Eddie Lee Sexton

Timeline

• November 2, 1994 — Eddie Lee Sexton was sentenced to death.
• 1993 — Eddie Lee Sexton committed the murder of his son-in-law in a Florida park.
• Two months earlier — The jury that convicted Sexton recommended the death penalty by a vote of 8-4.
• 1995 — Sexton was condemned and received “15 years” for conspiracy.
• 1997 — Sexton’s death sentence was overturned with a new trial ordered.
• November 18, 1998 — Sexton was resentenced to death.
• five years ago — Sexton, his wife, and several children camped out at the Hillsborough River State Park in Florida.

Background

Eddie Lee Sexton was a family patriarch who controlled his children with years of incest and horrific abuse. He was described as an abusive/incestuous father who commanded his children to kill. The case involved the murder of his son-in-law in a Florida park in connection with Sexton’s control and commands over members of his family.

Sexton’s children told authorities that their father persuaded them he had Satanic powers and repeatedly raped and beat them.

Sexton, his wife and several children were on the run from child abuse charges in Ohio when they camped out at the Hillsborough River State Park.

The offence

A judge wrote in an order released Wednesday that Eddie Lee Sexton was “even more responsible” for the murder of a relative than the “simple-minded” son Sexton used as his “weapon of choice” to do the job.

Sexton’s daughter smothered her infant son after Sexton ordered her to quiet the child, and the boy’s body was buried in the park.

Good began talking of taking his son’s body back to Ohio, so Sexton taught his son, Willie, then 22, how to strangle a man using a rope twisted tight with sticks. Good’s body, too, was buried in a park.

Investigation

Sexton’s children told authorities their father persuaded them he had Satanic powers and repeatedly raped and beat them.

Willie Sexton, who had been sexually abused throughout his childhood, testified against his father.

Arrest

Willie Sexton spent more than a year in a state mental hospital after his arrest.

Trial

A jury convicted Sexton and then recommended the death penalty by a vote of 8-4. Two months earlier, when the jury recommended the death penalty, Sexton merely shrugged, telling his attorney then: “That's life.”

Sexton’s prior conviction and sentencing involved the murder of his daughter’s husband, Joel Good, and he had a new trial after the Florida Supreme Court ruled the jury should not have heard certain lurid details of the bizarre Sexton household.

Eddie Lee Sexton sat passively in a wheelchair in the courtroom and nodded his head when the judge delivered the sentence.

Sexton’s attorney, Robert Fraser, said he believed certain testimony, including mitigating evidence about Sexton’s own mental condition, could be factors in an appeal. Fraser said: “I don't think the evidence supports the idea that Willie is a robot.”

Willie Sexton was sentenced to 25 years in prison on a second-degree murder charge.

A judge’s order said:

“The evidence clearly showed the dominance of the defendant over his simple-minded son achieved by a lifetime of cruel, insidious and humiliating physical, emotional and sexual abuse,”

Sentencing

In 1994, Sexton was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of his daughter’s husband, Joel Good. A new trial was ordered after the Florida Supreme Court ruled the jury should not have heard certain lurid details of the bizarre Sexton household.

In the later proceedings, Circuit Judge J. Rogers Padgett followed the recommendation of a jury and sentenced the Ohio family patriarch to die in the electric chair for the 1993 murder of Sexton’s son-in-law in a Florida park. The order stated that the dominance of Sexton over his son achieved by a lifetime of cruel, insidious and humiliating physical, emotional and sexual abuse.

Sexton was also condemned and received 15 years for conspiracy in 1995.

Appeals

Sexton’s death sentence was overturned with a new trial ordered in 1997.

Outcome

Eddie Lee Sexton was resentenced to death on November 18, 1998, after having been sentenced to death on November 2, 1994. Willie Sexton received a 25-year sentence on a second-degree murder charge.

Other details

Sexton taught his son, Willie, then 22, how to strangle a man using a rope twisted tight with sticks.

Joel Good was identified as Sexton’s daughter’s husband.

Authorities said Sexton controlled his children with years of incest and horrific abuse.

Robert Fraser was Sexton’s attorney.