-year-old woman’s home and sexually assaulting her in 2017.
Julio Alfredo Ruiz faces life in prison after jurors found him guilty of sexual battery and burglary with assault. Jurors deliberated for three hours.
Circuit Judge Wayne Durden is scheduled to sentence Ruiz at 10 a.m. on Feb. 13.
The four-day trial centered around analysis of DNA found on the victim’s sheets that linked Ruiz with the assault of the woman. Ruiz lived only one street away from the victim and worked at his father’s business next door.
The assault occurred on Sept. 28. A week later, Ruiz was charged after semen recovered from the sheets matched his profile in a database.
Assistant State Attorney Ashley McCarthy told jurors that before the attack the victim was an independent, fun-loving woman who loved karaoke with her friends.
“She was sharp-witted and young at heart,” McCarthy told jurors.
It was a routine night for the victim on Sept. 27.
She had returned from a fun night of karaoke before calling her friend then her son about 10:30 p.m. to let them know she was safe.
About 3 a.m., she called her friend back. “A man broke into my house and raped me,” she told the friend. Hiding in the bathroom, the woman warned the friend not to call her son, a detective, because the man threatened to return to the home if she called police.
“She doesn’t know if he’s going to come back,” McCarthy said.
The friend called the victim’s other son, who called his brother, the detective. Police arrived at the home minutes later.
Days later, Ruiz was arrested.
The victim died in a car crash two months after the sexual assault.
McCarthy said before she died, the victim had moved in with her daughter after 30 years of living in her own home.
“She didn’t want to go back,” McCarthy said.
State Attorney Brian Haas thanks Assistant State Attorneys McCarthy, Tim Coleman, the Haines City Police Department and the Polk County Sheriff’s Office for their work on the case.
https://www.sao10.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/0130Ruiz.jpg512414john chamblisshttps://www.sao10.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Office-of-the-State-Attorney-10th-Judicial-Circuit-Logo.pngjohn chambliss2020-01-30 16:41:422020-01-30 16:45:37Haines City man convicted in rape of 81-year-old woman in her home
A Lakeland man was recently sentenced to 30 years in prison for raping a woman at gunpoint in her Lakeland home in 2017.
Circuit Judge Kevin Abdoney also designated Jerald Dixon, Jr., 27, a sexual predator and ordered him to serve 10 years of probation when he is released.
Assistant State Attorney Jennifer Swenson read a statement from the victim before Abdoney sentenced Dixon.
“I stare at my window praying to God no one else hurts me like he did,” the victim wrote. “I will never feel safe in my life again after all he has done.”
“And the worst of this is when I have nightmares of what he did I just keep wishing he pulled that trigger and killed me.”
In December, jurors deliberated for 30 minutes before finding Dixon guilty of sexual battery.
Jurors heard that at 5 a.m. on June 18, 2017, Dixon entered the Lakeland home after removing an air conditioning unit.
During the trial, Swenson told jurors the victim was asleep when she heard a noise outside the home. Seconds later, she saw a man wearing a shirt over his face climb through the window armed with a handgun.
“Don’t move,” he said, holding her at gunpoint.
He demanded she take off her clothes then raped the woman. Dixon then ordered her to walk him out of the house.
The woman told her roommates about the rape before they heard a noise outside the home. It was Dixon climbing back inside the woman’s room through the same the window.
A roommate tackled Dixon once he re-entered the room. The victim recognized it was the person who raped her when she passed her room to leave the home.
Roommates detained Dixon until Polk County Sheriff’s detectives arrived to arrest him.
State Attorney Brian Haas thanks Assistant State Attorney Swenson and Sheriff’s detectives for their work on the case.
https://www.sao10.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/1212dixon.jpg512414john chamblisshttps://www.sao10.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Office-of-the-State-Attorney-10th-Judicial-Circuit-Logo.pngjohn chambliss2020-01-28 16:51:542020-01-28 16:51:54Lakeland man sentenced to 30 years for raping woman at gunpoint
A man from Puerto Rico has been convicted of trafficking $35,000 worth of cocaine during a drug deal at Posner Park in Davenport in 2017.
Misael Garcia-Sterling, 24, faces up to 30 years in prison after jurors found him guilty of trafficking more than 400 grams of cocaine and resisting arrest . Jurors deliberated for 90 minutes before returning with the verdict.
Circuit Judge Larry Helms is scheduled to sentence Garcia-Sterling at 8:30 a.m. on March 5.
Assistant State Attorneys Michael Berkowitz and Eric Ross prosecuted the case.
