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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.
Thank you!
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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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Police Blotter (7/4/96)
John Zile Motion Denied (7/4/96)
In Court (7/17/96)
Zile Attorneys To Get Paid (7/17/96)
In Court (7/25/96)
Zile Waives Right To Jury (8/3/96)
The Price Of Justice? $300,000 To Put Zile On Trial Twice
(8/6/96)
Second Zile Trial Subpoenas Issued (8/9/96)
In The Center Of It All (8/11/96)
Bartow Set For Second Trial Of John Zile (8/12/96)
POLICE BLOTTER
The Palm Beach Post
July 4, 1996
AROUND TOWN
Self defense?
John Zile wants to be co-counsel on his defense team for his upcoming first-degree murder trial. "Mr. Zile helped us considerably researching specific cases in the law library at the jail," said Ed O'Hara, one of Zile's court-appointed attorneys. "He was a great help." Zile wants jail officials to allow him to spend more time in the jail's law library, O'Hara said. But Zile does not intend to question witnesses, O'Hara said. "We're not suggesting in any way that Mr. Zile is going to give opening and closing statements," O'Hara said. Assistant State Attorney Scott Cupp opposed the request, saying Zile already has "two extremely competent attorneys" and that allowing him to act as an attorney could create issues for an appeal. Circuit Judge Roger Colton denied Zile's request. Zile will go on trial in Bartow in August for the death of his 7-year-old stepdaughter, Christina Holt, in September 1994. - Christine Stapleton
JOHN ZILE MOTION DENIED
Sun-Sentinel
July 4, 1996
Author: Staff Report
A judge on Wednesday refused to allow John Zile to be his own co-counsel
to assist his defense attorneys in his August retrial in Bartow County,
where it was moved last month after a change-of-venue was granted.
Palm Beach County Circuit Judge
Roger Colton denied the defense request because Zile, 35, is being represented
by two court-appointed defense attorneys at taxpayers' expense.
Zile goes on trial Aug. 12 in Bartow for first-degree murder and three
counts of aggravated child abuse in connection with the death of his
stepdaughter, Christina Holt, 7.
Colton was forced to declare a mistrial on May 16 after the jury announced it was deadlocked at 11-1 to convict Zile of first-degree murder.
On June 13, Colton ordered the trial moved to Bartow, citing the media frenzy surrounding the case.
Prosecutors say Zile beat his stepdaughter on Sept. 16, 1994, causing her to convulse and die. He then hid her body in a closet for four days before burying it behind a Kmart in Tequesta.
Zile's wife, Pauline, 26, was convicted in April 1995 of first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse for failing to protect her daughter. She is serving life in prison.
IN COURT
The Palm Beach Post
July 17, 1996
WEST PALM BEACH
The lead attorney for John Zile will be paid $50,000 toward his growing
legal bill, while Zile's second-chair attorney has agreed to accept
$55,000 for his work so far. Attorney Craig Wilson has billed the county
$112,360 for representing Zile. Wilson's bill will continue to grow
as he prepares for billed the county $63,000 but agreed to be paid $55,000.
In addition, the county has spent about $55,000 on costs, such as depositions
and travel expenses. Zile, 34, of Singer Island, faces the electric
chair if convicted of killing his 7-year-old step-daughter, Christina
Holt.
ZILE ATTORNEYS TO GET PAID
Sun-Sentinel
July 17, 1996
Author: Staff Report
The county has agreed to pay John Zile's court-appointed attorneys $160,000
for their services during his trial that ended in May with a deadlocked
jury.
Defense attorneys Craig Wilson and Ed O'Hara had sought more than $200,000 for attorney fees and costs, but Dan Hyndman, assistant county attorney, was opposed to that amount.
After a panel of defense attorneys
reviewed the bills at no cost to the county, Zile's attorneys and Hyndman
reached a settlement on Tuesday giving Wilson an interim payment of
$50,000; O'Hara a final payment of $55,000; and $55,000 to both attorneys
for costs.
Zile, 35, is charged with first-degree murder and three counts of aggravated
child abuse in the Sept. 16 asphyxiation death of his stepdaughter,
Christina Holt, 7.
