Zephen Xaver walked into a central Florida bank in 2019, fatally shot five women and then called police to tell them what he did. Xaver pleaded guilty to five counts of first-degree murder for the Jan. 23, 2019, massacre at the SunTrust Bank in Sebring. Fifteen minutes before the shootings, he texted his girlfriend 'I am dying today'. Then from the bank parking lot he texted, 'I am taking a few people with me because I have always wanted to kill people so I am going to try it and see how it goes. Watch for me on the news'. He then entered the bank before he pulled his gun and pointed it at bank teller coordinator Marisol Lopez and the other women. He ordered them against the wall before telling Lopez to lock the doors. When she returned, he ordered the women onto the floor face down. After shooting them, he called police on his cellphone. His victims included customer Cynthia Watson, 65, who had been married less than a month; bank teller coordinator Marisol Lopez, 55, who was a mother of two; banker trainee Ana Pinon-Williams, a 38-year-old mother of seven; bank teller Debra Cook, a 54-year-old mother of two and a grandmother; and banker Jessica Montague, 31, a mother of one and stepmother of four. In the sentencing phase the jury recommended that Xaver will be sentenced to death by a vote of 9-3. |