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Christina's Story
- Newspaper Articles
The following links take you to various articles in Christina's story
as it appeared in the South Florida media.
PLEASE DO NOT COPY THE INFORMATION ON THIS SITE BEFORE ASKING.
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In Loving Memory Of May 23, 1987 - September 16, 1994 "Beautiful Child who has found love from the angels...RIP..." |
 (Not her actual headstone) |
These
pages contain all of the articles from the Palm Beach Post and The
Sun-Sentinel throughout the years. |
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Ruling Backs Death
Penalty Bid For Zile (4/25/95)
Zile Motion Rejected (4/26/95)
In Court (5/5/95)
Zile Apologizes To Court (5/5/95)
Ellis Rubin: I Did A Good Job On The Pauline Zile Case
(5/7/95)
Prosecutors In Child Deaths Try To Stay Detached (5/8/95)
Riviera Detective Officer of The Year (5/10/95)
Judge Allows Zile To Visit Mom, Sister (5/18/95)
Zile Requests Rejected (5/18/95)
In Court (5/25/95)
RULING BACKS DEATH-PENALTY
BID FOR ZILE
The Palm Beach Post
April 25, 1995
Author: VAL ELLICOTT
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Prosecutors have received an OK to continue efforts to put Pauline Zile
in the electric chair for the death of her 7-year-old daughter.
Circuit Judge Stephen Rapp issued
a ruling Friday denying requests from Zile's attorneys, Ellis and Guy
Rubin, that prosecutors be barred from seeking the death penalty against
Zile for the Sept. 16 murder of Christina Holt.
Jurors will decide in June whether to recommend the electric chair or
a life sentence without parole.
Ellis Rubin argued a week ago that of the 11 aggravating factors prosecutors may cite to justify the death sentence, only two apply in Zile's case and those two are legally questionable.
Zile was convicted April 11 of first-degree murder for standing by as her husband, John Zile, Christina's stepfather, allegedly beat Christina, then covered her mouth to muffle her screams. The girl died of suffocation, according to medical testimony.
John Zile will be tried separately.
Jurors also convicted Pauline Zile of three counts of aggravated child abuse.
In deciding Pauline Zile's sentence, jurors must weigh aggravating factors - reasons supporting a death sentence - against mitigating circumstances - reasons supporting a life sentence.
Mitigating factors could include Zile's lack of a prior criminal record and possible evidence that she was emotionally disturbed or under her husband's control.
ZILE MOTION REJECTED
Sun-Sentinel
April 26, 1995
Author: Staff Reports
A judge has refused to set aside the death penalty phase of the trial
of Pauline Zile, who was convicted on April 11 of the murder of her
daughter, Christina Holt, 7.
Last week, Zile's attorney, Ellis Rubin, argued that the state had no legal basis to seek the death penalty because prosecutors failed to prove aggravating factors that would lead a jury to select death over a life sentence.
Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Stephen Rapp denied Rubin's request in a written motion dated April 21 that gave no reason for the ruling.
The jury that convicted Zile, 24, of first-degree murder and three counts of child abuse will decide her fate during a sentencing hearing set to begin on June 6.
Zile's husband, John, 31, told police his stepdaughter died Sept. 16 after he beat the girl and she collapsed into convulsions. John Zile, who also faces first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse charges, is scheduled to go on trial in August. He, too, faces a possible death penalty if convicted.
IN COURT
The Palm Beach Post
May 5, 1995
WEST PALM BEACH - John Zile, accused of killing his 7-year-old stepdaughter,
Christina Holt, won't be wearing shackles in court anymore. Zile's attorney,
Ed O'Hara, asked Circuit Judge Stephen Rapp to order deputies to remove
the shackles from Zile, saying Zile had not misbehaved since an outburst
in court in November. Zile screamed at his wife, Pauline Zile, during
that hearing: ``You better come clean! I just want to stop these lies.''
Rapp reminded Zile that he hadn't apologized. At the end of the hearing,
Zile interrupted and said he would have apologized sooner, but didn't
want to speak out of turn: ``It was uncalled for. I was under a great
deal of stress.'' Rapp then ordered deputies to remove the shackles.
