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.

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.

State Judges Invited To Clarify Rights of Reporters (10/31/96)
Jury To Hear Zile Tape Before Coroner Testifies (11/1/96)
Ruling Paves Way For Jury To Hear Zile Confession (11/1/96)
Zile May fire Lawyer For Comments Outside Of Court (11/2/96)
New Remarks Throw Wrench in Zile Retrial (11/2/96)
Zile Case May End in Mistrial -- Again (11/2/96)
Woman Has Personal Stake in Zile Issues (11/3/96)
Zile Loses Attempt To Drop Attorney (11/5/96)
Jurors Didn't Hear About Zile's Plea To Fire Attorney (11/6/96)
Jury Hears Tape of Zile Confessing To Police: 'I Was Saving Myself' (11/6/96)

STATE JUDGES INVITED TO CLARIFY RIGHTS OF REPORTERS
Miami Herald, The (FL)
October 31, 1996
Author: MARTIN MERZER Herald Senior Writer

A federal judge who freed a Herald reporter jailed for contempt of court has invited state judges to finally decide what privileges Florida reporters may invoke to protect the information they gather.

U.S. District Judge Wilkie Ferguson Jr., in a written opinion filed this week, said he ordered reporter David Kidwell released from jail due to ``the uncertainty of state law and the clarity of federal law, which requires a case-by-case analysis where a reporter claims a First Amendment privilege.''
Kidwell, 35, was freed Oct. 22 after spending 14 days at the Palm Beach County Detention Center. He was sentenced to 70 days for refusing to answer questions about his jailhouse interview with John Zile, now on trial in Bartow in the death of his 7-year-old stepdaughter, Christina Holt.

Kidwell said he believed that any testimony would compromise his journalistic integrity and his independence, transforming him from journalist to government agent. Prosecutors said they needed Kidwell to verify key details of his newspaper story.

Ferguson said it would have been ``manifestly unjust'' to require Kidwell to serve the entire term while his appeal moved through the courts, particularly because state law is vague concerning First Amendment privileges for reporters.

Some states shield reporters from testifying, under certain circumstances, about their news-gathering efforts. Florida has no such law, and the legal precedents in this state are contradictory.

But Ferguson said federal law is clear -- a three-part test must be applied as judges weigh the need for information in criminal cases against the constitutionally mandated freedom of the press.

``The standard is that information may only be compelled from a reporter claiming privilege,'' Ferguson wrote, ``if the party requesting the information can show: (1) that it is highly relevant, (2) necessary to the proper presentation of the case, and (3) unavailable from other sources.''

He noted that state courts have ``not yet given a clear answer'' to whether that test should be applied in many cases, and he seemed to invite a decision on that matter. ``That question may be addressed by Florida's Fourth Court of Appeal,'' he said.

Gerald Budney, a Herald attorney, said he was encouraged by Ferguson's opinion.

``We hope it will help convince the District Court of Appeal to do what should be done, which is to apply the three-part test,'' Budney said. ``If they do that, we think they won't decide that David Kidwell belongs in jail.''

JURY TO HEAR ZILE TAPE BEFORE CORONER TESTIFIES
The Palm Beach Post
November 1, 1996
Author: VAL ELLICOTT
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Prosecutors will be allowed to introduce John Zile's description of his stepdaughter's death before taking testimony from a former medical examiner who may tell jurors he believes the girl's death was accidental, a judge ruled Thursday.

The ruling by Circuit Judge Roger Colton is a victory for prosecutors Scott Cupp and Jill Estey, who want to play Zile's taped statement for jurors before calling Dr. James Benz to the stand.
The reason, one of Zile's attorneys said, is the prosecutors fear Benz may say Christina Holt's death was accidental or unintentional. If that happens, the defense could move to bar Zile's statement as inadmissible, arguing that the prosecution hadn't proved Christina was murdered.

"The prosecution thinks this is essential, given that they may have a recalcitrant medical examiner on their hands," Ed O'Hara, an attorney for Zile, said.

At Zile's first trial earlier this year, prosecutors played Zile's taped statement at the conclusion of their case, after Benz had testified. But that was before an attorney said Benz had confided to him that he believes Christina's death was unintentional.

Zile's attorneys objected strongly to the change in the order of the prosecution's presentation.

"Legally, they're putting the cart before the horse," defense attorney Craig Wilson said.

Cupp declined comment on the shift in strategy.

Zile, 34, is charged with first-degree murder and three counts of aggravated child abuse in the Sept. 16, 1994, death of 7-year-old Christina in their Singer Island apartment. She died while Zile was spanking and slapping her for relating what he believed were lies about having been sexually abused in Maryland before moving to Florida.

Colton has not yet ruled on a potentially crucial issue - whether jurors will be allowed to consider child abuse charges less serious than aggravated child abuse, the felony that forms the basis for the state's theory that Zile is guilty of first-degree felony murder.

Cupp agreed Wednesday to drop opposition to defense requests that the less serious options go to the jury for consideration.

"We've asked for this repeatedly," O'Hara said. "We're very pleased. It would give the jury an option it didn't have at the last trial."