On May 16, Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Roger B. Colton was forced to declare a mistrial after the jury announced it was deadlocked 11-1 for first-degree murder for Zile.
Colton on June 13 ordered the retrial moved to Polk County, citing the media frenzy surrounding the case. Wilson and O'Hara will represent Zile again.
On Tuesday, Colton granted a defense request to appoint a jury selection expert, but the cost cannot exceed $2,500.
IN COURT
The Palm Beach Post
July 25, 1996
WEST PALM BEACH
Pauline Zile's appellate attorney may see grand jury transcripts in the state's murder case against Zile, but only after the murder trial of Zile's husband, John Zile, has ended, Circuit Judge Howard Berman ruled Wednesday. Attorney Richard Bartmon says the transcripts should help settle the issue of whether evidence used against Pauline Zile was obtained as the result of a statement she gave after receiving a promise of immunity. Pauline Zile was convicted of first-degree murder in the 199 4 death of her 7-year-old daughter, Christina Holt. John Zile, Christina's stepfather, also was tried on a murder charge in the girl's death but his jury deadlocked in May. His second murder trial begins Aug. 12 in Bartow.
ZILE WAIVES RIGHT TO JURY
Sun-Sentinel
August 3, 1996
Author: Staff Reports
On Friday, John Zile once again waived his right to have a jury make
a sentence recommendation should he be convicted in his upcoming murder
and child abuse retrial in Bartow. Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Roger
B. Colton granted Zile's request during a pretrial motion hearing.
Colton granted a similar request before Zile's first trial, which ended
in a mistrial and resulted in the case being moved to Polk County for
retrial.
In cases where life or death are the sentencing options, jurors who decide a defendant's guilt or innocence usually make a sentencing recommendation to the judge.
Should Zile be convicted of first-degree murder and child abuse, Colton will decide Zile's fate without the aid of the jury.
Zile, 35, is accused of beating his stepdaughter, Christina Holt, 7, on Sept. 15, 1994, causing her to convulse and die. He confessed to hiding her body in a closet for four days before burying it behind a Kmart in Tequesta. Zile's retrial is to begin Aug. 12.
THE PRICE OF JUSTICE? $300,000 TO PUT ZILE ON TRIAL TWICE
Sun-Sentinel
August 6, 1996
Author: STEPHANIE SMITH Staff Writer
The cost of putting John Zile on trial twice for murder in the death
of his stepdaughter Christina Holt is expected to approach $300,000,
court officials estimated on Monday.
Palm Beach County taxpayers have
already paid $162,844, with an additional $14,000 pending, for attorneys'
fees, investigators, expert witnesses and depositions for Zile's first
trial in May that ended with a deadlocked jury.
When the case is tried in Bartow next week, the expense of moving and
housing all the participants for the threeto four-week trial is expected
to exceed $100,000.
"Unfortunately, the final bill won't be in until the end of the trial," said Peyton McArthur, executive assistant to Clerk of Courts Dorothy Wilken. "It all depends on the length of the trial."
There is the cost of housing, feeding and traveling for the five-member prosecution team, Zile's two defense attorneys, a judge, a court clerk, a court reporter and a bailiff.
Then there is the cost of housing Zile at Polk County's jail, courthouse security provided by that county's sheriff's office, jury fees, witness fees and expenses.
"We'll just be using their courtroom basically," said deputy court clerk Beth Jennings.
Jennings will be the first to hit the road to Bartow, near Lakeland. She'll leave on Friday to ensure safekeeping of the 17 volumes of court files and six boxes of evidence, including such unwieldy items as a mattress and box springs, a shovel and bed linens.
Craig Wilson, one of Zile's court-appointed attorneys, said he hopes the trial will go faster and smoother in Bartow. At Zile's first trial, there was difficulty finding jurors who didn't have their minds made up about the case.
Christina Holt's death received widespread attention in South Florida.
Wilson and co-counsel Ed O'Hara have already visited Bartow to check out the town and make arrangements, such as access to a law library at Polk County's jail for their client.
Zile, 35, has become an avid jailhouse lawyer, sitting at the defense table with his own copy of Florida statutes. He even asked that he be allowed to represent himself along with his attorneys at his re-trial. The request was denied.
