Zephen Xaver Murders 5 In Florida Bank
Zephen Xaver is a killer who would murder murder five women inside of a bank in Sebring Florida
According to court documents Zephen Xaver would walk into a bank in Sebring Florida and open fire killing Cynthia Watson, 65; Marisol Lopez, 55; Ana Pinon-Williams, 38; Debra Cook, 54; and Jessica Montague, 31, on January 23, 2019.
Once the shooting was done Zephen Xavier would call 911 and told the operator what he had just done
Apparently before entering the bank Zephen Xavier would text a girlfriend telling her that he was going to die today and he was going to take a bunch of people with him
Zephen Xavier would plead guilty to five counts of murder and is now going through the sentencing process where he will either face life in prison or the death penalty. Xavier has a long history of mental heath issues
Zephen Xaver Case
Zephen Xaver walked into a central Florida bank in 2019, fatally shot five women and then called police to tell them what he did. Now 12 jurors will decide whether the 27-year-old former prison guard trainee is sentenced to death or life without parole.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday in the sentencing trial after numerous delays caused by the pandemic, legal wrangling and attorney illness.
Xaver pleaded guilty last year to five counts of first-degree murder for the Jan. 23, 2019, massacre at the SunTrust Bank in Sebring, about 84 miles (135 kilometers) southeast of Tampa. The trial only will decide Xaver’s sentence. Opening statements are expected in two weeks, with the trial lasting about two months.
His victims included customer Cynthia Watson, 65, who had been married less than a month; bank teller coordinator Marisol Lopez, 55, who was a mother of two; banker trainee Ana Pinon-Williams, a 38-year-old mother of seven; bank teller Debra Cook, a 54-year-old mother of two and a grandmother; and banker Jessica Montague, 31, a mother of one and stepmother of four.
Michael Cook said he hopes his wife’s killer gets the death penalty and described being very frustrated by the years of delays. The trial was set to begin at least two other times, but was postponed
“I have purposely not asked too many questions because I don’t want to get more frustrated and angry,” Cook said. He plans to attend the trial.
Lead prosecutor Paul Wallace and lead defense attorney Jane McNeill both declined to comment. Prosecutors are expected to argue Xaver deserves the death penalty because the killings were cold, cruel, heinous and planned. Xaver’s attorneys are expected to cite what they have described as his years-long mental health problems as they seek leniency.
Under a new Florida law, for Xaver to receive the death penalty the jury’s vote only has to be 8-4 for execution instead of unanimous. It was enacted after the 2018 Parkland high school shooter could not be sentenced to death for murdering 17 people despite a 9-3 jury vote.
Sebring is a city of about 11,000 residents and known internationally for its annual 12 Hours of Sebring endurance auto race. Agriculture, tourism and retirees drive its economy.
Xaver moved to Sebring in 2018 from near South Bend, Indiana. In 2014, his high school principal contacted police after Xaver told others he was having dreams about hurting his classmates. His mother promised to get him psychological help.
He joined the Army in 2016. A former girlfriend, who met him at a mental hospital where they were patients, told police he said joining the military was a “way to kill people and get away with it.” The Army discharged him after three months. In 2017, a Michigan woman reported him after he sent her text messages suggesting he might commit “suicide by cop” or take hostages.
Despite his psychological problems and dismissal from the Army, Florida hired Xaver as a guard trainee in November 2018 at a prison near Sebring. He quit two months later, which was two weeks before the shootings. His employment file shows no disciplinary issues. He had applied to be a Sebring police officer seven months before the murders but wasn’t hired.
On the day before he quit working at the prison, Xaver legally purchased a 9 mm handgun and bullets. Later he bought a bullet-resistant vest.
About five hours before the murders, Xaver began a long, intermittent text message conversation with a girlfriend in Connecticut, telling her “this is the best day of my life” but refusing to say why.
Fifteen minutes before the shootings, he texted her, “I’m dying today,”
Then from the bank parking lot he texted, “I’m taking a few people with me because I’ve always wanted to kill people so I am going to try it and see how it goes. Watch for me on the news.
He then entered the bank, a sweatshirt covering his vest. Security video shows him smiling as he approaches Lopez, according to police reports. They briefly speak, before he pulls his gun and points it at her and the other women. He orders them against the wall before telling Lopez to lock the doors.
