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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
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.

Judge Dismisses Zile Jurors, Will Weigh Death Sentence (6/7/95)
Zile Sentenced To Life Without Parole (6/8/95)
Pauline Zile Escapes Death (6/8/95)
Adoptive Parents Selected For Two Zile Children (6/8/95)
Ziles Agree To Have Sons Adopted (6/15/95)
Pray Ziles' Sons Recover, Flourish in Loving Home With Good Parents (6/16/95)
Courts (6/24/95)
Do Our Kids Have To Die For Attention? (6/24/95)
Judges Have Lives In Grasp (6/26/95)
In Court (6/28/95)


JUDGE DISMISSES ZILE JURORS, WILL WEIGH DEATH SENTENCE
Miami Herald, The (FL)
June 7, 1995
Author: LORI ROZSA Herald Staff Writer

Wanting to keep the decision of life or death out of the hands of the jury that convicted her of first-degree murder, an attorney for Pauline Zile on Tuesday asked the judge to make the decision. The state is seeking the electric chair for Zile, 24, who was convicted two months ago in the beating death of her 7-year-old daughter, Christina Holt. They acknowledge that Zile didn't beat the girl on the day of her death, but say she stood by while her husband John Zile did, and she did nothing to stop him, making her equally responsible. She also had beaten the girl in the past, they said.
Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Stephen Rapp will hear arguments today from the state and the defense.

After Rapp dismissed the jury at Zile's request, defense attorney Ellis Rubin presented witnesses who showed a different side of Zile.

Prosecutors have characterized her as a wicked mother who made the few months that Christina lived with her hell. The girl was raised by relatives in Maryland, but moved in last summer with her mother and stepfatherJohn Zile and their two young sons.

Friends and a sociologist said Pauline Zile was a loving and devoted mother whose biggest problem in life was her vile- tempered husband.

"I know she was unhappy. She was not smiling, not laughing, not enjoying herself," said Bridget McKinley, who worked at the same Singer Island restaurant as Pauline Zile. "She told me . . . John was angry with her for sleeping too long between jobs."

Pauline Zile held two full-time waitressing jobs for most of the three years McKinley knew her, she said. John Zile, on the other hand, "had trouble holding down one job. He was always just being hired or just being fired."

McKinley said Pauline was punctual and a hard worker. She recalled seeing Pauline call John on the phone, and hang up "in hysterics."

As McKinley left the witness stand, she whispered some words of encouragement to Pauline Zile. Teary eyed, Pauline Zile smiled at one of the few people who has said kind words about her, and then sobbed briefly.

University of Florida sociologist and death penalty expert Michael Radelet said he interviewed Pauline Zile twice and reviewed her medical records and background.

He said she showed great remorse for what happened to Christina, that she didn't try to justify the abuse, and that she was deeply depressed about what happened to her daughter and that she will probably never see her two sons again. She cried when she talked about Christina, he said.

"She hoped that maybe the death would bring more attention to the problem of child abuse, and prevent this from occurring with another child in the future," Radelet said.

He said Pauline Zile wouldn't be a danger to anybody else, and would probably adjust well to life in prison.

"Ms. Zile is the type of person who tends to avoid unpleasant or stressful situations," he said. "If trouble is erupting, she will avoid it."

Rubin said that's the way she responded to John Zile's violent outbursts. He said she was bullied and dominated by him, and she shouldn't be electrocuted for that.

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ZILE SENTENCED TO LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE
The Palm Beach Post
June 8, 1995
Author: CHRISTINE STAPLETON
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Pauline Zile will die in prison but not in Florida's electric chair.

Circuit Judge Stephen Rapp sentenced Pauline Zile to life in prison without parole after he con- demned her for her role in the death of her 7-year-old daughter, Christina Holt.
``Pauline Zile arranged for her daughter's abuse to go unnoticed,'' Rapp said. ``She sold Christina's bicycle and tapes before she was murdered, she was present when John Zile beat the girl, telling him in a calm voice, `That's enough.' The only part she did not participate in was the actual beating and suffocating.''