The cost of housing Zile at Polk County's jail is the most expensive of all the lodgings. The jail charges $50 a day, compared to an average of $40 a day for the lodgings of lawyers, judges and other parties in the case.
Wilson doesn't plan to take an investigator or secretary and will share a $288 a week apartment-like suite at a country club in Lakeland with O'Hara.
The State Attorney's Office will rent five private condominiums at $269.50 a week per unit near a golf course in Lakeland.
The judge and his staff are staying at yet another place, a former Sheraton Hotel, at $40 a day or $280 a week. The judge, defense attorneys and prosecutors have to stay at separate lodgings because neither side is supposed to mingle with the judge without the other side there.
The costs will be spread among the court clerk's office, State Attorney's Office and the sheriff, but it all ultimately comes from taxpayers.
"We're trying to see who pays for what and every other thing," Zacks said.
SECOND ZILE TRIAL SUBPOENAS ISSUED
The Palm Beach Post
August 9, 1996
Prosecutors have subpoenaed a Miami Herald reporter to testify at John
Zile's second murder trial.
The reporter, David Kidwell, interviewed
Zile in jail shortly after his arrest.
Prosecutors said Kidwell's Nov. 5, 1994, story quotes Zile, 34, as saying
he felt "`furious" with his stepdaughter, Christina Holt,
when he punished her for misbehaving the night the girl died.
In response to the state's action, Zile's attorneys also served Kidwell with a subpoena.
Prosecutor Scott Cupp said an attorney for the The Herald told him the newspaper plans to fight both subpoenas.
Cupp does not expect the issue to delay Zile's retrial, which is set to begin Tuesday in Polk County.
IN THE CENTER OF IT ALL
CENTRAL FLORIDA CITY PLAYS HOST TO ZILE'S RETRIAL
Sun-Sentinel
August 11, 1996
Author: STEPHANIE SMITH Staff Writer
Everyone here is on a first-name basis, even the businesses in town.
There's John's Restaurant and
Lounge. Mike's Restaurant across town belongs to John's cousin. Then
there's Jimmy's convenience store, but he's not related.
This central Florida community of 17,200 - the Greater Bartow Chamber
of Commerce's motto is "In the Center of It All" - will be
the home beginning Monday of John Zile's second trial for first-degree
murder and aggravated child abuse of his stepdaughter. His first trial,
in Palm Beach County in May, ended in a jury deadlock.
In Palm Beach County, few people haven't heard of the sad, short life of Christina Holt, 7. How she was beaten by her stepfather to the point that she collapsed and suffocated while her mother, Pauline Zile, watched.
How the parents hid the body in a closet, secretly buried her then tried to cover up the child's death by staging a kidnapping hoax at the Fort Lauderdale Swap Shop.
Lest anyone forget, there are memorials to Christina such as a computer screen that flashes the faces of missing and abducted children dedicated to her at Palm Beach International Airport.
In Polk County, small stories have appeared in both the The Tampa Tribune and The Ledger in Lakeland about the trial's move, but few of the residents know about the case. That's what Zile's defense attorneys were counting on when they requested the change of venue.
"Zeel? What did he do?" asks Sue Rhoden, owner of Sue's Sewing Corner. Rhoden, 42, and Lee Peters, 66, sit on chairs outside the shop, taking a smoke break from tailoring and hemming clothes.
Peters remembers reading something about it, but the details don't readily come to mind.
There's so much crime these days, no one can keep up, Rhoden said.
"We have so many, so many so rough. It's such a shame," she said.
The top crime story on the front page of Bartow's biweekly newspaper, The Polk County Democrat, is about a wallet-snatching attempt in the automotive section of the city's Wal-Mart.
Violence is not as common in Polk County. There were 4,058 violent crimes there in 1995 compared to 8,639 in Palm Beach County.
But this mostly rural county that is home to a number of phosphate mines as well as the headquarters of Publix grocery stores and the Badcock furniture chain, has had some notorious cases.
Still, unlike South Florida's almost routine, random killings during drive-by shootings, carjackings and robberies, the killings here tend to be more personal.
A Mulberry man was convicted of seven felonies after he killed his estranged wife's sister, father and mother and then set their house on fire. David Joseph Pittman went berserk because his wife planned to divorce him after her sister accused him of rape.
