Former prison guard trainee is sentenced to death for killing 5 women at a Florida bank

Associated Press

A former prison guard trainee has been sentenced to death for the 2019 execution-style killings of five women inside a Florida bank. Zephen Xaver appeared to gulp, but otherwise showed no emotion as Judge Angela Cowden pronounced the sentence Monday. The 27-year-old had pleaded guilty last year to the murders, but his attorneys had asked for a life sentence rather than death because of his history of mental illness. Cowden ruled that Xaver’s planning and cruelty toward his victims outweighed the mitigating factors. The daughter of one victim and the husband of another both called Xaver a coward. The daughter looked at Xaver and told him she will celebrate his death.