Jury recommends death penalty for Sebring bank shooter

SEBRING, Fla. – A Highlands County jury recommended the death penalty for Zephen Xaver in the 2019 shooting deaths of five people at a Suntrust Bank.

The death penalty verdicts were not unanimous. The state of Florida changed its death penalty law so that only 8 of 12 jurors have to recommend the death penalty for the sentence to be imposed. The change came after the shooter in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre was sentenced to life in prison.

In Xaver’s case, the jury recommended the death penalty on all counts by a vote of 9 to 3.

The case dates back to January 23, 2019, when Xaver opened fire in a Sebring bank, killing four employees and a customer. Xaver was a former prison guard trainee at the Avon Park Correctional Institution from November 2, 2019 until his resignation on January 9, 2019.

On March 14, 2023, Xaver changed his original plea from not guilty to guilty.

The verdict took more than two weeks. The jury heard statements from the victims’ families. The jury had the choice between life imprisonment without parole or the death penalty.