Pauline Zile looked stunned as the judge railed at her for playing a ``major role'' in her daughter's death. Moments later, when Rapp said the defense's mitigating factors outweighed the aggravating factors, she sobbed.

``Thank God, I can sleep tonight,'' defense attorney Ellis Rubin said Pauline Zile told him after the verdict. He added, ``I still feel terrible she's been convicted of first-degree murder.''

Assistant State Attorney Mary Ann Duggan presented only one aggravating circumstance - Pauline Zile's convictions on three counts of aggravated child abuse at the same time she was convicted of murder.

Then Duggan blasted defense claims that Pauline Zile was a minor participant in the Sept. 16 murder of her daughter.

``She created an environment of isolated imprisonment so this abuse could continue,'' Duggan said. As for remorse, Duggan reminded the judge that Pauline Zile was the one who went on television a month after the girl's death and tearfully claimed her daughter had been kidnapped from a Broward County flea market.

Rubin tried to portray Pauline Zile as a woman who is not a threat to society and who already had suffered tremendous losses. Besides the death of Christina, Pauline Zile has had an abortion, has given up one child for adoption and will give up two young sons.

``Spending the next 50 years in prison - isn't that punishment enough for not having the courage at that moment to call 911?'' Rubin said. ``She has now lost all five of her offspring.''

Pauline Zile left Christina with relatives in Maryland shortly after the girl's birth, just as her mother had left her when she was 6 years old, Rubin said.

When Christina was unexpectedly reunited with her mother last summer, John Zile began ``administering corporal punishment and went too far,'' Rubin said. Zile, a domineering husband, then demanded that his wife follow his instructions, Rubin said.

``He pushed her in front of the cameras,'' Rubin said about the kidnapping hoax. ``He was the director, producer and writer of the script, and she was the actor.''

Although Rubin often complained that the community and jury hated Pauline Zile ``for lying on television'' about Christina's death, jurors spent little time discussing the kidnapping hoax during deliberations.

``It really didn't have much to do with the aggravated child abuse charges or the murder charge,'' juror Gerald Piester said. ``It didn't weigh hardly at all in our deliberations.''

Relatives in Maryland who raised Christina were outraged that Pauline Zile did not receive the death penalty.

``I'll tell you what I want, I want some of those inmates to be my heroes,'' said Dorothy Money, the paternal great-grandmother who raised Christina. ``I want them to beat her to death for what she put Christina through. She never was a mother to that child.''

Rubin vowed to appeal Pauline Zile's conviction and sentence. In the meantime, she will be sent to one of two prisons for women, Lowell Correctional Institution near Ocala or Broward Correctional Institution in Pembroke Pines.

John Zile's trial is scheduled to begin in August. Rubin said Pauline has not been asked to testify at her husband's trial, and he will advise her not to do so. Duggan declined to comment on whether she would subpoena Pauline Zile to testify. When asked whether the state could proceed without Pauline Zile's testimony against her husband, Duggan smiled and said, ``Oh, yes.''

BALANCING THE SCALES

Circuit Judge Stephen Rapp sentenced Pauline Zile to life in prison Wednesday after weighing the following:

AGGRAVATING FACTOR ARGUED BY PROSECUTORS

Pauline Zile was simultaneously convicted of three counts of aggravated child abuse, a violent crime.

MITIGATING FACTORS ARGUED BY DEFENSE LAWYERS

Minor participant in the murder. Rapp rejected this factor, finding that Pauline Zile played a major role.

Remorse. The judge found Pauline Zile's remorse `questionable.'

No criminal record.

Under the domination of John Zile. The judge gave this factor `some weight.'

Not a danger to other inmates.

Unstable family background.

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PAULINE ZILE ESCAPES DEATH
SENTENCED TO LIFE WITH NO PAROLE
Sun-Sentinel
June 8, 1995
Author: STEPHANIE SMITH Staff Writer
Staff Writers Mike Folks and Phil Davis contributed to this story.

