Man accused of murdering North Lakeland family may be sentenced to death by 8-4 vote
Bryan Riley, the man accused of killing four members of a North Lakeland family during a pre-dawn burglary in September 2021, does not need a unanimous jury recommendation to receive the death penalty.
While Riley was preparing for a July 18 hearing in Bartow, his defense team suffered a setback on July 3 with the 6th District Court of Appeals.
In a majority decision, the 6th Circuit affirmed a ruling it made in May in the Angel Labato death penalty case and declared that the same ruling would apply in the Riley case. DCA Judge Keith F. White wrote the dissenting opinion for both cases, which is included in the Lobato decision.
For now, the DCA rulings in Riley and Lobato mean that an 8-4 vote is the minimum requirement for a jury to recommend the death penalty to the trial judge. However, a unanimous jury decision is still required for conviction.
Defense attorneys in both cases had asked the courts to rule that only a unanimous jury could recommend the death penalty because the crimes occurred before Florida’s law change under the Constitution’s ex post facto clause, which is designed to prevent the state from retroactively changing the consequences for a defendant’s actions.
In the one-sentence decision, the DCA granted the state’s motion and overturned the court’s original ruling that a unanimous jury recommendation was required, according to a post on Substack titled “Tracking Florida’s Death Penalty” last week.
The change in the law and the change in case law
In early 2023, the Florida Legislature and Governor Ron DeSantis amended the state’s death penalty law to allow judges to impose a death sentence with an 8-4 jury recommendation. Previously, a unanimous jury decision was required.
The change was made after three of 12 jurors refused to vote for the death penalty for Nikolas Cruz, who killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland in 2018. Cruz was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
In July 2023, a 10th Judicial District Judge in Polk County ruled that both Riley and Lobato cases required a unanimous jury because the crimes occurred before the law was changed. Abdoney cited U.S. Supreme Court rulings and other case law on the Constitution’s “ex post facto clause.”
The District Attorney’s Office for the 10th Judicial District appealed both verdicts.
Later in 2023, the 5th The DCA ruled in a capital crime trial in Volusia County that the jury’s recommendation should also apply to crimes committed before the law was changed, by an 8-4 vote.
Although the 6th DCA, which covers an area that includes the 10th Judicial District, had not yet made a decision on the Lobato and Riley trials, Abdoney cited the 5th DCA’s opinion that the 8:4 threshold should be applied in the January trial of Marcelle Waldon.
Waldon was convicted this year of murdering former Lakeland City Councilwoman Edie Yates Henderson and her husband, David Henderson, in their Lake Morton home in November 2020. A jury recommended the death penalty by an 11-1 vote. He awaits a hearing in Spencer where his defense can present mitigating circumstances before he is sentenced by Abdoney later this year.
The state Supreme Court could have the final say
But the DCA rulings may not be the final word on the matter. The first appeals of Florida’s death penalty sentencing rules have been filed with the state Supreme Court, according to Mellanie Kalmanson of Tracking Florida’s Death Penalty.
In May, she wrote: “The direct appeals of Michael J. Jackson and Joseph Zieler are the first to reach the Florida Supreme Court regarding the application of Florida’s death penalty law of 2023.”
Zieler was charged in 2016 with a 1990 double murder in Cape Coral. He was sentenced to death last year after a Lee County jury voted 10-2 to recommend the death penalty.
Jackson was one of four defendants who buried a 61-year-old Jacksonville couple alive in 2007. Three of them received the death penalty, but a resentencing was granted when Florida law changed and a unanimous jury recommendation became necessary for the death penalty. One of his co-defendants, who had previously been sentenced to death, received a life sentence without the possibility of parole before Florida law changes again in 2023 and now has an 8-4 death quota. Jackson’s resentencing came after the 8-4 death quota was exceeded, and he was sentenced to death in Duval County on an 8-4 jury recommendation.
The cases in Polk County
Lobato’s next court date is scheduled for a status hearing on September 20. According to court documents, his trial is set for August 18, 2025.
He and his brother Jo Lobato are accused of killing Danne Frasier in 2020 and dumping his body near a citrus orchard in Lake Wales. Jo Lobato was put on trial in April, but the trial ended in a mistrial due to an evidence problem while Lobato was on the witness stand.
According to court records, Jo Lobato is scheduled for a status hearing on July 17 and his new trial is scheduled to begin on September 23.
Jury selection for Riley, 35, of Brandon, is scheduled to begin May 19, and his trial is scheduled to begin May 27.
Riley is accused of fatally shooting four members of a North Lakeland family during a predawn burglary on Sept. 5, 2021. He also shot a child who survived. A grand jury indicted him on 22 counts, including four counts of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, kidnapping, aggravated child abuse, two counts of burglary, seven counts of attempted first-degree murder of a police officer, cruelty to animals, arson and four counts of shooting into an inhabited dwelling.
The prosecutor had already asked for the death penalty and subsequently made a motion to the judge to recommend the death penalty if the jury’s verdict was 8 to 4.
The defense has announced its intention to seek insanity as a defense.
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