Christina's Story: Newspaper Articles

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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.

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*In Loving Memory Of* Christina Diane Holt 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.

Expert To Testify On Ziles (5/25/95)
Briefly (5/26/95)
Parents The Victims Of Prosecutor's Hype (5/26/95)
When Children Die (6/2/95)
Jury To Weigh Pauline Zile Penalty (6/3/95)
Zile Death Penalty Push Creates Furor (6/6/95)
Sentencing For P. Zile Begins Today (6/6/95)
Judge Refuses To Throw Out Murder, Abuse Convictions (6/6/95)
Facing Electric Chair, Zile Fears For Young Sons (6/7/95)
Judge To Decide Zile's Fate (6/7/95)

EXPERT TO TESTIFY ON ZILES
Sun-Sentinel
May 25, 1995
Author: Staff Report

A judge granted a defense request for county taxpayers to pay up to $2,500 to hire a sociologist to testify at Pauline Zile's June sentencing hearing.

The sociologist is expected to discuss how Zile will adapt to prison life.

On April 11, Zile was convicted of first-degree murder and three counts of aggravated child abuse involving the death of her daughter Christina Holt, 7.

The only possible sentences for a first-degree murder conviction are life in prison and the death penalty.

BRIEFLY
The Palm Beach Post
May 26, 1995

LAKE PARK - Two Riviera Beach detectives who have worked on miss ing children's cases were honored Thursday by the Adam Walsh Center to commemorate National Missing Children's Day. Sgt. Dale Long and Detective Pat Galligan were honored for handling cases such as that of Katherine Lugo, who disappeared in January 1994, and Christina Holt, whose mother reported her missing in October. Christina later was found dead, and her mother and stepfather were charged with her murder. Nancy McBride, executive director of the center, also presented an award to Chief Jerry Poreba and the Riviera Beach Police Department.

WEST PALM BEACH - A home for abused children to be built in Palm Beach County received $25,000 Thursday from Patrick Rooney Jr. of the Palm Beach Kennel Club. It was one of the first major gifts in the campaign to raise $1.1 million for the home, which will be run by Home Safe of Palm Beach County.

PARENTS THE VICTIMS OF PROSECUTOR'S HYPE
Sun-Sentinel
May 26, 1995
Author: JOHN GROGAN

Palm Beach County State Attorney Barry Krischer should be ashamed of himself.

When his office charged Paulette and Timothy Cone with first-degree murder in the crib death of their adopted daughter, I assumed Krischer & Co. had some devastating evidence in its arsenal to back up the charge. I was waiting for the shocking revelation that would repulse us all and prove this dastardly couple deserved to spend the rest of their lives behind bars.

But as the trial dragged on, it became painfully obvious the prosecution had nothing up its sleeve other than a desire to capitalize on public hysteria over child killings.
No smoking gun. No criminal intent. Not even any evidence of cruelty. In the end, all the prosecution was able to prove was what was already known: the Cones were guilty of a very stupid mistake that cost a child's life.

That doesn't make them blameless in the 2 1/2-year-old's death, but it sure doesn't make them murderers.

It took a 12-member jury to provide the common sense Krischer & Co. lacked in bringing the overblown charges.

Guilty only of stupidity

On Wednesday, the jury repudiated the zealous prosecution, clearing the Cones of first-degree murder, clearing them even of felony aggravated child abuse. Appropriately, it found them guilty of misdemeanor culpable negligence.

The couple had the bad judgment to screw a plywood lid on Pauline Cone's crib to keep her from climbing out. They had the bad judgment to leave it propped open unsecured, where it could fall and pin the girl by the neck.

They should have been charged with negligence, possibly even manslaughter, but not first-degree murder.

Using tortured logic, Krischer & Co. charged the Cones under a statute that allows for first-degree murder when someone dies during the commission of a felony. In this case, the felony was aggravated child abuse for turning a crib into a cage.

But the evidence did not support the theory. The Cones were not trying to cage their daughter like an animal; they were trying to keep the cerebral palsy victim from falling out. The fact that they earlier had asked the Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services for a $3,000 bubble-lid crib but were denied showed their intent.

The Cones took in an HIV-positive, cocaine-addicted infant no one else wanted. If their care fell short of perfect, at least they were willing to try.

One less vote on Election Day

A friend of mine called me after the verdict, seething over the prosecution.

"Barry Krischer's lost my vote," he said. "He's spending my money foolishly. There's an overzealousness there."