Pauline Zile shut her eyes and reached for her attorney's hand on Wednesday as the Palm Beach County circuit judge began what must have seemed to her a long and tortuous preamble to the announcement of her fate.

Then it came: She would spend her remaining days in prison without possibility of parole. She gasped, and joyful tears rushed from her eyes.
"At least I can sleep tonight," Zile said, her face puffy from tears, as she was led back to the courthouse holding cell after Wednesday's sentencing hearing.

She was spared from joining the six women on Florida's Death Row. The group includes convicted serial killer Aileen Wuornos and Ana Cardona, mother and killer of "Baby Lollipops."

Zile, who will turn 25 on Tuesday, knew that no matter the outcome, she would have to pay for the death of her first-born child, Christina Holt, 7, by giving up her two remaining children.

Zile will begin serving her sentence after a hearing next week, when she gives up her parental rights to her sons, Chad, 3, and Daniel, 5, allowing them to be adopted. One of her attorneys, Guy Rubin, said the two boys will be adopted together by a couple unrelated to them.

Zile was convicted of first-degree murder because the jury found she stood by while her husband, John, allegedly beat Christina until the child collapsed and went into convulsions, suffocating to death. His trial is scheduled for Aug. 7. Zile Circuit Judge Stephen Rapp announced his decision 90 minutes after closing arguments. The jury that decided to convict her of first-degree murder was dismissed for the sentencing phase at the defense's request.

"Pauline Zile played a major role in the murder of her daughter," said Rapp, presiding over his first death penalty case. "The evidence showed she was unhappy when her daughter was dropped off [by relatives to live with Pauline) and viewed Christina as an unnecessary expense."

Her attorneys said they will appeal the conviction.

Zile also was sentenced to 13 years each on three counts of aggravated child abuse, to be served concurrently with her life sentence.

With a recent change in Florida's capital crime statute, there is no chance for parole with a life sentence unless commuted by the governor. Previously, people convicted of first-degree murder were eligible for parole after 25 years, although parole was unlikely.

The Zile case set a number of precedents, legal experts say, because she was convicted of first-degree murder based on a parent's duty to protect her child, the first such conviction in the nation.

Assistant State Attorney Scott Cupp said that historically, a child's death was considered an accident and not prosecuted as first-degree murder. It was time for those ways to change, he said.

"The system is going to start recognizing any time a child is killed by a parent, it's a first-degree murder," Cupp said. "Let's say Christina was an adult, she was taken hostage, tortured and killed. Would we say her death was an accident?" Cupp said.

Zile is also thought to be the first in Palm Beach County sentenced under a new state law that eliminates the chance of parole for convicted murderers, State Attorney's Office spokesman Mike Edmondson said.

Two jurors and an alternate were in the courtroom when the sentence was announced. Juror Gerald Piester said after the sentencing that he was glad Rapp made the decision.

"Whatever the judge had to say was fine with me. Whether I agree or not, I didn't have to make the recommendation," Piester said.

Rapp said he found only one aggravating factor, that the child's death was violent. The mitigating factors were more numerous, he said.

Zile herself was abandoned by her mother, Paula Yingling. She was a hard worker, holding down two jobs at a time and apparently a good mother to the sons she bore to John Zile, her second husband, Rapp said.

The most important mitigating factor, Rapp said, was that this was the first time she had been charged with a crime, and her potential as a future danger to society was minimal.

But Rapp did not agree with the defense argument that she was dominated by her husband, she was helpless to end his beatings of her daughter and her role in the killing was minor.

The evidence showed that she tried to hide her daughter's death by telling school officials that Christina returned Maryland and sold her daughter's bicycle and videotapes that were gifts, and helped buy the shovel used to bury the child, Rapp said.

"The only part of this murder the evidence does not show Pauline Zile participated in is the actual beating and suffocating of the child," he said.

During her closing argument, prosecutor Maryann Duggan said Pauline Zile was an abberation of nature. "Even an animal, a dog, will dig up their puppies from the owner who buried them," Duggan said.

