A former trainee prison guard who murdered five women inside a bank in Florida nearly six years ago has been sentenced to death. Circuit Judge Angela Cowden described the murders as deliberate, horrific, and cruel as she delivered the ruling at the Highlands County Courthouse in Sebring. Zephen Xaver, now 27, showed little reaction except for a gulp when the sentence was announced following a jury’s recommendation for the death penalty after a two-week trial, where they voted 9-3 in favor of capital punishment.
The judge emphasized the extensive planning Xaver undertook leading up to the 2019 shootings at a SunTrust bank in Sebring, noting the severity of the crime and the terror that the victims experienced in their final moments. These factors outweighed multiple arguments presented by his defense team, which included claims of mental illness, a brain tumor, and his conversion to Christianity while in jail. Judge Cowden concluded her statement with a somber remark, “May God have mercy on your soul.”
Last year, Xaver admitted guilt to five counts of first-degree murder involving the deaths of customers and bank staff, including Cynthia Watson, 65; Marisol Lopez, 55; Ana Pinon-Williams, 38; Debra Cook, 54; and Jessica Montague, 31. He forced the women to lie on the ground at gunpoint before fatally shooting them, even as they pleaded for their lives.
During the proceeding, Kiara Lopez addressed the court, recalling how her mother, Marisol, greeted Xaver warmly when he entered the bank—an act he repaid with violence. “You shattered me into a million pieces,” she expressed emotionally. Kiara asserted, “I will celebrate the day you die, whenever that might be. Let it be known that you will always be a killer, a coward, a nobody and a waste of human life.” Additionally, Michael Cook, the husband of one of the victims, called Xaver a coward and voiced his lack of sympathy for him.
Xaver’s defense attorney, Jane McNeill, argued against the death penalty, urging the court to consider a life sentence instead. She suggested that a life imprisonment would provide closure for the victims’ families and the community, avoiding an extended legal battle and potential appeals. McNeill insisted this was the best way to allow everyone to move on from the tragedy. The death sentence imposed will, however, undergo an automatic appeal process.
A recent change in Florida law allows for death sentences to be issued based on a jury’s 8-4 vote rather than requiring a unanimous decision. This law followed a controversy after the Parkland high school shooter, who killed 17 individuals, could not be sentenced to death despite a similar jury recommendation. McNeill criticized the new law as unconstitutional.
Xaver moved to Sebring from South Bend, Indiana, in 2018. In 2014, he attracted police attention when he shared plans about harming classmates with his high school principal, prompting his mother to seek psychological help for him. After joining the Army in 2016, Xaver was discharged within three months due to concerns about his mental health. Reports also surfaced about troubling text messages he sent to a woman in Michigan that hinted at self-destructive behaviors.
Despite these warning signs, Xaver was hired as a guard trainee at a local prison in November 2018. He resigned two months later, just weeks before the shootings and the day after purchasing a firearm. On the day of the murders, he engaged in a lengthy text exchange with a former girlfriend, expressing a sense of anticipation that he described as “the best day of my life,” without revealing the reason. In a chilling message just before the killings, he stated he was going to take several people with him, indicating his intent to kill, adding, “Watch for me on the news.”