An overzealousness, indeed. In the wake of the murders of Christina Holt, A.J. Schwarz and the two young sons of Susan Smith in South Carolina, cracking down hard on child killers has become politically expedient. The public is demanding vengeance, and when the Cone tragedy came along, Barry Krischer gave them what they wanted. That didn't make it right.

So that Barry Krischer could appear tough on child killers, Paulette and Timothy Cone spent six months in jail awaiting trial. They had their two surviving children taken from them and put in foster care. They had to retain private attorneys. Add to that the public cost of a judge, courtroom staff and 12 jurors, all tied up for nine days on a case that should have never come to trial.

A sensational child murder case may have served Barry Krischer's career, but it didn't serve justice. Fortunately for Paulette and Timothy Cone, the jury was wise enough to cut through the hype and see the couple for what they really are: flawed parents, not brutal killers.

John Grogan's column appears every Sunday, Wednesday and Friday.

WHEN CHILDREN DIE
The Palm Beach Post
June 2, 1995

Pauline Zile's child died in her presence. Zile may go to the electric chair. Paulette and Timothy Cone's child died in their presence. The Cones were convicted of only a misdemeanor.

With a Palm Beach County jury having decided last week - after much debate - that the Cones were not directly response for the death of their 2 1/2-year-old adopted daughter, Pauline, it's a good time to evaluate just how the criminal-justice system is handling the tragically high number of cases in which children died. Three have been decided. Sadly, we're barely halfway. And investigations may turn up more.
First was Jessica Schwarz. She was convicted of second-degree murder in the death of her stepson, A.J., found floating in his backyard pool. Next came Zile, who was found guilty of first-degree murder in the death of her daughter, 8-year-old Christina Holt, and will be sentenced this month. The Cones were indicted on first-degree murder charges after a plywood lid on Pauline Cone's crib slammed shut and killed her. Prosecutors alleged that the Cones committed aggravated child abuse, which is a felony. Under Florida law, commission of a felony that results in death makes someone eligible for a first-degree murder conviction.

Still to come are:

Clover Boykin. She was indicted on two counts of first-degree murder last year for allegedly strangling her 5-month-old son and a friend's 8-month-old daughter whom she was babysitting.

Joanne Mejia. She is also charged with first-degree murder in the January death of her son, 4-month-old Charles Joe Mejia.

Jacqueline Caruncho. She was indicted on third-degree murder and felony child abuse charges in the December death of 4-month-old Tiffany Greenfield. If convicted, she could get 20 years. Prosecutors believe that both the Mejia and Caruncho cases involve shaken baby syndrome.

All such cases are ``problematic,'' said a spokesman for State Attorney Barry Krischer. That's an understatement. Even the best system will have trouble responding consistently to something as tragic as the deaths of children. It may be tempting, given the Cones' comments about what they had to endure, to say that prosecutors should back off. But the Cones were found guilty of negligence. And jurors said nearly half the 12-member panel had argued for a murder conviction.

Mr. Krischer, who is up for election next year, will be seen as trying to score political points by going after child-killers. But his office has correctly given more attention to all domestic violence than did the previous administration. And the public, which hands up indictments and renders justice, seems able to distinguish not only between criminal parents (such as Zile) and troubled parents (such as the Cones) but between degrees of criminality. Witness the different indictments for Schwarz, Mejia and Caruncho.

It wouldn't hurt Mr. Krischer to remind his prosecutors of the difference between dedication and zealotry. But those prosecutors are speaking up in death for children who had no one to speak up for them in life.

JURY TO WEIGH PAULINE ZILE PENALTY
Miami Herald, The (FL)
June 3, 1995
Author: LORI ROZSA Herald Staff Writer

The jury that two months ago convicted Pauline Zile in the murder of her young daughter will begin deliberating her fate on Tuesday: death or life in prison.
Prosecutors will remind the three women and nine men why they found Zile guilty of murder and aggravated child abuse. At the trial, they described a wicked mother who stood by while her husband John beat the little girl, Christina Holt, until she choked and went into convulsions and died.

She also beat the girl herself, they said, screamed at her, humiliated her, yanked her from the one place she felt safe -- school -- and pawned her bicycle and favorite videotapes.

Zile toyed with the hearts of South Florida when she and her husband went on TV in October, tearfully claiming Christina had been abducted from the Fort Lauderdale Swap Shop, begging for help. The 7-year-old had already been dead a month.

