Florida Supreme Court upholds death sentences

The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday upheld death sentences in two separate court cases. In one, out of the Florida Keys, the justices acknowledged improper statements made by a prosecutor, but rejected the inmate’s appeal. The other case, out of Marion County in North-Central Florida, involved the murders of four children.

Appeal rejected in child murders

The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday upheld four first-degree murder convictions and death sentences of a man who killed his wife and four children in 2019 in Marion County.

Michael W. Jones received the first-degree murder convictions and death sentences in the murders of the children, while he was convicted of second-degree murder and received a life sentence in the death of his wife, Casei Jones. Thursday’s main opinion did not involve the second-degree murder conviction.

The opinion said Michael Jones beat his wife to death with a baseball bat in July 2019 after they got into an argument. He hid the body. In August 2019, he became concerned that Casei Jones’ two sons from a previous marriage — 9-year-old Cameron Bowers and 4-year-old Preston Bowers — would reveal at school that they had not seen their mother in weeks. He strangled Cameron Bowers and drowned Preston Bowers, according to the opinion.

Later in August, with the three bodies in the house, Jones got an eviction notice. He then drowned two daughters — 2-year-old Mercalli Jones and 1-year-old Aiyana Jones — who he had with Casei Jones, the opinion said.

Michael Jones put the five bodies in a minivan and left. Ultimately, he was arrested in Georgia following a traffic crash and after he had disposed of the children’s bodies in a wooded area.

In the appeal to the Supreme Court, Michael Jones, now 44, raised a series of arguments, including that the death penalty is unconstitutional because of “evolving standards of decency,” the opinion said. But the Supreme Court unanimously rejected the arguments.

“We have consistently held that Florida’s death-penalty scheme satisfies both the state and federal constitutions,” Justice Jamie Grosshans wrote in the main opinion. “The mere fact that other states may have shifted in their penological objectives does not render Florida’s death penalty unconstitutional.”

Chief Justice Carlos Muniz and Justices Charles Canady, John Couriel, Renatha Francis and Meredith Sasso joined the opinion. Justice Jorge Labarga wrote a concurring opinion.

Monroe County death sentence upheld

While acknowledging a prosecutor made improper statements, the Florida Supreme Court on Thursday rejected an appeal by a Death Row inmate convicted of sexually battering and murdering a woman in 2018 in Monroe County.

Justices unanimously upheld the conviction and death sentence of Steven Matthew Wolf in the murder of Michelle Osborne, whose nude body was found by a fisherman in Marathon.

Wolf was arrested driving a van in a nearby area. He told police that he had picked up the woman and her boyfriend at a Walmart in Florida City and indicated the boyfriend was responsible for the death, according to Thursday’s main opinion.

But Wolf, now 64, ultimately was convicted of first-degree murder, two counts of sexual battery with force likely to cause injury and tampering with physical evidence.

Wolf raised a series of issues at the Supreme Court, including that a prosecutor had impermissibly suggested to jurors during sentencing that they should show Wolf the same “mercy” he showed Osborne. The main opinion agreed that such statements were improper.

“While the state (the prosecutor) did not directly say to the jury that it should show Wolf that same mercy Wolf showed the victim, the clear implication was that the jury should show Wolf no mercy because he showed the victim no mercy,” the opinion said. “This (Supreme) Court has repeatedly condemned such arguments.”

But the opinion declined to overturn the death sentence because of the prosecutor’s statements.

“Despite the impermissible nature of the comments, they do not rise to such a level that a recommendation of death could not have been obtained without them,” the opinion said. “Given the strength of the evidence against Wolf, the gravity and weight of the aggravators (aggravating factors in the case), and the minimal and relatively weak mitigation, it cannot be said that the jury would not have recommended a death sentence or that the trial court would not have imposed a death sentence if the improper ‘same mercy’ comments had not been made.”

The main opinion was shared by Chief Justice Muniz and Justices Canady, Couriel and Francis. Justices Jamie Grosshans and  Sasso wrote concurring opinions, while Justice Labarga concurred in the result of the main opinion.

Source: sun-sentinel.com, News Service Of Florida, July 10, 2025

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde