BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. – Closing arguments began Wednesday in the third penalty trial of Howard Steven Ault.
“You are asked to make the most difficult decision any jury has to make,” Assistant State Attorney Stephen Zaccor told a judge. “The stakes could not be higher.”
Ault was on death row for the 1996 rape and murder of two sisters, who were just 11 and 7 years old. The victims were found in the attic of his Fort Lauderdale home -- a stunning crime that shocked South Florida.
According to investigators, Ault lured the sisters into his duplex, promising them Halloween candy.
He then raped DeAnn Emerald Mu’min in front of her younger sister, Alicia Sybilla Jones, before strangling both girls, authorities said.
Ault was sentenced to death twice before, but the Florida Supreme Court granted him a resentencing trial after each one, bringing the issue of his sentence back before a jury.
Jurors must consider aggravating factors such as the nature and motivation of his crimes, the victims ages and whether the murders were especially “heinous, atrocious or cruel”.
“If he were to be sentenced to life for the murders DeAnn and Alicia, he suffers no additional punishment,” said Zaccor. “He might as well have been found not guilty.”
The jury must also consider mitigating factors, to include Ault’s own childhood abuse, chaotic family life and mental disorders.
“We are not here to suggest we don’t punish damaged and broken people. We do,” said Ault’s public defender Lien Lafargue. “But we take their damage into consideration”.
Lafargue also talked about how she believes Ault showed remorse as he confessed to his crimes to investigators.
“Some of you asked about remorse. I think this is a reason for life,” said Lafargue. “There is humanity left in this man.”