Jonathan Diaz Fundora groomed a 10-year-old Lakeland girl he met online and drove over four hours to sexually batter her.
Jonathan Diaz Fundora
Days before Diaz Fundora was supposed to go to trial, he pled no contest to 13 charges, including sexual battery on a victim less than 12, kidnapping, traveling to meet a minor, and use of a computer to seduce a child, among other charges.
Judge Durden sentenced him to mandatory life in prison on Jan. 30.
Diaz Fundora met the victim online and communicated with her for about a month, sending sexually explicit content to the girl. He then made a plan to drive from his home of Miami to Lakeland, where he told the child they would spend a few days at a motel.
He told the victim to write a letter to her grandmother, telling her she would be at a motel with a friend, and pack a bag. Diaz Fundora arranged to pick her up down the road from her house.
On March 27, 2018, Diaz Fundora drove 4 ½ hours to pick the girl up and take her to a Motel 6, where he sexually battered her.
The victim was reported missing by her grandmother, and Polk County Sheriff’s Office deputies traced the girl’s cellphone to the motel. When deputies arrived, Diaz Fundora answered the door in his underwear and said he had a young girl with him.
Deputies found the child hiding in the bathroom with the lights off.
Nearly four months after Diaz Fundora kidnapped the girl and molested her, she took her own life.
At Diaz Fundora’s sentencing hearing, a letter from the girl’s grandmother was read aloud in court during the hearing.
She told the judge that the girl was bullied in school and on the internet and often questioned if anyone loved her.
“He preyed on the innocence and immaturity of a child,” the letter said. “(Diaz Fundora) violated our precious baby and changed her short life forever.”
She said the damage Diaz Fundora did ran deeper than anyone could have imagined, causing the girl to take her life in July of 2018.
“Her small, young heart could not handle this world anymore,” the grandmother wrote.
At the hearing, Assistant State Attorney Randi Daugustinis reminded Judge Durden that Diaz Fundora admitted to every detail of the incident.
“The defendant had a calculated plan that he executed,” she said, adding that Diaz Fundora said he knew the girl was young but ignored it and drove to Lakeland anyway. “He knew she had a rough childhood and was in a very vulnerable state.”
She asked the judge to sentence Diaz Fundora to the max on count two, which was also punishable by life. Durden agreed and imposed a second life sentence to run concurrently.
At the end of the grandmother’s letter, she wrote that the victim’s family has found some solace in knowing the girl is in a better place.
“I know she is with God now,” the letter said, “and that eases my pain.”
https://www.sao10.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Diaz-Fundora.jpg430348Kaitlyn Pearsonhttps://www.sao10.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Office-of-the-State-Attorney-10th-Judicial-Circuit-Logo.pngKaitlyn Pearson2019-03-20 14:42:272019-03-20 14:42:27SENTENCING UPDATE: Man given two life sentences for sexually abusing 10-year-old
Johnathan Alcegaire stood still as Judge Jalal Harb handed
down three death sentences for each of the lives he claimed.
Alcegaire was convicted on Sept. 27, 2018, of three counts
of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, burglary of a dwelling with
an assault or battery while armed with a firearm, conspiracy to commit armed
robbery, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, tampering with physical
evidence, and armed robbery.
He was one of three men who traveled to Lakeland for a drug-related home-invasion robbery and murdered 24-year-old David Washington, 31-year-old Stacy Branch, and 23-year-old Angelica Castro.
The same jurors who convicted Alcegaire in September then
recommended that he should be sentenced to death. Judge Harb imposed those
three death sentences Friday morning, along with the maximum amount for
Alcegaire’s additional convictions.
Alcegaire is the second defendant in the Tenth Circuit to be
sentenced to death under the new death penalty law, which requires jurors to have
a unanimous vote instead of majority.
Former Assistant State Attorney Hope Pattey and ASA Mark
Levine prosecuted both the trial phase and penalty phase of this case.
State Attorney Brian Haas said Friday that he is
pleased with the outcome and that he is thankful for the hard work put in to
the Alcegaire case by both Pattey and Levine.
https://www.sao10.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Alcegaire.jpg437349Kaitlyn Pearsonhttps://www.sao10.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Office-of-the-State-Attorney-10th-Judicial-Circuit-Logo.pngKaitlyn Pearson2019-03-08 14:16:442019-03-08 14:19:13SENTENCING UPDATE: Alcegaire sentenced to death for 2016 triple homicides
Jerry Salter Jr. started abusing his victim at the age of
five.