The case began on July 31 when a co-defendant who lived in Texas and worked for an airline contacted Garcia-Sterling about setting up a drug deal. The next day, the man flew to Orlando, rented a car and drove to a hotel in Polk County to meet with Garcia-Sterling and an undercover detective posing as a drug dealer.
On Aug. 2, the three met in the undercover’s detective’s car at Posner Park where they discussed a deal of Garcia-Sterling selling a kilo of cocaine to the undercover detective for $35,000.
Garcia-Sterling pressed the undercover detective to show him the money before the deal was made, while the detective pushed Garcia-Sterling to show him the drugs. Finally, Garcia-Sterling called a second co-defendant, who arrived with the kilo of cocaine.
Eventually, Garcia-Sterling handed the undercover detective the cocaine, and the detective gave Garcia-Sterling $5,000. While Garcia-Sterling counted the money, law enforcement officials moved to make an arrest.
Garcia-Sterling ran toward a fence with the $5,000. Once he reached the fence, he tossed all the money into the air before he was arrested.
State Attorney Brian Haas thanks Assistant State Attorneys Berkowitz and Ross and the Polk County Sheriff’s Office for their work on the case.
https://www.sao10.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/0124garciasterling.jpg512414john chamblisshttps://www.sao10.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Office-of-the-State-Attorney-10th-Judicial-Circuit-Logo.pngjohn chambliss2020-01-24 16:46:572020-01-24 16:46:57Man convicted of trafficking cocaine in Davenport
A gang member who fired gunshots into an SUV traveling on Havendale Boulevard with a family of four inside has been convicted of attempted manslaughter.
The family, which included 11-year-old twins, were traveling in September, 2018, to a birthday party at a nearby park. No one was injured, but two bullet holes were found in the tailgate area.
Aaron Delaune, who faces a minimum of 15 years in prison, is scheduled to be sentenced on March 6 before Circuit Judge Keith Spoto. Delaune has been in the Polk County Jail since his arrest in September. Jurors also found Delaune guilty of using a firearm during the crime and acting for the benefit of a criminal gang.
Assistant State Attorneys Victoria Avalon and Joe Concepcion prosecuted the case.
Avalon explained to jurors that Delaune, 27, wanted to move up the ranks in a motorcycle gang by shooting at the SUV on a public street.
It occurred on Sept. 1 when the victim maneuvered between motorcycles as he attempted to change lanes on Havendale Boulevard.
“He saw a hole in the group and merged into the center lane,” Avalon said of the victim. “He had no idea that his everyday world was going to change.”
Avalon said the gang demanded an act of violence for Delaune to move up the ladder of the gang.
“He intended to send a message: Don’t mess with the gang,” Avalon said.
State Attorney Brian Haas thanks Assistant State Attorneys Avalon and Concepcion, the Auburndale Police Department, and the Polk County Sheriff’s Office for their work on the case.
https://www.sao10.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/0122delaune.jpg512414john chamblisshttps://www.sao10.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Office-of-the-State-Attorney-10th-Judicial-Circuit-Logo.pngjohn chambliss2020-01-22 11:48:012020-01-22 11:48:01Gang member who fired shots at family in SUV convicted of attempted manslaughter
Judge sentences man to die for fatal stabbings of mother, daughter
/in SAO10 Blog /by john chamblissMichael Gordon
A circuit judge sentenced a man to death today for the fatal stabbings of a mother and daughter in Haines City in 2015.
Circuit Judge Jalal Harb upheld the unanimous death penalty recommendation for Michael Gordon by a jury from 2019, writing in a sentencing order that Gordon’s actions were “consistent with the conclusion that he acted with indifferent reckless to the lives of the victims.”
“Consequently, this Court finds that the Defendant’s involvement was substantial and far from a codefendant who acted as a getaway driver to the robbery,” Harb wrote.
Harb continued that evidence presented showed that Gordon was the “most culpable actor in the events of January 15, 2015.” Gordon’s vehicle was used during the robbery, Gordon was the first to enter a pawn shop that was robbed, and it was Gordon alone who entered the victim’s home and killed her and her daughter.
During Gordon’s trial, Assistant State Attorneys Paul Wallace and Kristie Ducharme explained how Gordon and three co-defendants robbed an Auburndale pawn shop at gunpoint on Jan. 15, then led police on a high speed chase to the Chanler Ridge subdivision. Gordon forced his way into the home of Patricia Moran, 72, and her daughter, Deborah Royal, 51. He stabbed the women more than 50 times, then stole Moran’s car and drove through a garage door in an attempt to escape.
In January, a co-defendant, Devonere McCune, was sentenced to life in prison after jurors convicted him of second-degree murder, armed robbery and three counts of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer. In 2018, a second co-defendant, Terrell Williams, was sentenced to life in prison following his conviction of first-degree murder. The third co-defendant, Jovan Lamb, has also been charged with two counts of first-degree murder. His trial is scheduled for 2021.