ZILE APOLOGIZES TO COURT
Sun-Sentinel
May 5, 1995
Author: Staff report
John Zile has has been shackled with leg irons and waist chains at every
court appearance since a courtroom tirade in November.
On Thursday, a judge decided Zile, 33, could lose the waist chains that bound his arms to his sides, but first he had to make amends.
"I would like to apologize
for my outburst," Zile told Circuit Judge Stephen Rapp. "I
was under a great deal of stress."
In November, Zile leapt out of his chair and screamed at his wife Pauline
Zile to tell the truth. The hearing was to decide whether Pauline Zile
should be released on bail pending her trial.
At the hearing, Pauline Zile's attorney Ellis Rubin tried to blame John Zile for the death of his stepdaughter, Christina Holt. Rubin said his client was a victim of John Zile's domination.
Pauline Zile has been convicted of first-degree murder and three counts of child abuse in her daughter's death. John Zile is scheduled for trial in August.
ELLIS RUBIN: I DID A GOOD JOB
ON THE PAULINE ZILE CASE
The Palm Beach Post
May 7, 1995
Thom Smith used a gratuitous put-down in his April 14 column item ``Inadequate
counsel from Rubin?'' Readers were informed that many ``courthouse observers''
believe that Pauline Zile's first-degree murder verdict in the death
of her daughter Christina Holt ``will be reduced on appeal because of
inadequate counsel.'' He also observed that I successfully defended
Robert Calvert against a trespassing charge at the Kennedy estate, ``But
that's hardly a murder rap.''
To accuse an attorney defending
a capital case of being inadequate can be compared with a columnist
not getting his facts straight and defaming someone. In the past 45
years, I have represented about 2,800 people accused of first-degree
murder and have gone to trial for about 300 of them, and I have never
lost a client to the electric chair. Nor have I ever been found guilty
of inadequate representation.
The presiding judge at the trial, Stephen Rapp, commended both prosecutors
and defense counsel for their performance. Sincerely, I have never worked
harder on a case in my career, because I was fighting public opinion
generated by more than 800 newspaper articles and eight hours of oneto
two-minute TV reports, all condemning Mrs. Zile.
Mr. Smith's condemnation of my efforts will probably result in some who may need my services looking elsewhere. How easy it is to destroy a reputation by quoting ``courthouse observers.'' Who were they? And by the way, did he attend the trial? Why didn't he confront me with these false accusers so that I could have responded?
Ellis S. Rubin
Miami
PROSECUTORS IN CHILD DEATHS TRY
TO STAY DETACHED
Sun-Sentinel
May 8, 1995
Author: STEPHANIE SMITH Staff Writer
In the hierarchy of the prosecutorial profession, a prosecutor specializing
in crimes against children was in the lower rungs, considered something
of a social worker with a law degree.
There was little glamour and even
less glory in pleading out and putting away child molesters and child
beaters day in and day out. The prosecutors who made the headlines and
the nightly news were the ones handling major crimes, homicides.
Then came a series of wrenching child killings in Palm Beach County.
The little-known Crimes Against Children division was propelled into
the spotlight two years ago after the drowning that ended 10-year-old
A.J. Schwarz's tortuous short life.
Then the killings came faster and more furious. Christina Holt, Kayla Bassante, Dayton Boykin, Pauline Cone, Tiffany Greenfield and Charles Mejia.
The division's chief, Assistant State Attorney Scott Cupp, fields telephone calls from law school students who want to know how they, too, can represent children.
Cupp is quick to correct them.
"I try to keep in mind to the attorneys who do this, we don't represent the children, we represent the State of Florida. I'm not a social worker," Cupp said. "These kids have enough people wringing their hands, feeling sorry for them. We're here to prosecute these cases."
He does not consider himself a champion of children, a social reformer, and he doesn't want such zealots on his staff, Cupp said.
"They want to do social work, they want to get touchy, feely with the kids," he said of the social-worker types. "When the case is over, you're not going to see them again. It's not fair to the kids. Like everything else that's happened to them, you let them down."
