The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday affirmed the death sentences of Joseph Zieler, the man convicted of the brutal 1990 murders of 11-year-old Robin Cornell and her babysitter, 32-year-old Lisa Story, in their Cape Coral home.
In a unanimous decision regarding the convictions, the court rejected several legal challenges raised by Zieler’s defense, including arguments over DNA evidence, prosecutorial comments, and changes to Florida’s death penalty sentencing laws.
For 26 years, the double homicide remained one of Lee County’s most haunting cold cases. The victims were found in their condominium in May 1990 by the child’s mother, Jan Cornell, who returned from work to find her home in disarray and her daughter and roommate dead.
Investigators at the time determined both victims had been sexually battered and suffocated.
The case went cold until 2016, when a DNA sample from Zieler, taken in an unrelated matter, was entered into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). The system triggered a “hit,” linking Zieler to sperm cells found on the crime scene evidence and hairs found on one of the victims.
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During the trial, experts testified that the likelihood of the DNA on the child’s bedsheet belonging to someone other than Zieler was one in 83 quintillion.
Zieler’s appeal challenged the trial court’s decision to allow hair evidence, alleging “probable tampering” because some hair samples collected in 1990 were missing. The Supreme Court dismissed this, stating Zieler failed to prove tampering and noting that the other DNA evidence was “substantial and conclusive.”
The court also addressed the timing of the trial, which occurred after the Florida Legislature amended the law to allow for a death penalty recommendation by a 8-4 jury vote rather than a unanimous one. Zieler’s jury recommended death by a 10-2 margin. The justices maintained that neither the U.S. nor the Florida Constitution requires a unanimous jury recommendation for a death sentence.
In the original sentencing, the trial court found four “aggravating factors” that warranted the death penalty, describing them as “horrific.” These included:
- The murders were committed during a burglary.
- The crimes were “especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel” (HAC).
- The crimes were committed in a “cold, calculated, and premeditated” manner (CCP).
- Zieler had a prior conviction for a violent felony.
While the defense presented 42 mitigating circumstances—including Zieler’s childhood abuse and claims of brain injuries—the trial court ruled that the gravity of the murders far outweighed those factors.
“We affirm Zieler’s convictions and sentences of death,” the court concluded in its opinion, effectively ending the direct appeal process for the 64-year-old.
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