But defense attorneys Ellis and Guy Rubin will try to give a fuller picture of Zile, who will turn 25 in two weeks. Using testimony from a Miami psychologist who interviewed Zile, and a sociologist who is an expert on the death penalty, her attorneys will tell the jury about the Pauline Zile who is very different
from the woman prosecutors describe. "He's going to tell them who she is, where she came from, what she was doing, what her psychological background is," Ellis Rubin said of the expected testimony of Dr. Leonard Haber.

Rubin hopes that the testimony of University of Florida sociology Professor Michael Radelet will also educate the jury. "I'm hoping he can convey to the jury that this woman is not a valid candidate for the electric chair. I'm going to explain to the jury that you don't sentence somebody to death for going on TV and lying, or we'd have to execute every politician who's run for office."

Christina Holt lived with her mother and John Zile, her stepfather, for only three months. She was raised by her father's family in Maryland. Prosecutors said she was "an inconvenience" to John and Pauline Zile. The pair already had two children, and Pauline was pregnant with a third. That baby was given up for adoption.

Brenda Money, who helped raised Christina, said Pauline Zile's punishment is clear. "The death penalty. That's what she should get."

John Zile's murder trial is set for August.

ZILE DEATH-PENALTY PUSH CREATES FUROR
The Palm Beach Post
June 6, 1995
Author: CHRISTINE STAPLETON
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Judy Goodyear Buenoano, nicknamed the Black Widow, killed her 19-year-old disabled son by pushing him out of a canoe. Ana Cardona killed her 3-year-old son, nicknamed Baby Lollipops, with a baseball bat in 1990 after months of abuse and torture.

Pauline Zile didn't participate in the beating that killed her 7-year-old daughter, Christina Holt, on Sept. 16. But for letting her daughter die at her husband's hands, prosecutors want to send her to the electric chair with the likes of Buenoano, of Orlando, and Cardona, of Miami.
Pauline Zile's sentencing hearing begins today in Palm Beach County Circuit Court.

``Asking for the death penalty in this case is like going back to the Salem witch burning,'' said Ellis Rubin, her attorney. ``It's the most outrageous, unjustified decision I have ever seen in a homicide case.''

The death of Christina in September infuriated the community but State Attorney Barry Krischer's decision to seek the death penalty against Pauline Zile angers many local criminal attorneys.

``The death of a child is horrible but I think he's pandering to the public,'' defense attorney Donnie Murrell said about Krischer's decision to seek the death penalty. ``He's wasting taxpayers' money and putting on a dog and pony show.''

Prosecutors have not made public their reasons for seeking the death penalty against Pauline Zile, 24. The decision was made by a group of prosecutors hand-picked by Krischer. The group, called the Death Penalty Committee, reviews all first-degree murder cases in Palm Beach County and decides which accused murderers will face the electric chair.

It is a decision that begins the costliest process in the criminal justice system. Taxpayers spend about $3 million on attorneys' fees and costs for each Death Row inmate executed.

``There is no formal process to decide which murder cases will be capital cases,'' said Chris Slobogin, a law professor at the University of Florida. ``There's a lot of discretion left to the prosecutor.''

Critics of the decision to seek the death penalty in Pauline Zile's case point to the Susan Smith case in South Carolina and wonder if prosecutors here were influenced by that nationwide hatred of women who kill their children.

``One word, three syllables - politics,'' said a lawyer close to the Zile case. ``Seeking the death penalty against Mrs. Zile is ludicrous, but it makes good headlines.''

The death penalty committee's meetings are private, and memos written by the prosecutor assigned to a case are not made public until the case is closed. Memos from seven closed first-degree murder cases show that prosecutors carefully review the aggravating and mitigating circumstances - the factors that the juries must weigh to decide whether a killer should be sentenced to death.

Defense attorneys present mitigating circumstances in an effort to persuade the jury to recommend a life sentence. Juries must consider whether the murderer was ``under the influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance'' or ``under the substantial domination of another person.''

The murderer's age, character or ``any other circumstances of the offense'' also must be considered by the jury. In Pauline Zile's case, Rubin will probably argue that her participation in Christina's death was ``relatively minor,'' that she was under extreme duress and domination of her husband.

Prosecutors must rely on 11 aggravating circumstances to win a death sentence. Among the factors: a prior violent felony conviction; killing a police officer or public official; murders that create a great risk to others or occur during an escape attempt; and murders that are heinous, atrocious and cruel.