Cupp said prosecutors fear a conviction could be reversed on appeal if the other options are not included in the instructions Colton will read to jurors.

Zile still could be convicted of first-degree premeditated murder, but the state's best evidence supports the felony murder theory.

RULING PAVES WAY FOR JURY TO HEAR ZILE CONFESSION
Sun-Sentinel
November 1, 1996
Author: STEPHANIE SMITH Staff Writer

Murder suspect John Zile's confession could be played as early as today, after a judge's ruling on Thursday that foul play could have caused the death of Zile's stepdaughter, Christina Holt, 7.

Under court rules, prosecutors must prove a murder probably occurred before a confession may be played. Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Roger Colton ruled that sufficient evidence had been presented to prove that Christina had been murdered.

They have spent the first five days of the trial trying to do that without presenting testimony from Dr. James Benz, Palm Beach County's unpredictable former medical examiner.
Since Zile's first trial ended in a mistrial in May, Benz reportedly has expressed doubt that Christina's death was intentional.

"We're all wondering what Dr. Benz is going to testify," Colton said.

Ed O'Hara, one of Zile's attorneys, said the judge's decision was a blow to Zile's defense. He said if Benz first testified the girl's death was an accident, then the confession could not have been played for the jury.

"If Benz testifies it's unintentional, then they've got a real problem on their hands," O'Hara said. "Then it's not a homicide."

Prosecutors have argued that Christina's death was first-degree murder because Zile's admitted spankings caused a seizure that killed the girl. In the alternative, he intended for her to die from the seizure by deciding against calling 911 because she was too battered from his previous abuse.

It is the medical examiner's job to decide whether a victim died of a homicide or an accident. Neither side is certain what Benz will choose.

Benz testified in Zile's first trial that Christina's death was a homicide caused by asphyxiation. His testimony came before Zile's confession, which was played at the conclusion of the prosecution's case.

But prosecutors hesitated to call Benz this time, because Benz later reportedly told two lawyers - including O'Hara - that he now believes it was an "unintentional" homicide.

At the time, Benz was under fire from prosecutors and police, who claimed that questionable autopsies forced them to dismiss two other child murder cases. Benz later resigned as the county's medical examiner.

Until Thursday's ruling, prosecutors and police could refer to the blue tarp and duct tape-wrapped body of the girl found at Zile's direction only as the "blue object."

And prosecutors could not show the jury the shovel used to bury Christina in a sandy field behind a K mart in Tequesta. Zile had told police in his confession they would find her body there.

At one point in the trial, Assistant State Attorney Scott Cupp said in frustration that Colton was ruining the state's presentation by insisting that Benz testify before Zile's confession was played.

"With all due respect, your honor, the court is controlling the presentation of the state's case with the incorrect application of the rules," Cupp told the judge.

By playing the confession before Benz's testimony, the state hopes to color the jury's perception of the rest of the prosecution's case through Zile's own words. Benz said hearing Zile's confession had influenced his earlier testimony that the death was a homicide.

Zile told police he spanked Christina and flicked her lips with his fingers because she kept lying about being sexually abused by various relatives before she collapsed into a seizure.

ZILE MAY FIRE LAWYER FOR COMMENTS OUTSIDE COURT
The Palm Beach Post
November 2, 1996
Author: VAL ELLICOTT
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

John Zile said Friday that he may fire the attorney leading his defense, Craig Wilson, after a courtroom camera operator disclosed that Wilson told her he believes prosecutors will win a conviction in the murder case against Zile.

Robin Rogers Thompson, a freelance camera operator who is married to a felon and has written letters to the Lakeland newspaper supporting the rights of prison inmates, reported Wilson's comments in two letters to prosecutor Scott Cupp, who turned them over to Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Roger Colton.
In the letters to Cupp, Thompson says she and Wilson were chatting on Wednesday about the case against Zile, a Riviera Beach man accused of killing his stepdaughter in 1994. At one point, Thompson wrote, Wilson told her "the state would definitely get a conviction."

"I just shook my head and repeated I couldn't see how," Thompson wrote. "That's when he (Wilson) said I hadn't heard John's statement. Then I'd know he did it. That's when I became alarmed."

After reading the letters, Zile asked Colton about 9 a.m. Friday to halt the murder trial until Monday.

"I'm thinking of excusing Mr. Wilson," said Zile, who could face the death penalty if he is convicted. "I think there's a lot at stake here, and I would like to have the weekend to think about my options. At this point I know I'm very upset with this letter. I think it's compromised my case."

Colton agreed to delay testimony and sent jurors home shortly after they arrived. "What you have indicated to me today is a very serious situation," he told Zile.

Wilson and Zile's other attorney, Ed O'Hara, declined comment Friday. Cupp also declined comment.

Thompson, 29, of Winter Haven left a message on her home answering machine that said she would have no comment.

Thompson was operating the courtroom television camera for her father's company, Jimmy Rogers Productions Inc. in Winter Haven. Jimmy Rogers, 56, of Winter Haven is a well-known bass fishing expert with his own television show, Jimmy Rogers Fishing Adventures.