Christina's paternal grandmother, Judy Holt, declined to comment about the sentence on Wednesday. Holt had brought Christina to Florida from Maryland last summer to reunite her with her mother. Four months later, the child was dead and buried in a vacant lot near a shopping center in Tequesta. Rain and wind have erased most of the words of love left at an impromptu shrine behind the Tequesta Kmart where Christina was buried. But the tattered shrine in the litter-strewn lot is still a stark reminder of the murder.

"Christina. We love you. Rest now baby, you're at peace," reads one faded message, scrawled on a red children's school notebook.

An imposing 15-foot-tall white cross - with purple flowers and a photo of Christina pinned on it - towers over an array of stuffed animals, religious figurines and dried flowers.

Christina's smiling face became familiar to South Floridians last October when Pauline Zile went on television to tearfully plead for the return of her daughter.

Pauline Zile said her daughter was kidnapped from the women's restroom at the busy Swap Shop near Fort Lauderdale to cover up Christina's death. Guy Rubin, who along with his father, Ellis Rubin, defended Pauline Zile, said they were relieved her life was spared, although they still think she was wrongfully convicted of first-degree murder.

"I have mixed emotions," Ellis Rubin said. "Yes, I'm glad she didn't get the electric chair, but I feel terrible that she was convicted of first-degree murder."

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ADOPTIVE PARENTS SELECTED FOR TWO ZILE CHILDREN
Sun-Sentinel
June 8, 1995
Author: DEBBIE CENZIPER Staff Writer

From the moment the chubby-cheeked faces of Daniel and Chad Zile flashed on the nightly news, would-be parents have lined up for the chance to give the youngsters a new home.

The two Palm Beach County boys have been in foster care together for more than seven months, ever since their parents, Pauline and John Zile, were arrested and charged with the murder of their half sister, Christina Holt, 7.
Now, as their convicted mother heads for jail to serve a life sentence for her part in the Sept. 16 killing and their father awaits his own first-degree murder trial, an adoption seems imminent for Daniel, 5, and Chad, 3.

"We've had several families call asking if they could adopt the boys if they ever became available because they felt so horrible about what the children saw," said Beth Owen, spokeswoman for the state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services in Palm Beach County. "They knew the children would never go back to their parents."

The Ziles have agreed to give the boys up, and adoptive parents have been selected, said Ellis Rubin, one of Pauline Zile's attorneys. An adoption hearing has been scheduled for next week, Rubin said, and Pauline Zile recently visited her two sons to say a final goodbye.

"She knew that she would never be free again and that John probably won't be either, and she wanted the boys to have some kind of parental supervision," Rubin said on Wednesday, shortly after a Palm Beach County circuit judge sentenced Pauline Zile to life in prison. "It's been devastating for her."

HRS officials would not confirm the adoption but said they have been negotiating with the Ziles to terminate their parental rights. In other cases similar to this one, the next step is an adoption.

Although HRS usually turns to relatives first when searching for an adoptive home, a couple unrelated to the family has been selected, Ellis said.

John Zile's attorneys could not be reached for comment despite repeated attempts.

Daniel and Chad have been in counseling and are trying to adjust to foster care, said John Walsh, a managing attorney with HRS in Palm Beach County. They have not yet been told about a possible adoption, Walsh said.

"Under the circumstances, to say the least, it's been difficult for them," Walsh said. "We're moving very cautiously and taking the boys into consideration with every step we take."

Traumatized children often suffer from sleeping, eating and health disorders, said Judy Thompson, with the Center for Children in Crisis in West Palm Beach.

Many children whose parents are in jail often feel guilty and ashamed, fearing they are somehow responsible for not controlling the problems at home, Thompson said.

Some who have witnessed violence at home often fear for their own safety, she said, and have no idea whether they will be protected or victimized by adults.

In the case of the Zile boys, court documents show the children told police their parents often "beat Christina's butt."Daniel told investigators on Oct. 27, the day John Zile confessed to the murder, that Christina is "dead, dead."

"There is blood on Christina and blood on the bed," Daniel told police.