Cupp has specialized in crimes against children for six years, almost a record in the field. The work is usually so depressing and emotionally consuming, most prosecutors beg to be transferred out or are rotated out by their bosses within two years.
Cupp maintains both a passion and detachment for the work, his employees and bosses said.
But Cupp's cool, professional demeanor drops when he talks about the Schwarz case. His eyes glisten and his voice nearly chokes.
"It was difficult not to identify with the kid, once you started to see what he went through. I think the hardest part was the constant realization of how trapped he really was," Cupp said.
Andrew J. Schwarz's naked and bruised body was found floating in an above-ground swimming pool. Neighbors testified the boy was literally tortured by his stepmother for years. He was assigned demeaning chores such as cleaning after the dog, forced to eat a cockroach and made to wear a T-shirt that proclaimed he was worthless.
Cupp and co-prosecutor Joseph Marx openly cried when A.J.'s stepmother Jessica Schwarz was convicted in September on six counts of child abuse. In a separate trial, Schwarz was convicted in April of drowning her stepson.
Marx said the case was the most important one in his life.
That Marx was able to go on, to take the case to trial in September, just two and a half months after the killing of his wife was evidence of his commitment.
Karen Starr Marx, 30, was four months pregnant with their first child when she was shot to death on May 27. The killing made headlines because it was during a meeting to take a deposition for a lawsuit in Fort Lauderdale. Karen Marx, a civil lawyer, was at the deposition because a colleague at her Palm Beach law firm couldn't make it.
A disgruntled former employee opened fire on his ex-boss, and the lawyers were caught in the middle. Clarence L. Rudolph, who ran a job placement service for senior citizens, also was killed.
Marx said his wife would have wanted him to follow through with the Schwarz case. His wife helped him prepare the case and write legal briefs.
"She really said to me, `Joe, you better get her.' She hated that woman with a passion. She'd cry about what happened to this boy," Marx said.
Schwarz was Marx's last trial as a prosecutor in the division for crimes against children.
"When my wife died, those cases required so much emotional energy, I just couldn't do it any more," Marx said.
Now he is in the official corruption unit, at his request. His latest big case was the grand jury investigation into the prison escape at Glades Correctional Institution in Belle Glade.
Marx says he was a touchy-feely kind of prosecutor who took children to McDonald's and tried to solve every problem until it wore him down.
"You're more open to it in there, to burn yourself out," Marx said. "Sometimes you have to be a little cold to it. You have to keep your distance to a certain extent. These people will wear you out if you let them because they want you to fix everything and you want to fix it for them."
He wants to go back to the division, but when he's emotionally ready and maybe a bit more detached.
"It was the most worthwhile thing I've ever done," Marx said.
RIVIERA DETECTIVE OFFICER OF YEAR
FOR SOLVING CRIMES AGAINST YOUTH
The Palm Beach Post
May 10, 1995
Author: JOE BROGAN
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Detective Pat Galligan has been named Officer of the Year by Palm Beach
County Victim Services Division for his outstanding work in solving
crimes against children, division spokeswoman Kris Karna said last week.
The award was one of several made
April 28 at the Palm Beach Gardens Marriott by the Victims Rights Coalition.
Galligan worked on high-profile cases, such as the disappearance of
4-year-old Katherine Lugo in January 1994 and the murder of 10-year-old
Christina Holt, who was beaten to death earlier this year.
``We see officers who are willing to go the extra mile for victims, and Pat is one of them,'' Karna said. ``He has a heartfelt concern that drives him on every case.''
Galligan, a 10-year veteran who has been a detective for five years, has an unusual ability to extract confessions from suspects, said Lt. David Harris, his former supervisor.
``He did an outstanding job in his rapport with victims and suspects in that type of case,'' Harris said. ``He has gotten a tremendous amount of convictions. It takes a special type of person to handle cases such as child rapes.''
Galligan said the long hours involved in complicated cases are a fair trade for the satisfaction he gets from helping children.
``If I can get an abused kid placed with another family member or someone who cares, it makes it all worth it,'' he said. ``But this award reflects on the whole police department, not just me. We have a lot of good, dedicated cops.''