During the death penalty phase of Gordon’s trial, Wallace argued that Gordon’s violent past, including a prison stabbing and a shooting in Lakeland should be given great weight.
Harb agreed in his order, stating that Gordon’s past along with the first degree murder convictions of Moran and Royal “amounts to a substantial aggravation.”
State Attorney Brian Haas thanks Assistant State Attorneys Wallace and Ducharme and the Polk County Sheriff’s Office for their work on the case.
Frostproof man convicted of robbing man in restaurant with flare gun
/in SAO10 Blog /by john chamblissJulio Aponte
A Frostproof man was convicted Wednesday of robbery.
Wearing a mask over his face, Julio Aponte, 33, used a flare gun to rob two people in the La Botana restaurant food store in Lake Wales.
Jurors took 30 minutes to convict Aponte of robbery with a weapon, attempted robbery with a weapon, and providing false identification to a law enforcement officer. Circuit Judge Michael McDaniel is scheduled to sentence Aponte on Feb. 28.
Assistant State Attorney Jessica Fisher prosecuted the case.
During the trial, Fisher told jurors that Aponte walked into the store on Nov. 6, 2018, behind his friend, who continued toward the restaurant area. Aponte stayed at the front counter, then pointed an orange flare gun at a clerk and a customer paying for items he planned to buy.
As Aponte waved the gun and demanded money, the customer handed Aponte a few bills and Aponte and his friend left the store.
Fisher told jurors that surveillance video showed the robbery and that Aponte’s friend was an unwilling bystander. The only, question, she said, was the identity of the masked man.
But Aponte’s friend testified Aponte was the armed man. In addition, when Polk Sheriff’s detectives investigated they found clothing in Aponte’s room and tennis shoes still on his feet that matched the outfit the masked man was wearing in the store.
The robbery occurred a week after Aponte robbed a convenience store on State Road 60 in Lake Wales with a large knife. In that case tried in late 2019, Circuit Judge Larry Helms sentenced Aponte to two separate life sentences for the charges of robbery with a deadly weapon and burglary while armed.
State Attorney Brian Haas thanks Assistant State Attorney Fisher and Polk County Sheriff’s detectives for their work on the case.
Haines City man convicted in rape of 81-year-old woman in her home
/in SAO10 Blog /by john chamblissJulio Ruiz
A 45-year-old Haines City man was convicted today of breaking into an 81-year-old woman’s home and sexually assaulting her in 2017.
Julio Alfredo Ruiz faces life in prison after jurors found him guilty of sexual battery and burglary with assault. Jurors deliberated for three hours.
Circuit Judge Wayne Durden is scheduled to sentence Ruiz at 10 a.m. on Feb. 13.
The four-day trial centered around analysis of DNA found on the victim’s sheets that linked Ruiz with the assault of the woman. Ruiz lived only one street away from the victim and worked at his father’s business next door.
The assault occurred on Sept. 28. A week later, Ruiz was charged after semen recovered from the sheets matched his profile in a database.
Assistant State Attorney Ashley McCarthy told jurors that before the attack the victim was an independent, fun-loving woman who loved karaoke with her friends.
“She was sharp-witted and young at heart,” McCarthy told jurors.
It was a routine night for the victim on Sept. 27.
She had returned from a fun night of karaoke before calling her friend then her son about 10:30 p.m. to let them know she was safe.
About 3 a.m., she called her friend back. “A man broke into my house and raped me,” she told the friend. Hiding in the bathroom, the woman warned the friend not to call her son, a detective, because the man threatened to return to the home if she called police.
“She doesn’t know if he’s going to come back,” McCarthy said.
The friend called the victim’s other son, who called his brother, the detective. Police arrived at the home minutes later.
Days later, Ruiz was arrested.
The victim died in a car crash two months after the sexual assault.
McCarthy said before she died, the victim had moved in with her daughter after 30 years of living in her own home.
“She didn’t want to go back,” McCarthy said.
State Attorney Brian Haas thanks Assistant State Attorneys McCarthy, Tim Coleman, the Haines City Police Department and the Polk County Sheriff’s Office for their work on the case.
Lakeland man sentenced to 30 years for raping woman at gunpoint
/in SAO10 Blog /by john chamblissJerald Dixon
A Lakeland man was recently sentenced to 30 years in prison for raping a woman at gunpoint in her Lakeland home in 2017.
Circuit Judge Kevin Abdoney also designated Jerald Dixon, Jr., 27, a sexual predator and ordered him to serve 10 years of probation when he is released.