John Zile is accused of killing his stepdaughter after beating her and covering her mouth to muffle her cries. Pauline Zile did not call for help but instead helped her husband cover up the crime by fabricating a kidnapping tale.

Christina went to live with the Ziles on Singer Island last June, after living with relatives in Maryland for most of her life.

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ZILES AGREE TO HAVE SONS ADOPTED
BOYS WILL GO TO STRANGERS; COUPLE WAIVES CHANCE FOR A FINAL GOODBYE
Sun-Sentinel
June 15, 1995
Author: STEPHANIE SMITH Staff Writer

Pauline and John Zile decided to give up their sons on Wednesday without a final goodbye.

At a closed hearing, the Ziles agreed to relinquish their parental rights on the condition that their sons Daniel, 5, and Chad, 3, will be adopted together by a couple they agreed upon. Boca Raton lawyer Charlotte Danciu attended the hearing and may be representing the couple in the private adoption, but she would not comment on the Zile case as she left the courthouse.

All information involving the case was secret, and the judge ordered the parties in the case to not discuss it in public. None of the attorneys in the case would confirm any details about the adoption.
The Ziles initially requested a 20-minute family visit with the boys, sources said, but then decided against it.

After the hearing, Pauline Zile's mother, Paula Yingling, went to her car to get a plastic bag filled with gift-wrapped packages, apparently for her grandsons.

"I'm all right. I don't want to talk about it," Yingling said.

Pauline Zile was sentenced last week to life in prison without the possibility of parole for her role in the death of her daughter Christina Holt, 7. Her husband, John Zile, is scheduled to be tried for the same killing in August.

Last fall, John Zile took police to the site in Tequesta where he had secretly buried his stepdaughter after hiding the child's body in the family's bedroom closet for four days. The child suffocated during a beating, an autopsy showed.

The family burned incense to hide the smell and told the boys their half sister was sleeping in the sole bedroom of the apartment, or that she had gone out when they asked about Christina, John Zile told police.

But the boys were the first to confirm police suspicions that the girl wasn't missing as her mother had reported. One of the children told police Christina was "dead, dead."

The Zile children will not only have the tragedy of their sister's death to overcome, but probably both parents behind bars for murder.

Psychologist Elaine Ducharme, who works with abused children for the Child Protection Team, said children of inmates often question whether they, too, are "bad."

"It can become a part of their self-image. If the child is older, sometimes they'll make excuses for the parent, but what they've internalized is,`That's a part of me and therefore I must be bad, too,'" Ducharme said.

But first the Zile children must learn to cope with the killing itself, she said.

"It needs to be processed at some level. They haven't forgotten it. They have some understanding, whether they know the absolute details at this age."

Then there is all the upheaval in the children's lives, with separation from the parents, placement in foster homes and then ultimately settling in with their adoptive parents, Ducharme said.

"Despite the fact the Ziles were obviously poor parents, they were their parents. There is a loss, they're losing their home, they're losing their parents and they've lost their sister," she said.

But the children's youth will help if they receive the counseling they need, she said. "Because they're so young, they have a real chance of bonding with their adoptive parents," Ducharme said.

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PRAY ZILES' SONS RECOVER, FLOURISH IN LOVING HOME WITH GOOD PARENTS
Sun-Sentinel
June 16, 1995

By virtually any standard of responsible parenthood, Pauline and John Zile have been abysmal and tragic failures. But the unselfish and wrenching decision they made Wednesday at least will give their two young sons an opportunity to grow up in a safe, nurturing environment.

In a closed hearing in West Palm Beach, the Ziles agreed to relinquish their parental rights to Daniel, 5, and Chad, 3, on the condition that the boys will be adopted together by a jointly approved couple.
The children have been in the custody of the state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services since last fall, when their parents were charged with the murder of 7-year-old Christina Holt, Pauline Zile's daughter by a previous marriage.

Pauline already has been convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison for the crime. John Zile faces trial on first-degree murder charges in August.