When she returns, he orders the women onto the floor face down. After shooting them, he calls police on his cellphone.
He had been in the bank less than four minutes.
Police spoke with Xaver for about an hour before a SWAT team broke into the bank. He surrendered a short time later and confessed in a taped interview with detectives. That statement has not been released, but will be played at the trial along with the security video.
Shortly after the shooting, the bank was torn down. The site is now a park with a memorial to the victims.
Zephen Xaver Now
| DC Number: | H82564 |
|---|---|
| Name: | XAVER, ZEPHEN A |
| Race: | WHITE |
| Sex: | MALE |
| Birth Date: | 04/02/1997 |
| Initial Receipt Date: | 12/19/2024 |
| Current Facility: | UNION C.I. |
| Current Custody: | MAXIMUM |
| Current Release Date: | DEATH SENTENCE |
Zephen Xaver Sentencing
A former prison guard trainee who executed five women inside a Florida bank almost six years ago was sentenced to death on Monday as his judge called the slayings calculated, heinous and cruel.
Zephen Xaver, 27, appeared to gulp but otherwise showed no emotion as Circuit Judge Angela Cowden pronounced the sentence at the Highlands County Courthouse in Sebring. After a two-week penalty trial, a jury in June voted 9-3 to recommend that Cowden sentence Xaver to death.
Cowden said the weeks of planning that Xaver performed before the 2019 murders at Sebring’s SunTrust bank, the enormity of the crime and the fear the victims felt as they were shot greatly outweighed the two dozen mitigating factors his attorneys had presented, including his history of mental illness, his benign brain tumor and his jailhouse embrace of Christianity.
“May God have mercy on your soul,” Cowden told Xaver.
Xaver pleaded guilty last year to five counts of first-degree murder for the slayings of customer Cynthia Watson, 65; bank teller coordinator Marisol Lopez, 55; banker trainee Ana Pinon-Williams, 38; teller Debra Cook, 54; and banker Jessica Montague, 31.
At gunpoint, Xaver ordered the women to lie on the floor and then shot each the head as they begged for mercy.
Kiara Lopez told Xaver and the court that her mother Marisol had welcomed him into the bank with a smile, an act he repaid by murdering her.
“You shattered me into a million pieces,” Lopez said. “I will celebrate the day you die, whenever that might be. Let it be known that you will always be a killer, a coward, a nobody and a waste of human life.”
Michael Cook, Debra’s husband, also called Xaver a coward and told the judge, “I have absolutely no sympathy for him.”
Xaver’s lead public defender, Jane McNeill, had asked that Cowden spare her client, saying a life sentence would put an end to the case instead of dragging it out for a decade of appeals and possibly a retrial if the sentence is overturned.
“The only way for this matter to be brought to an end so that the families of the victims and this community is able to move forward is a life sentence,” McNeill argued. The sentence will be automatically appealed.
Under a new Florida law, death penalty sentences can be rendered by a jury vote of 8-4 rather than a unanimous recommendation. The change was adopted after the 2018 Parkland high school shooter could not be sentenced to death for murdering 17 people despite a 9-3 jury vote. McNeill called the new law unconstitutional.
Xaver moved to Sebring, a city of about 11,000, in 2018 from near South Bend, Indiana. In 2014, his high school principal contacted police after Xaver told others he was having dreams about hurting his classmates. His mother promised to get him psychological help.
He joined the Army in 2016. A former girlfriend, who met him at a mental hospital where they were patients, told police he said joining the military was a “way to kill people and get away with it.” The Army discharged him after three months. In 2017, a Michigan woman reported him after he sent her text messages suggesting he might commit “suicide by cop” or take hostages.
Despite his psychological problems and dismissal from the Army, Florida hired Xaver as a guard trainee in November 2018 at a prison near Sebring. He quit two months later, two weeks before the shootings and the day after he bought his gun.
Hours before the murders, Xaver began a long, intermittent text message conversation with a former girlfriend in Connecticut, telling her “this is the best day of my life” but refusing to say why. Fifteen minutes before the shootings, he texted her, “I’m dying today,”
Then, from the bank parking lot he texted, “I’m taking a few people with me because I’ve always wanted to kill people so I am going to try it and see how it goes. Watch for me on the news.”
https://apnews.com/article/florida-bank-shooting-zephen-xaver-88b9bb2b7bac88dcd287c182c71fa0a0