Pauline Zile doesn't fit most aggravating circumstances. At best, prosecutors will be able to argue two aggravating factors: that she has been previously convicted of a violent felony and that the crime was heinous, atrocious and cruel.

Although Pauline Zile had no criminal record before her daughter's death, she was simultaneously convicted of three counts of aggravated child abuse at her murder trial in April. Under Florida law, those convictions enable prosecutors to argue that she had a prior violent felony conviction.

But prosecutors may have trouble arguing that Christina's death was ``heinous, atrocious and cruel.'' Under the law, the kinds of crimes that juries should consider heinous, atrocious and cruel are those ``accompanied by additional acts that show that the crime was conscienceless or pitiless and was unnecessarily torturous.''

John Zile told detectives that Christina began having convulsions after he hit her several times on Sept. 16 in the family's Singer Island apartment. He said he covered the girl's mouth to muffle her cries, then tried to administer CPR to revive her. Zile and his wife then filled the bathtub with cold water and tried to revive the girl. John Zile's trial is scheduled for August.

The most emotional aspect of the case came in the days and weeks after her death. After hiding the girl in a closet for four days, John Zile buried Christina's body behind a Kmart in Tequesta. About a month later, Pauline Zile told an emotional tale of her daughter's abduction from a Fort Lauderdale flea market, but the attempted coverup unraveled within five days.

If a jury recommends a death sentence and a judge sentences Pauline Zile to death, the Florida Supreme Court will review the death sentence.

AGGRAVATING FACTORS

The jury will weigh the aggravating circumstances - reasons why Pauline Zile should be executed - against the mitigating circumstances - reasons why she should spend the rest of her life in prison. Prosecutors are limited by law to 11 aggravating factors. Only two apply in Zile's case, and those two stretch the legal definition to the limit, according to Ellis Rubin, Zile's attorney:

THE DEFENDANT HAS a prior violent criminal record. Pauline Zile had no prior violent convictions but state law allow prosecutors to use the three child-abuse convictions from her murder trial.

THE MURDER WAS `heinous, atrocious or cruel.' Heinous means `wicked and shockingly evil.' Atrocious means `outrageously wicked and vile.' Cruel means `designed to inflict a high degree of pain, with utter indifference to, or even enjoyment of, the suffering of others.'

SENTENCING FOR P. ZILE BEGINS TODAY
DEFENSE TO ARGUE AGAINST DEATH IN GIRL'S SLAYING
Sun-Sentinel
June 6, 1995
Author: MIKE FOLKS Staff Writer

Pauline Zile's defense attorney will try today to convince a jury that Zile's role in the death of her 7-year-old daughter, Christina Holt, does not warrant dying in the electric chair.

"I hope God gives me the right words to say," Zile's defense attorney Ellis Rubin said on Monday.
Rubin was in court on Monday arguing to have Zile's convictions for first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse thrown out. He was not successful.

Zile, 24, wearing green-colored jail clothing, sat quietly in court.

Rubin and prosecutors Scott Cupp and Maryann Duggan cited a court-imposed gag order and refused to disclose what evidence they plan to present to the jury during the sentencing phase of her trial, which begins today.

The jury that convicted Zile in April will recommend to Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Stephen Rapp whether Zile should spend life in prison or die in the electric chair. The judge will make the final decision.

Zile's husband, John Zile, who also faces life in prison or death, goes on trial for first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse in August.

The jurors' task will be to weigh mitigating and aggravating circumstances in their recommendation.

Defense attorneys cite mitigating circumstances, such as their clients' lack of a criminal history or their potential for rehabilitation, to argue against the death penalty.

Prosecutors cite aggravating circumstances, such as evidence that the killing was cold and calculated without pretense of moral or legal justification, to argue in favor of the death penalty.

Rubin is likely to argue that it was John Zile, not Pauline, who killed Christina on Sept. 16 when he beat her and caused her to collapse in convulsions.

And he is also expected to bank heavily on testimony from a psychiatrist and a sociologist about why Pauline did not protect her daughter and why she participated in the coverup of her daughter's slaying. At the time, Pauline Zile said the girl had been kidnapped from a rest room at the Swap Shop west of Fort Lauderdale and made a public appeal for her return.

Prosecutors argued during Pauline Zile's April trial that her inaction to protect Christina from John Zile was tantamount to murder.

And they are expected to argue that Pauline Zile willingly participated in the coverup of Christina's death, including hiding the little girl's body in a closet at the family's Singer Island apartment for four days before John Zile buried her behind a Kmart store in Tequesta.