John Zile is accused of beating his stepdaughter to death and burying her in a shallow grave in Tequesta, then conspiring with his wife to stage a fake abduction of the girl from a Broward County flea market. The case set off a wide regional search and attracted national attention before the plot began to unravel.

In agreeing to the adoption of their two sons, the Ziles originally had sought a 20-minute visit with the boys in order to say goodbye. They wisely withdrew that request. A judge sealed the case file and ordered all parties not to discuss the settlement.

Now the children, who had to share a small apartment with the corpse of their half-sister for several days while their parents planned the cover-up, will be able to begin a new life with a loving family.

They and their adoptive parents deserve every opportunity to build a relationship free from the continuing spotlight of media attention.

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COURTS
The Palm Beach Post
June 24, 1995

WEST PALM BEACH - Attorneys for John Zile have asked Circuit Judge Stephen Rapp to remove himself from Zile's coming murder trial in the death of his stepdaughter, Christina Holt, 7. Rapp this month sentenced Zile's wife, Pauline Zile, to life in prison after a jury convicted her of first-degree murder for her part in her daughter's death last year in the couple's Singer Island apartment. Rapp said at her sentencing that Pauline Zile had been present when John Zile beat Christina. John Zile ``was quite concerned about Judge Rapp having preconceived notions or attitudes'' about his alleged involvement, defense attorney Craig Wilson said. Wilson said he filed the request Wednesday.

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DO OUR KIDS HAVE TO DIE FOR ATTENTION?
The Palm Beach Post
June 24, 1995
Author: EMILY J. MINOR

Timothy Hero almost died.

Do not feel badly if you do not remember him right off. He made it into the newspaper, but not onto the front page.
Christina Holt, A.J. Schwarz, Pauline Cone. Those names we remember.

They're gone.

But Timothy Hero, 2 1/2 years old, is still alive. And somehow, that seems to have made him less important.

Timothy Hero's guts were smashed inside his little body, his face bruised, his arm fractured. His collarbone was broken once, healed by itself, then was broken again. Prosecutors think his mommy and her boyfriend did it because he wouldn't use the potty.

The court papers charging Kathy Moore and Jason Zeeman with attempted murder go on and on - seven single-spaced pages of atrocities. The little boy's vomiting, fevers, bruises, bite marks, hair loss, broken bones.

A horrid list.

But what may be even worse - for by now we know our world is littered with sick adults who hurt children - is the list of people who should have come forward to help Timothy, but did not.

So many clues, so little action

A preschool teacher who has worked in day care for 14 years said she never saw a child as constantly bruised as Timothy.

A nurse at the pediatrician's office said the boy was anxious and scared when his mother held him. But when she picked him up, he calmed right down.

HRS was notified of possible abuse in February, but continued to allow Timothy to live at home.

And his pediatrician saw him 21 times in 13 months. Some of those office visits were routine. But many were to treat bruises, bites and broken bones that were not easily explained.

Finally, in April, the brutal act that almost killed Timothy at the same time saved his life. Prosecutors say either Moore or Zeeman stomped him so hard, Timothy's organs ruptured when they smashed against his spine.

It was after this episode, tied to tubes in the intensive care unit, that Timothy finally told a nurse: Mommy hits me.

In a year that has given us the Ziles and the Cones and the Schwarzes, little Timothy is disturbing evidence that we still have not learned to be sensitive - overly sensitive, overly protective if need be - to the suffering of children.

Have A.J. and Christina and Pauline taught us nothing?

There's much we still don't know

Doctors think that, physically, Timothy will eventually be all right. He is safe now, away from his tormentors. But the emotional pain he suffered may never heal.

We still do not know all the sad chapters of Timothy Hero's sorry little life. His mother and her boyfriend have not gone to trial. State social workers have not gone public about past investigations of the family. And his pediatrician, citing confidentiality, will not talk to the press about the case.

But one thing is perfectly clear. If Timothy Hero were dead, we'd remember him right off.