Assistant State Attorney Jennifer Swenson read a statement from the victim before Abdoney sentenced Dixon.
“I stare at my window praying to God no one else hurts me like he did,” the victim wrote. “I will never feel safe in my life again after all he has done.”
“And the worst of this is when I have nightmares of what he did I just keep wishing he pulled that trigger and killed me.”
In December, jurors deliberated for 30 minutes before finding Dixon guilty of sexual battery.
Jurors heard that at 5 a.m. on June 18, 2017, Dixon entered the Lakeland home after removing an air conditioning unit.
During the trial, Swenson told jurors the victim was asleep when she heard a noise outside the home. Seconds later, she saw a man wearing a shirt over his face climb through the window armed with a handgun.
“Don’t move,” he said, holding her at gunpoint.
He demanded she take off her clothes then raped the woman. Dixon then ordered her to walk him out of the house.
The woman told her roommates about the rape before they heard a noise outside the home. It was Dixon climbing back inside the woman’s room through the same the window.
A roommate tackled Dixon once he re-entered the room. The victim recognized it was the person who raped her when she passed her room to leave the home.
Roommates detained Dixon until Polk County Sheriff’s detectives arrived to arrest him.
State Attorney Brian Haas thanks Assistant State Attorney Swenson and Sheriff’s detectives for their work on the case.
Man convicted of trafficking cocaine in Davenport
/in SAO10 Blog /by john chamblissMisael Garcia-Sterling
A man from Puerto Rico has been convicted of trafficking $35,000 worth of cocaine during a drug deal at Posner Park in Davenport in 2017.
Misael Garcia-Sterling, 24, faces up to 30 years in prison after jurors found him guilty of trafficking more than 400 grams of cocaine and resisting arrest . Jurors deliberated for 90 minutes before returning with the verdict.
Circuit Judge Larry Helms is scheduled to sentence Garcia-Sterling at 8:30 a.m. on March 5.
Assistant State Attorneys Michael Berkowitz and Eric Ross prosecuted the case.
The case began on July 31 when a co-defendant who lived in Texas and worked for an airline contacted Garcia-Sterling about setting up a drug deal. The next day, the man flew to Orlando, rented a car and drove to a hotel in Polk County to meet with Garcia-Sterling and an undercover detective posing as a drug dealer.
On Aug. 2, the three met in the undercover’s detective’s car at Posner Park where they discussed a deal of Garcia-Sterling selling a kilo of cocaine to the undercover detective for $35,000.
Garcia-Sterling pressed the undercover detective to show him the money before the deal was made, while the detective pushed Garcia-Sterling to show him the drugs. Finally, Garcia-Sterling called a second co-defendant, who arrived with the kilo of cocaine.
Eventually, Garcia-Sterling handed the undercover detective the cocaine, and the detective gave Garcia-Sterling $5,000. While Garcia-Sterling counted the money, law enforcement officials moved to make an arrest.
Garcia-Sterling ran toward a fence with the $5,000. Once he reached the fence, he tossed all the money into the air before he was arrested.
State Attorney Brian Haas thanks Assistant State Attorneys Berkowitz and Ross and the Polk County Sheriff’s Office for their work on the case.
Gang member who fired shots at family in SUV convicted of attempted manslaughter
/in SAO10 Blog /by john chamblissAaron Delaune
A gang member who fired gunshots into an SUV traveling on Havendale Boulevard with a family of four inside has been convicted of attempted manslaughter.
The family, which included 11-year-old twins, were traveling in September, 2018, to a birthday party at a nearby park. No one was injured, but two bullet holes were found in the tailgate area.
Aaron Delaune, who faces a minimum of 15 years in prison, is scheduled to be sentenced on March 6 before Circuit Judge Keith Spoto. Delaune has been in the Polk County Jail since his arrest in September. Jurors also found Delaune guilty of using a firearm during the crime and acting for the benefit of a criminal gang.
Assistant State Attorneys Victoria Avalon and Joe Concepcion prosecuted the case.
Avalon explained to jurors that Delaune, 27, wanted to move up the ranks in a motorcycle gang by shooting at the SUV on a public street.
It occurred on Sept. 1 when the victim maneuvered between motorcycles as he attempted to change lanes on Havendale Boulevard.
“He saw a hole in the group and merged into the center lane,” Avalon said of the victim. “He had no idea that his everyday world was going to change.”
Avalon said the gang demanded an act of violence for Delaune to move up the ladder of the gang.
“He intended to send a message: Don’t mess with the gang,” Avalon said.
State Attorney Brian Haas thanks Assistant State Attorneys Avalon and Concepcion, the Auburndale Police Department, and the Polk County Sheriff’s Office for their work on the case.