Then there was the case of George Trepal of Alturas, who became so annoyed by his neighbor's loud music and uncontrolled dogs that he spiked seven bottles of poison-laced Coca-Cola and sneaked them into their kitchen.
Peggy Carr, 41, drank from the bottles, slipped into a three-month coma and died. Four other members of her family were poisoned but survived. Trepal is on death row.
But the most famous case to ever come out of Polk County is the toilet-training murder of Bradley McGee, 2. Bradley, who was returned home by social workers despite allegations of abuse, died from head injuries he received after his stepfather dunked him in a toilet bowl for soiling his diapers.
Bradley's stepfather Thomas Coe was convicted in Fort Myers, where the trial was moved because of local outcry. He is serving a life sentence.
Zile's attorney Craig Wilson said he was glad the defense received a change of venue, although Bartow would not have been his first choice. Polk County juries have sent more killers to death row than their counterparts in urban Palm Beach County. Of the 369 people on death row, 11 are from Polk County compared to eight from Palm Beach County, which is twice the size.
Wilson is not sure how the death of Christina Holt will play out in Bartow.
"I worry about everything," Wilson said. "I don't think we're going to get a free ride up there."
Rhoden, the seamstress, said as if Polk County, didn't have enough crime of its own, now it was being imported in.
"We've had some big stuff here. Of course, we missed O.J., but thank God," Rhoden said As Rhoden talks, her pastor stops by. The Rev. Paul Foxworth hasn't heard of John Zile or Christina Holt, either. Foxworth is pastor of the Wildwood Baptist Church. Eleven of the 37 churches in Bartow are Baptist.
But Foxworth is certain Zile will get a fair trial by a jury made up of the folks of Polk County.
"People here are not closed minded. They'll have to prove their case," he says of the prosecution. "Sometimes you have to get away from where the people are biased and where the case has been tried in the media," Foxworth said.
Nancy Tran, who owns a Chinese restaurant in downtown, is one of the few people in Bartow who seems to know about the Zile case.
"I feel so sorry for that little girl," Tran, 33, said. "I read about it in the newspaper."
BARTOW SET FOR SECOND TRIAL OF JOHN ZILE
The Palm Beach Post
August 12, 1996
Author: VAL ELLICOTT
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
The day before his first murder trial, John Zile made a decision that
ultimately gave him a second chance at life.
He decided that, if jurors convicted
him of murdering his 7-year-old stepdaughter, Christina Holt, he would
leave the question of his punishment completely up to Circuit Judge
Roger Colton. The judge would make his choice - life in prison or death
in the electric chair - without any input from jurors.
Had Zile done nothing to affect the sentencing process, he might be
sitting in a death row cell rather than planning strategy for his second
trial, which begins with jury selection Tuesday in Polk County.
His decision effectively barred prosecutors from asking prospective jurors how they felt about the death penalty. That left a gaping hole in the jury selection process, prosecutors now say, that allowed a woman onto the panel who refused to convict Zile of first-degree murder.
The juror, Alison Boyden, expressed concerns that Zile could be sentenced to death, other jurors said.
"I want to prevent that from happening again," Assistant State Attorney Scott Cupp said last week.
Cupp is asking Colton to let him interrogate potential jurors about their views on the death penalty.
"They may lie, but I want to ask them," he said.
Zile's attorneys, Craig Wilson and Ed O'Hara, say letting Cupp have his way would be excellent grounds for a reversal if Zile is convicted.
"It makes no sense," O'Hara said of Cupp's request.
Colton is expected to rule today on Cupp's motion and on other requests from prosecutors and defense attorneys.
Attorneys in West Palm Beach say Zile's prosecutors should feel more confident now that his retrial has been moved to Bartow because of extensive pretrial publicity in Palm Beach County.
"Can you think of a worse place to hold that trial for the defense?" attorney Scott Richardson asked. "It's a very, very conservative area."
The defense team hopes to impanel "a fairly well-educated, intelligent group," O'Hara said Thursday.
"I think we can do that whether we're in Palm Beach County or Polk County or Alachua or wherever," he said.
