Man shows no emotion as he’s sentenced to death for executing five women in a bank

The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. 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. Summary Zephen Xaver, 27, was sentenced to death for the 2019 murder of five women in a Sebring, Florida, SunTrust bank. The judge called the pre-meditated killings “calculated, heinous, and cruel,” stating that the aggravating factors outweighed mitigating factors like Xaver’s mental illness. 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.” open image in gallery The mugshot of Zephen Xaver 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.