Salter groomed the boy to perform sexual acts by using food.
A jury deliberated for about 90 minutes Thursday and
convicted Salter of three counts of capital sexual battery on a victim less
than 12 years of age. Salter is facing mandatory life imprisonment, which will
be handed down on April 12.
Assistant State Attorney Lauren Randall told jurors how
Salter slowly groomed the child and repeatedly abused him.
“This became his normal,” she said, “and it continued for
over a decade.”
After every act, Randall said, Salter told the boy not to
tell his mother. And because the child was fearfully protective of his mother,
he complied.
In May of 2017, the victim came forward. He told law
enforcement Salter had been abusing him for years and that he wanted the abuse
to stop and for the defendant to be out of his life.
Polk County Sheriff’s Office detectives conducted a
controlled phone call between Salter and the victim.
The teenager asked Salter when he planned to have sex with
him again.
“When we see each other,” Salter said.
Randall told jurors the strongest part of the controlled
call was when the victim then asked Salter why he liked having sex with him.
He was then arrested by law enforcement and taken in to
custody.
At trial, the defense said the victim only came forward with
the allegations because he wanted a cash settlement. They claimed the evidence
in the case had not been corroborated.
But Randall reminded jurors that the victim remembered
powerful details spanning back more than a decade.
“You do not tell a child that he’s like milk chocolate,” she
said, adding that Salter’s incriminating statement on the controlled call was
woven in with discussion about school and the victim’s mother’s health like it
was normal.
“This was long-term abuse,” Randall said. “It’s because of
his (Salter’s) own admissions that the state has proven his to you beyond a
reasonable doubt.”
https://www.sao10.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Salter.jpg431349Kaitlyn Pearsonhttps://www.sao10.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Office-of-the-State-Attorney-10th-Judicial-Circuit-Logo.pngKaitlyn Pearson2019-03-05 09:39:492019-03-05 09:40:55JURY VERDICT: Tennessee man faces mandatory life for sexually abusing Polk County teen
Patrick Rayha was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday for the fatal shooting of Russell Jackson.
Patrick Rayha
After two hours of deliberation Monday, jurors convicted Rayha of first-degree murder, robbery with a firearm, and burglary of a dwelling while armed with a firearm.
Phone records show Rayha’s phone pinged in Dade City about 2:45 p.m. on Christmas Day. His phone then pinged off towers as he travelled to Lakeland.
Surveillance video at a business near Jackson’s home shows Rayha’s girlfriend, co-defendant Carla Bolin, exit the passenger side of his green Saturn. A few minutes later, she is shown exiting the store, getting in the driver’s seat, and pulling away.
More footage shows a tall, white male enter Jackson’s trailer on Christmas. The man leaves about a minute later.
Phone records placed Rayha’s phone right in the area of the murder at the time of the murder. By that evening, Rayha’s phone pinged in Dade City.
In addition to cell records and video surveillance, Johnson showed jurors photos from Rayha’s phone where he is holding a gun. A shell casing found in Jackson’s trailer matched the gun Rayha owned.
At trial, Rayha’s attorney claimed there was not enough evidence to convict him of first-degree murder. He tried to convince jurors that the cell phone could have been in anyone’s car – that the white male in the surveillance video could have been anyone.
While Rayha’s attorney claimed all of the evidence didn’t matter, Johnson told jurors the Defendant’s argument punctuated just how much evidence there was against Rayha.
“All of it converges and falls together,” Johnson said, “It’s your phone, your car, your girlfriend, video catching a tall white male, a shell casing matching the gun found in his (Rayha’s) house.”
“It’s statistically impossible for it to be anyone else,” he said.
https://www.sao10.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Mug.jpg430347Kaitlyn Pearsonhttps://www.sao10.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Office-of-the-State-Attorney-10th-Judicial-Circuit-Logo.pngKaitlyn Pearson2019-02-13 15:35:512019-03-21 08:59:48SENTENCING UPDATE: Lakeland man sentenced to life for fatal Christmas shooting
Robert Graham told law enforcement he slammed his baby on the bed three to four times and shook him for about four minutes.
Robert Graham, 27, of Lakeland.
After about two hours of deliberation Jan. 23, jurors convicted Graham of manslaughter and child abuse. He is facing up to 20 years in prison and will be sentenced March 21.
