BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. – A Broward jury voted to send convicted rapist and murderer Howard Steven Ault back to death row for the third time.
The jury voted 9-3 in favor of the death penalty recommendations after eight total hours in two days of deliberations.
Ault, 57, 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.
Ault’s fate depended on 12 jurors after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law allowing for the imposition of the death penalty when the jury recommends death by a vote of 8-4.
Ault sat emotionless as the judge read the verdict form. All 12 jurors agreed that prosecutors proved the aggravating factors that led to the double murder were presented at trial.
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 considered aggravating factors such as the nature and motivation of his crimes, the victims ages and whether the murders were especially “heinous, atrocious or cruel”.
The jury also considered mitigating factors, including Ault’s own history with childhood abuse, chaotic family life and mental disorders
Local 10 News also heard from Bobby Jones, who testified against Ault just last week.
“It was emotional, It brought up a lot of hate and feelings that I thought I kinda had put behind me,” he said. “Here is a man that murdered two children and he’s been sitting for 20-something years.”
Jones says his younger sisters were Ault’s victims back in 1999.
At that time, Jones was 20 years old and his mom and sisters were homeless and living in a camper in Oakland Park.
He claims Ault befriended them, preying on their vulnerability, and his family didn’t know Ault was already a convicted pedophile.
Ault will still have to be formally sentenced by a judge. His next status hearing is scheduled for April 11.