JUDGE REFUSES TO THROW OUT MURDER, ABUSE CONVICTIONS
Miami Herald, The (FL)
June 6, 1995
Author: JOAN THOMPSON Associated Press

A circuit judge Monday rejected defense motions to throw out murder and child-abuse convictions against Pauline Zile, who falsely claimed her 7-year-old daughter had been abducted.
Zile, 24, was found guilty April 11 in the slaying of Christina Holt, her daughter from a previous marriage. Her husband John goes on trial Aug. 4 on similar charges.

The jury returns today to decide whether to recommend that Zile die in the electric chair or serve a life sentence without parole. Circuit Judge Stephen A. Rapp will make the final decision.

Neither prosecutors nor Zile's attorney, Ellis Rubin, would comment about what witnesses they might call to testify in the penalty phase of the trial.

"The only thing I'm going to do tonight is pray that God gives me the right words to save this woman from being boiled alive," Rubin said outside the courtroom. "It's an awesome responsibility especially in front of a jury that had such flimsy evidence to convict in the first place."

Prosecutors say Zile stood by while her husband beat his stepdaughter until she went into convulsions and died Sept. 16. She was buried in a field behind a discount store more than 10 miles from the Ziles' Riveria Beach apartment.

Pauline Zile clutched a doll she said was Christina's favorite when she went on television several weeks later to claim her daughter had been abducted from a busy Fort Lauderdale flea market.

Her attorneys maintain she was wrongfully convicted because of her tearful televised appeals for Christina's return.

They say prosecutors presented no evidence Zile was even in the room when Christina died or that she ever abused her, as the state claims.

During Monday's hearing, Rubin repeated his assertion that Zile's false abduction story led to her conviction. He asked Rapp to reverse the jury's decision and find his client innocent.

Assistant State Attorney Scott Cupp said Zile had a duty to protect Christina and knew she wasn't safe with John Zile.

"If this is not first-degree murder . . . of a totally defenseless 7-year-old girl, I don't know what is," Cupp told the judge.

Rapp rejected without comment the motion to reverse the jury's verdict, along with Rubin's request for a new trial.

Christina had come to live with the Ziles and their two young sons one year ago after spending most of her life with her father's relatives in Maryland.

Prosecutors say the Ziles did not want the girl. They say Pauline Zile took part in abusing Christina, whom they say was confined to the family's one-bedroom apartment for the final weeks of her life.

During Monday's hearing, Zile listened and wrote notes that she passed to Rubin. But Rubin said Zile, like many of his clients who face the death penalty, had no idea what is going on.

"She's in shock," he said.

FACING ELECTRIC CHAIR, ZILE FEARS FOR YOUNG SONS
The Palm Beach Post
June 7, 1995
Author: CHRISTINE STAPLETON
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Pauline Zile worries about how her death in the electric chair would affect the two young sons she is about to give up for adoption.

``She's not planning on ever seeing them again, and she does not expect to be visited by them in prison,'' sociologist Michael L. Radelet said Tuesday. ``But she feels that by the time she is executed her children will know who she is.''
Radelet, a sociologist at the University of Florida who specializes in capital punishment, was one of eight witnesses Pauline Zile's attorneys called to testify at her sentencing hearing Tuesday. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Pauline and John Zile have two children, Daniel, 5, and Chad, 3. Shortly after the couple's arrest on first-degree murder charges, the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services filed court papers to terminate the Ziles' parental rights.

The boys have had almost no contact with their parents and have been living in a foster home for the past 7 1/2 months. The Ziles have agreed to terminate their parental rights, but Pauline Zile still worries about her sons, Radelet said.

Medical records from the jail show that she is depressed, but not about her fate, Radelet said.

``It's not a self-serving depression,'' he said. ``She's depressed about the death of her daughter.''

The jury that found her guilty of first-degree murder in April was scheduled to begin hearing testimony Tuesday morning, but defense attorneys decided to waive the jury and present their case to the judge.

``I felt that since the jury convicted her on such weak evidence it would be better for the defense to put her life in the hands of the judge,'' defense attorney Ellis Rubin said.

Juror Brian Dunn of Palm Beach Gardens said, ``Everybody was surprised that we even had this option, that we wouldn't have to make this decision'' about the sentence. ``I was relieved. It's a very hard decision to have to make, and a judge is getting paid a lot more money to make it.''