Assistant State Attorney Ashley McCarthy told jurors that the defendant admitted he was playing with his son Princeton the evening of Dec. 28, 2014, but was “overly-rough … more so than he has ever been with any of his other three kids.”
The next morning, Princeton was limp and had stopped breathing.
He was taken to the hospital, where doctors found that the child’s brain was swelling and bleeding. The baby was flown to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa, and doctors discovered he had retinal hemorrhages, injuries that are indicative of the baby being shaken.
Princeton died two days later.
McCarthy said the medical examiner ruled out natural causes.
“Nothing but trauma caused the injuries and, ultimately, his death,” she told jurors. “these are inflicted injuries that can only be caused by force.
During trial, Graham claimed that his previous admission to law enforcement about slamming the baby on the bed was overstated.
McCarthy walked jurors back through Graham’s reaction when law enforcement formally interviewed him: He kept his hands over his face and would not look the interviewer in the eyes.
Graham admitted that what he did to the baby hurt him. He agreed it was too much, and he broke down crying.
“It’s the first time he’s telling anybody, that he’s acknowledging it – getting it off his chest about what he did to his child,” McCarthy told jurors in closing arguments. “He’s acknowledging that his hands did this.”
The defense claimed that Graham did nothing wrong in playing with his child. Graham’s attorney said his response was one of grief and sadness, simply because the baby died while on his watch.
But McCarthy reminded jurors that Graham did not call 911 after realizing the baby was limp and that he omitted important facts in his initial interview with law enforcement.
“In order to believe the defense,” she said, “you’d have to think the doctors got it wrong and that the baby died of natural causes.”
https://www.sao10.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Graham.jpg429347Kaitlyn Pearsonhttps://www.sao10.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Office-of-the-State-Attorney-10th-Judicial-Circuit-Logo.pngKaitlyn Pearson2019-01-30 16:14:232019-01-31 16:44:39JURY VERDICT: Lakeland man guilty of killing child, faces 20 years in prison
State Attorney Brian Haas stood alongside officials in Highlands County this morning to address the media regarding the horrific shooting that claimed the lives of five people in Sebring Wednesday afternoon.
Mr. Haas identified two main priorities: The first is to build the best case possible to ensure prosecution that ends in a successful result while seeking everything that we can – the maximum allowed by law. The second is to be there for the families of the victims, who are hurting in an unbelievable way, and make sure that this next step – the criminal justice process – goes as smoothly as possible.
“I’ll be convening a Grand Jury in the next couple of weeks, where I’ll seek indictments for first-degree murder, and I’ll certainly be meeting with the families of the victims and going over all of these steps with them in detail,” Mr. Haas said.
“This community is hurting unbelievably,” he said, “but if there is a place that can make it through this, it’s Sebring and it’s Highlands County – and we will.”
SENTENCING UPDATE: Man given two life sentences for sexually abusing 10-year-old
/in SAO10 Blog /by Kaitlyn PearsonJonathan Diaz Fundora groomed a 10-year-old Lakeland girl he met online and drove over four hours to sexually batter her.
Jonathan Diaz Fundora
Days before Diaz Fundora was supposed to go to trial, he pled no contest to 13 charges, including sexual battery on a victim less than 12, kidnapping, traveling to meet a minor, and use of a computer to seduce a child, among other charges.
Judge Durden sentenced him to mandatory life in prison on Jan. 30.
Diaz Fundora met the victim online and communicated with her for about a month, sending sexually explicit content to the girl. He then made a plan to drive from his home of Miami to Lakeland, where he told the child they would spend a few days at a motel.
He told the victim to write a letter to her grandmother, telling her she would be at a motel with a friend, and pack a bag. Diaz Fundora arranged to pick her up down the road from her house.
On March 27, 2018, Diaz Fundora drove 4 ½ hours to pick the girl up and take her to a Motel 6, where he sexually battered her.
The victim was reported missing by her grandmother, and Polk County Sheriff’s Office deputies traced the girl’s cellphone to the motel. When deputies arrived, Diaz Fundora answered the door in his underwear and said he had a young girl with him.
Deputies found the child hiding in the bathroom with the lights off.
Nearly four months after Diaz Fundora kidnapped the girl and molested her, she took her own life.
At Diaz Fundora’s sentencing hearing, a letter from the girl’s grandmother was read aloud in court during the hearing.
She told the judge that the girl was bullied in school and on the internet and often questioned if anyone loved her.
“He preyed on the innocence and immaturity of a child,” the letter said. “(Diaz Fundora) violated our precious baby and changed her short life forever.”
