Jacksonville Craigslist killer death penalty appeals rejected

The death sentence remains for Jacksonville’s Craigslist killer.

The Florida Supreme Court today rejected three claims from David Sparre. Sparre was 19-years-old when he was charged with meeting a Jacksonville mother-of-two through Craigslist. Tiara Pool’s husband was deployed with the US Navy and her children were with their grandparents when she met with Sparre in 2010 at her apartment on Hodges. Their conversation increasingly became sexually explicit.

Sparre was ultimately convicted of stabbing Pool nearly 90 times and then meticulously cleaning his fingerprints from the crime scene, telling investigators he had seen that done on TV. Small amounts of DNA left on the kitchen knife used for the murder as well as text and phone communications tied him to the scene, and he eventually confessed.

During trial, Sparre chose to argue that he should be guilty of second degree murder, rather than first degree. Beyond that, however, Sparre declined to present a defense. In the subsequent penalty phase he also refused to have evidence presented that would have potentially mitigated the first degree murder charge. The Court determined he was capable of making the decision and he was doing it with full knowledge of the outcome.

Ultimately, Sparre was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death.

The ruling from the Florida Supreme Court today deals, mainly, with Sparre’s claim that he should have essentially been forced to present evidence to mitigate the death penalty sentence. The trial court is capable of appointing a special counsel to present a case in some instances, but that was not done in Sparre’s case. The Florida Supreme Court ultimately ruled that there was no error in that decision.

One justice dissented, in part. The Justice agreed to affirm the first-degree murder charge, but dissented in affirming the death sentence- specifically because the Court didn’t call its own witnesses when Sparre declined to present mitigating factors in the penalty phase.