He was nominated by Nancy McBride, executive director of the Adam Walsh Center Florida in Lake Park.
``Families are fortunate to have him involved because he cares deeply about these children,'' McBride said.
Galligan, 40, is a native of Cranford, N.J. He and his wife, Debra, live in Palm Beach Gardens and have two children, Tim, 8, and Caitlin, 5.
OTHER AWARDS
Other awards by the Victims Rights Coalition:
MOTHERS Against Drunk Driving: Florida Highway Patrol Capt. Jim Howell.
GUARDIAN Ad Litem Program: Palm Beach County Assistant State Attorney Joseph Marx.
LOREN COX Sexual Assault Survivor: `Jasmine.'
JUDGE ALLOWS ZILE TO VISIT MOM,
SISTER
The Palm Beach Post
May 18, 1995
Author: CHRISTINE STAPLETON
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
A complex, hourlong court hearing put a smile on Pauline Zile's face
Wednesday when a judge ordered jail officials to allow a visit with
her mother and sister.
Paula Yingling, Zile's mother,
said she called the jail three times trying to arrange a visit between
the sisters, who have not seen each other for several years.
Despite the good news on Wednesday, Zile and her husband John are still
fighting for a visit with their two young sons, whom they have not seen
since their arrest seven months ago.
The couple were both charged with first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse after John Zile led police to the grave where he buried his 7-year-old stepdaughter, Christina Holt. Zile told police that the girl had convulsions after he hit her. The couple hid Christina's body in a closet for several days before Zile buried her.
A jury convicted Pauline Zile of first-degree murder in March for failing to protect the girl. Next month, the jury will recommend a sentence of life in prison without parole or death in the electric chair. John Zile's trial is scheduled for August.
The Ziles are fighting efforts by the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services to terminate their parental rights. A psychologist has recommended that the boys be allowed a contact visit with their parents at the jail.
However, jail officials have refused such a visit, according to Ellis Rubin, Mrs. Zile's attorney.
Also on Wednesday, Rubin said he wanted the jury to hear testimony from a priest who had witnessed an execution and a sociologist who would testify about life in prison. The judge denied the request after prosecutors argued that the testimony was not relevant.
ZILE REQUESTS REJECTED
Sun-Sentinel
May 18, 1995
Author: Staff reports
The jury that will decide whether Pauline Zile gets life in prison or
death will not hear testimony from a witness to an execution or an inmate
serving life, a judge ruled on Wednesday.
Ellis Rubin, Zile's defense attorney, had sought to present such testimony to the jury when her death penalty sentencing hearing begins June. 8.
"I would like [the jurors) to hear what life in prison is and what death by execution is," Rubin argued in court on Wednesday.
But Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Stephen Rapp denied that request, along with several others that included a delay in the sentencing phase, access to grand jury testimony and the striking of a presentence investigation.
Zile was convicted on April 11 of first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse in the Sept. 16 death of her daughter, Christina Holt, 7, who died after falling into convulsions after a beating from her stepfather, John Zile.
John Zile faces identical charges when he goes to trial in August.
Rapp did grant Rubin's request to have a psychologist appointed to evaluate Pauline Zile and testify at her sentencing hearing.
The judge also arranged for Zile to have a brief contact visit at the courthouse with her younger sister, Donna Yingling Baxley, who was visiting from out of state.
IN COURT
The Palm Beach Post
May 25, 1995
Pauline Zile's attorney intends to spend $2,500 of public money on a
psychologist who will testify about Zile's ``future dangerousness.''
A judge approved the request despite prosecutors' arguments that the
expense was ``a waste of the taxpayers' money.'' Ellis Rubin, Zile's
attorney, said he hopes to persuade the jury to recommend a life sentence
by showing that Zile ``can adapt to prison and will be a good prisoner.''
Zile was convicted of first-degree murder for failing to prevent her
husband, John Zile, from hitting her 7-year-old daughter, Christina
Holt. A jury will begin hearing testimony June 6 and recommend a sentence
of life in prison or death in Florida's electric chair.