She said the damage Diaz Fundora did ran deeper than anyone could have imagined, causing the girl to take her life in July of 2018.
“Her small, young heart could not handle this world anymore,” the grandmother wrote.
At the hearing, Assistant State Attorney Randi Daugustinis reminded Judge Durden that Diaz Fundora admitted to every detail of the incident.
“The defendant had a calculated plan that he executed,” she said, adding that Diaz Fundora said he knew the girl was young but ignored it and drove to Lakeland anyway. “He knew she had a rough childhood and was in a very vulnerable state.”
She asked the judge to sentence Diaz Fundora to the max on count two, which was also punishable by life. Durden agreed and imposed a second life sentence to run concurrently.
At the end of the grandmother’s letter, she wrote that the victim’s family has found some solace in knowing the girl is in a better place.
“I know she is with God now,” the letter said, “and that eases my pain.”
SENTENCING UPDATE: Alcegaire sentenced to death for 2016 triple homicides
/in SAO10 Blog /by Kaitlyn PearsonJohnathan Alcegaire stood still as Judge Jalal Harb handed down three death sentences for each of the lives he claimed.
Alcegaire was convicted on Sept. 27, 2018, of three counts of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, burglary of a dwelling with an assault or battery while armed with a firearm, conspiracy to commit armed robbery, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, tampering with physical evidence, and armed robbery.
He was one of three men who traveled to Lakeland for a drug-related home-invasion robbery and murdered 24-year-old David Washington, 31-year-old Stacy Branch, and 23-year-old Angelica Castro.
The same jurors who convicted Alcegaire in September then recommended that he should be sentenced to death. Judge Harb imposed those three death sentences Friday morning, along with the maximum amount for Alcegaire’s additional convictions.
Alcegaire is the second defendant in the Tenth Circuit to be sentenced to death under the new death penalty law, which requires jurors to have a unanimous vote instead of majority.
Former Assistant State Attorney Hope Pattey and ASA Mark Levine prosecuted both the trial phase and penalty phase of this case. State Attorney Brian Haas said Friday that he is pleased with the outcome and that he is thankful for the hard work put in to the Alcegaire case by both Pattey and Levine.
JURY VERDICT: Tennessee man faces mandatory life for sexually abusing Polk County teen
/in SAO10 Blog /by Kaitlyn PearsonJerry Salter Jr. started abusing his victim at the age of five.
Salter groomed the boy to perform sexual acts by using food.
A jury deliberated for about 90 minutes Thursday and convicted Salter of three counts of capital sexual battery on a victim less than 12 years of age. Salter is facing mandatory life imprisonment, which will be handed down on April 12.
Assistant State Attorney Lauren Randall told jurors how Salter slowly groomed the child and repeatedly abused him.
“This became his normal,” she said, “and it continued for over a decade.”
After every act, Randall said, Salter told the boy not to tell his mother. And because the child was fearfully protective of his mother, he complied.
In May of 2017, the victim came forward. He told law enforcement Salter had been abusing him for years and that he wanted the abuse to stop and for the defendant to be out of his life.
Polk County Sheriff’s Office detectives conducted a controlled phone call between Salter and the victim.
The teenager asked Salter when he planned to have sex with him again.
“When we see each other,” Salter said.
Randall told jurors the strongest part of the controlled call was when the victim then asked Salter why he liked having sex with him.
“You’re big. You’re strong. You’re like milk chocolate,” Salter told him.
He was then arrested by law enforcement and taken in to custody.
At trial, the defense said the victim only came forward with the allegations because he wanted a cash settlement. They claimed the evidence in the case had not been corroborated.
But Randall reminded jurors that the victim remembered powerful details spanning back more than a decade.
“You do not tell a child that he’s like milk chocolate,” she said, adding that Salter’s incriminating statement on the controlled call was woven in with discussion about school and the victim’s mother’s health like it was normal.
“This was long-term abuse,” Randall said. “It’s because of his (Salter’s) own admissions that the state has proven his to you beyond a reasonable doubt.”
SENTENCING UPDATE: Lakeland man sentenced to life for fatal Christmas shooting
/in SAO10 Blog /by Kaitlyn PearsonPatrick Rayha was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday for the fatal shooting of Russell Jackson.
Patrick Rayha
After two hours of deliberation Monday, jurors convicted Rayha of first-degree murder, robbery with a firearm, and burglary of a dwelling while armed with a firearm.