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JUDGES HOLD LIVES IN GRASP
TWO MUST DECIDE ON DEATH PENALTIES
Sun-Sentinel
June 26, 1995
Author: STEPHANIE SMITH Staff Writer

Veteran Circuit Judge Marvin Mounts takes the prison tour every year, and among the places he visits is Florida's Death Row, a purgatory where 356 convicted killers await their executions.

From deciding who gets the children in family disputes to who gets put behind bars, judges have people's lives in their hands. With a death penalty case, that power becomes literal.

"Probably, there is no larger responsibility in life, I should say, in human experience," said Mounts, a circuit criminal court judge in Palm Beach County since 1972.
"Each year, I am reminded there are people sitting there waiting to see what's going on with their death sentences that we as judges have handed out," Mounts said of his prison tours.

Recently, Mounts and fellow Circuit Judge Stephen Rapp both had the rarity of death penalty sentencing decisions put solely in their hands. They did not have a jury of 12 to share in the burden of deciding a person's fate.

Typically, the same jury that convicts a defendant of first-degree murder decides by majority vote whether the killer should serve life in prison or be executed. Only in rare incidences can the judge override the jury's recommendation.

And only in rare instances do judges make the decisions on their own. In the recent two cases, defense attorneys decided they did not want juries to recommend their clients' punishment.

Circuit Judge Walter Colbath, who was a criminal court judge for five years before moving to civil court, said leaving the sentencing in a death penalty case up to a judge is unusual. Colbath, in fact, has never had to decide a death penalty case by himself.

"Quite frankly, I don't know if I would allow it," Colbath said.

For Mounts, the case in early June was that of Kirby Chastine, convicted of killing a Canadian visitor in front of the tourist's 5-year-old son during a robbery outside a Lake Worth convenience store.

Mounts was familiar with the Chastine name. Last year, he sentenced brother Anthony Chastine to life in prison for a robbery and killing in Belle Glade.

Mounts has reserved ruling on Kirby Chastine's sentence until he can review the trial transcripts, since he was not the trial judge.

For Rapp, Pauline Zile's trial and sentencing was his first death penalty case since he moved from circuit civil court nearly two years ago. Zile was convicted for her role in the killing of her daughter Christina Holt, 7. Rapp decided against the death penalty and sentenced Zile, 25, to life in prison.

Rapp followed the Zile case with the death penalty trial of William Brunner. A jury convicted Brunner of first-degree murder of his ex-wife.

The sentencing is scheduled for July. Rapp could not be reached for comment.

Nationwide, about 3,000 people are on death row. Every year, another 250 people are sentenced to die. To keep up with that rate and get rid of the current backlog, one person would have to be executed every day for the next 26 years, according to the book Among the Lowest of The Dead, by David Von Drehle, about Florida's Death Row.

Colbath and other judges say with the way the law is set out, even a judge philosophically opposed to the death penalty should be able to decide when it is appropriate.

Not every killer deserves to be killed, according to the law, and the jury is instructed to weigh the aggravating and mitigating circumstances. The ultimate punishment is for only those crimes that are especially "atrocious, heinous and cruel."

When that decision is solely up to the judge, he or she must follow the instructions they would give to a jury.

For jurors in the Zile case, the news their services would not be needed for the sentencing was met with relief. Some of the jurors said they were unable to sleep the night before they were supposed to start the sentencing phase because they were so troubled by their responsibility.

"It's certainly a relief to not have to make a life or death decision," said Zile juror Gerald Piester.

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IN COURT
The Palm Beach Post
June 28, 1995

WEST PALM BEACH

Circuit Judge Stephen Rapp has recused himself from presiding over the first-degree murder trial of John Zile, the judge's judicial assistant, Judy Lane, said Tuesday. Zile's attorney, Craig Wilson, had asked Rapp to recuse himself because the judge seemed to believe, based on comments he made while sentencing Zile's wife earlier this month, that Zile is guilty of killing 7-year-old Christina Holt, his stepdaughter. A jury convicted Zile's wife, Pauline, of first-degree murder for her part in her daughter's death. Rapp sentenced her to life in prison.

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