Election results support the perception that Polk County residents are conservative. Registration in the county is predominantly Democratic, but a majority of voters backed George Bush over Bill Clinton in 1992. And in the 1994 Florida governor's race, Jeb Bush edged out Gov. Lawton Chiles.
But Polk County prosecutors also have a lower conviction rate in first-degree murder cases than do prosecutors in Palm Beach County. Since January 1991, 77.4 percent of the first-degree murder trials in Bartow have resulted in conviction. Palm Beach County prosecutors claim their conviction rate is between 85 percent and 90 percent.
Although Zile will now face a Polk County jury, Palm Beach County prosecutors will still handle the case.
Zile, 34, is charged with first-degree murder and three counts of aggravated child abuse in the death of Christina.
Christina died around midnight on Sept. 16, 1994, as Zile disciplined her at the family's apartment on Singer Island, police say. According to medical testimony, the child died of asphyxiation.
O'Hara and Wilson will argue, as they did at the first trial, that the evidence doesn't support the prosecution's contention that Zile was beating Christina when she died or that he regularly mistreated her.
"There's no pattern of abuse there," O'Hara said last week.
Cupp declined comment on the prosecution's game plan. But he seems less inclined this time to follow the courtroom protocol Colton imposed on attorneys at the first trial.
Concealing hand, this time
At the first trial, Cupp had agreed, at Colton's request, to tell Wilson and O'Hara in advance which witnesses they planned to call. Prosecutors aren't required to reveal their witness lineup in advance. This time, Cupp hinted, they probably won't.
Prosecutors do plan to add at least one witness to their lineup - Miami Herald reporter David Kidwell, who interviewed Zile in jail shortly after his arrest in 1994.
Kidwell reported that Zile described himself as "furious" with his stepdaughter on the night she died.
"We just plan to put before the jury what was reported in that newspaper article," Cupp said. "The state's position is that it's relevant evidence."
Herald attorney Jerold Budney told Cupp that the paper will fight "any and all subpoenas," Cupp said Thursday. Budney could not be reached for comment.
Cupp said he does not expect the Herald's resistance to delay Zile's trial.
If Kidwell does take the stand, the defense team plans to attack his credibility, saying Kidwell lied to sheriff's deputies to gain access to Zile in jail, then lied to Zile about what kind of story he would write, O'Hara said.
Paul Anger, editor of the Herald's Broward County bureau, disagreed.
"Our reporter conducted himself properly and we have no problem with his actions," Anger said Friday.
Kidwell declined comment.
Attorneys expect to spend one to two weeks picking a jury in Bartow. The evidentiary phase of the trial should take three to four weeks.
Cupp's co-counsel at the first trial, Mary Ann Duggan, will not attend the retrial for personal reasons, prosecutors said. Assistant State Attorney Jill Estey will take her place.
Prosecution's 2nd chance
Zile was living on Singer Island with his wife, Pauline, his two sons and Christina during the last weeks of Christina's life.
During that time, prosecutors say, Zile persecuted and isolated his stepdaughter so often and so effectively that the girl existed in a near-constant state of terror.
Around midnight on Sept. 16, Zile woke Christina to punish her for misbehaving at school and because he suspected her of improper sexual behavior with his youngest son, police and prosecutors said.
Zile said he "popped" his stepdaughter on the lips with his fingers, slapped her and spanked her. When Christina began to cry, Zile recalled, he covered her mouth with his hand.
Zile and his wife hid Christina's body in a closet inside their apartment for several days before Zile buried her behind a shopping center in Tequesta. To explain the girl's disappearance, the Ziles concocted a ruse that she had been kidnapped from a flea market in Broward County.
All 12 jurors at Zile's first trial concluded Christina died after choking on her own vomit, according to post-trial interviews. Eleven jurors agreed Zile was the cause, but they could not convince Boyden.
They said Boyden gave at least some credence to arguments by Zile's attorneys that Christina had died either from a seizure or from Zile's frantic but clumsy attempts to resuscitate her just after the seizure.
Zile's wife, Pauline, was convicted last year of first-degree murder for failing to intervene to prevent her daughter's death. She is serving life in prison without parole.
O'Hara said Zile feels "stressed" by the prospect of a second trial.
"I think he's realistic," O'Hara said last week. "He knows it's going to be difficult."