Phone records show Rayha’s phone pinged in Dade City about 2:45 p.m. on Christmas Day. His phone then pinged off towers as he travelled to Lakeland.
Surveillance video at a business near Jackson’s home shows Rayha’s girlfriend, co-defendant Carla Bolin, exit the passenger side of his green Saturn. A few minutes later, she is shown exiting the store, getting in the driver’s seat, and pulling away.
More footage shows a tall, white male enter Jackson’s trailer on Christmas. The man leaves about a minute later.
Phone records placed Rayha’s phone right in the area of the murder at the time of the murder. By that evening, Rayha’s phone pinged in Dade City.
In addition to cell records and video surveillance, Johnson showed jurors photos from Rayha’s phone where he is holding a gun. A shell casing found in Jackson’s trailer matched the gun Rayha owned.
At trial, Rayha’s attorney claimed there was not enough evidence to convict him of first-degree murder. He tried to convince jurors that the cell phone could have been in anyone’s car – that the white male in the surveillance video could have been anyone.
While Rayha’s attorney claimed all of the evidence didn’t matter, Johnson told jurors the Defendant’s argument punctuated just how much evidence there was against Rayha.
“All of it converges and falls together,” Johnson said, “It’s your phone, your car, your girlfriend, video catching a tall white male, a shell casing matching the gun found in his (Rayha’s) house.”
“It’s statistically impossible for it to be anyone else,” he said.
JURY VERDICT: Lakeland man guilty of killing child, faces 20 years in prison
/in SAO10 Blog /by Kaitlyn PearsonRobert Graham told law enforcement he slammed his baby on the bed three to four times and shook him for about four minutes.
Robert Graham, 27, of Lakeland.
After about two hours of deliberation Jan. 23, jurors convicted Graham of manslaughter and child abuse. He is facing up to 20 years in prison and will be sentenced March 21.
Assistant State Attorney Ashley McCarthy told jurors that the defendant admitted he was playing with his son Princeton the evening of Dec. 28, 2014, but was “overly-rough … more so than he has ever been with any of his other three kids.”
The next morning, Princeton was limp and had stopped breathing.
He was taken to the hospital, where doctors found that the child’s brain was swelling and bleeding. The baby was flown to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa, and doctors discovered he had retinal hemorrhages, injuries that are indicative of the baby being shaken.
Princeton died two days later.
McCarthy said the medical examiner ruled out natural causes.
“Nothing but trauma caused the injuries and, ultimately, his death,” she told jurors. “these are inflicted injuries that can only be caused by force.
During trial, Graham claimed that his previous admission to law enforcement about slamming the baby on the bed was overstated.
McCarthy walked jurors back through Graham’s reaction when law enforcement formally interviewed him: He kept his hands over his face and would not look the interviewer in the eyes.
Graham admitted that what he did to the baby hurt him. He agreed it was too much, and he broke down crying.
“It’s the first time he’s telling anybody, that he’s acknowledging it – getting it off his chest about what he did to his child,” McCarthy told jurors in closing arguments. “He’s acknowledging that his hands did this.”
The defense claimed that Graham did nothing wrong in playing with his child. Graham’s attorney said his response was one of grief and sadness, simply because the baby died while on his watch.
But McCarthy reminded jurors that Graham did not call 911 after realizing the baby was limp and that he omitted important facts in his initial interview with law enforcement.
“In order to believe the defense,” she said, “you’d have to think the doctors got it wrong and that the baby died of natural causes.”
State Attorney’s statement regarding Sebring shooting
/in SAO10 Blog /by Kaitlyn PearsonState Attorney Brian Haas stood alongside officials in Highlands County this morning to address the media regarding the horrific shooting that claimed the lives of five people in Sebring Wednesday afternoon.
Mr. Haas identified two main priorities: The first is to build the best case possible to ensure prosecution that ends in a successful result while seeking everything that we can – the maximum allowed by law. The second is to be there for the families of the victims, who are hurting in an unbelievable way, and make sure that this next step – the criminal justice process – goes as smoothly as possible.
“I’ll be convening a Grand Jury in the next couple of weeks, where I’ll seek indictments for first-degree murder, and I’ll certainly be meeting with the families of the victims and going over all of these steps with them in detail,” Mr. Haas said.
“This community is hurting unbelievably,” he said, “but if there is a place that can make it through this, it’s Sebring and it’s Highlands County – and we will.”