John Zile told detectives that his 7-year-old stepdaughter, Christina Holt, died Sept. 16 after he hit her and she began having convulsions. The couple told detectives they hid the girl's body in a closet in their Singer Island apartment for four days before Zile buried her behind a shopping center in Tequesta.

A month later the couple staged a kidnapping hoax at a Broward County flea market to cover up the girl's death.

Two friends of Pauline Zile testified that she was a hard worker, devoted mother and faithful wife.

She rarely talked about her problems at home but often seemed depressed, they said.

Prosecutors presented no evidence or testimony at the hearing, a strategy that is not uncommon when the same evidence has already been presented during the trial.

The judge will hear closing arguments today.

Staff writer Jay Croft contributed to this report.

JUDGE TO DECIDE ZILE'S FATE
DEFENSE ATTORNEY, PROSECUTION AGREE TO RELEASE JURY
Sun-Sentinel
June 7, 1995
Author: STEPHANIE SMITH and TERENCE SHINE Staff Writers
Writer Debbie Cenziper contributed to this report.

Whether Pauline Zile lives or dies should be decided solely by the judge and not by the jury that chose to convict her of first-degree murder, her defense attorneys told a judge on Tuesday.

Prosecutors agreed to the waiver, and Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Stephen Rapp released the jurors from the sentencing phase of Zile's trial for the death of her daughter, Christina Holt, 7.
The only penalty choices for first-degree murder are life in prison or death. The jurors met their unexpected release from making that decision with relief.

"I think they're happy about it," Rapp said.

Three of the 12 jurors came back in the afternoon to hear testimony in the case. One of those jurors, Gerald Piester, 43, said he understood why Zile's attorneys wanted to take the sentencing decision out of their hands.

"I guess the defense thought we wronged her in the first place," said Piester, of Lantana.

Ellis Rubin, one of Zile's attorneys, confirmed that was his reasoning.

"Because this jury found her guilty on no grounds whatsoever," Rubin said.

Although the state did not show Zile directly killed her daughter, prosecutors convinced the jury that the mother was equally responsible for the killing because she stood idly by while her husband beat the child.

Zile's husband, John Zile, is scheduled to go to trial in August in the same killing.

Piester said he has no regrets about finding Zile guilty of first-degree murder of her daughter.

"We were just following what the law stated for felony aggravated child abuse," he said.

He and fellow jurors Brian Dunn and Michael Johnston felt compelled to return to the courtroom, he said.

"I was curious," Piester said. "They've taken it out of our hands but it's something I've been losing sleep over for a long time, including last night."

Piester has three children, ages 14, 5 and 2, and said the autopsy pictures made it tough to go home at night. "In one of the photos, the body was wrapped in a Power Ranger sheet and that day I came home and the kids were watching the show. It gave me the chills."

He won't lose any sleep if Zile gets the death penalty.

"No, that's the judge's decision now," he said. "It's certainly a relief not to have to make a life or death decision."

Piester, who is unemployed, said most jurors said they would not be back, but he plans to listen to closing arguments today.

On Tuesday, the state did not make an opening statement or present witnesses. Instead, prosecutors decided the state proved during the guilt phase of the trial that aggravating circumstances existed to merit the death penalty.

In first-degree murder cases, aggravating and mitigating factors are weighed to decide whether the death penalty is warranted. Aggravating factors include whether the defendant has a history of violent crimes and whether the crime was especially heinous, atrocious and cruel.

Mitigating factors include youth and psychological or mental impairment.

The defense put on witnesses to show that Zile was dominated by her husband, remorseful about her daughter's death and a model inmate.

Bridget McKinley, who worked with Zile at a Singer Island bar and restaurant, said Zile was a self-sacrificing wife and mother who worked two jobs and drove her children 40 miles a day so they could attend a better school district.

McKinley said Zile appeared to be controlled by her husband.

"She would tell me things at home were bad, or John was angry at her for sleeping too much between her jobs or she came home later than she was supposed to," McKinley said.

A sociologist from the University of Florida in Gainesville testified that Zile was unlike other inmates in that she was depressed over the crime.

"That's what I found amazing, this depression was not self-serving. It was not about Mrs. Zile's legal difficulties," sociologist Michael Radlett said.

Studies show killers make model inmates, and he thinks Zile would adapt especially well to spending the rest of her life in prison, Radlett testified.

Zile has decided to give up for adoption her two sons, Daniel, 5, and Chad, 3, Radlett said. She worries that her execution would traumatize her children further, he said.

"She wants to be a role model for them in prison," Radlett said.