His production company was hired by WTVJ-TV Channel 6 in Miami to feed video of Zile's trial to nine television stations in South Florida.

On Friday, WTVJ said it would no longer do business with Rogers' produc tion company.

"The instructions are to cover the events that go on in the courtroom, not to become part of those events," Bruce Carter, the station's business manager, said.

Thompson has been married since February to Gerald Thompson, a man who was then and still is serving time in prison for armed burglary. She has written several letters to the editor of The Ledger in Lakeland expressing sympathy for prison inmates and for defendants victimized by police who ignore regulations to make arrests.

Thompson's mother-in-law, Joanna Thompson of Winter Haven, said Friday night that there is at least one likely explanation for Robin Thompson's actions in the Zile case:

"My son," Joanna Thompson said. "She feels he is not supposed to be where he is - in jail or locked up."

Joanna Thompson said that opinion has almost certainly colored her daughter-in-law's views of the criminal justice system.

Gerald Thompson, now 30, was convicted of armed burglary, aggravated assault and battery; he was acquitted of two other charges in April 1995, after he stabbed his then-girlfriend in the arm and beat two other people Sept. 20, 1994, in Winter Haven, according to court records.

Joanna Thompson said her son met Robin while he was free on bond awaiting trial in the case. The two married on Feb. 10 this year at Columbia Work Camp, where Gerald Thompson was in the ninth month of his 43-month sentence.

"She's a very pushy person," Joanna Thompson said in describing her daughter-in-law. "Whenever she wants something, she knows how to get it. And she'll get it done quicker than any attorney. She's got her ways."

In one of her three letters published in The Ledger, Thompson expresses vehement opposition to a proposal to charge prison inmates for their room and board.

"Someone needs to realize the inmate is still a human being and should be just as protected as an animal, if not more," she wrote in the letter, published July 16.

In another letter, published Sept. 5, Thompson criticizes Florida's prison system for focusing too much on punishment and not enough on rehabilitation.

And in a letter published on June 30, she demands tougher investigation of police officers in Winter Haven who were accused of falsifying documents. The Winter Haven Police Department is the same agency that arrested Thompson's husband in 1994.

"If all is done by regulations, defendants receive a fair trial," she wrote. "If not, innocent men go to prison for years, costing taxpayers up to $50,000 a year for each inmate."

Thompson's letters to Cupp seem to suggest that Wilson is deliberately creating grounds for an appeal that would claim, if Zile is convicted, that his attorneys did an inadequate job in representing him.

"The ramifications of the statement by Mr. Wilson would create an extremely strong post-conviction relief brief after appeals were exhausted," Thompson says in one letter. "I believe it is being intentionally done."

Now that Thompson has made an issue of what she says Wilson told her, Zile has a serious problem, Jack Goldberger, a criminal defense attorney in West Palm Beach, said Friday.

"If I were Zile, I would be wanting another lawyer," he said.

At one point Friday, Zile told Colton he was considering acting as his own attorney and assisting O'Hara, who would become lead defense counsel in Wilson's place.

But Goldberger also defended Wilson and attacked Thompson, saying it is not unusual for attorneys to comment frankly outside the courtroom, but it is unusual that such comments are reported to a judge and discussed in court.

Thompson's actions were "totally unprofessional," Goldberger said. "I've just never heard of somebody who's got any credibility as a reporter, or whatever she is, disclosing something like that. It's just horrible she would do what she did."

Goldberger said of Wilson, "I think Craig has done a real noble job for his client. He's been in there fighting."

Wilson and O'Hara often have said it is unrealistic to believe Zile will be acquitted altogether, since Zile concedes a measure of responsibility for the death of his stepdaughter, Christina Holt.

The defense attorneys have hoped instead for a verdict on a charge less serious than first-degree murder. They say Zile, 34, never intended to kill Christina and that the discipline he was inflicting on the girl in their Singer Island apartment just before she died did not constitute aggravated child abuse, as prosecutors contend.

Wilson and O'Hara have had more success in their defense strategy than Ellis Rubin, the attorney for Zile's wife, Pauline, had in her defense in the case.

At Zile's first trial earlier this year in Palm Beach County, where there is tremendous public outrage against him, the defense attorneys obtained a mistrial when one juror refused to vote for a conviction on first-degree murder.

In the same courthouse last year, a jury convicted his wife, Pauline Zile, of first-degree murder for failing to act to prevent her daughter's death. She was sentenced to life in prison.

Following the mistrial at his first murder trial in May, the trial was moved to Bartow because of the excessive publicity in Palm Beach County. Attorneys began selecting a jury in August for a retrial, but that effort failed when the Polk County Clerk of the Court, E.D. "Bud" Dixon, made comments to jury candidates that attorneys in the case felt could have been prejudicial.That jury pool was dismissed, and this trial was rescheduled for October.

Zile, 34, is charged with first-degree murder and three counts of aggravated child abuse in the Sept. 16, 1994, death of 7-year-old Christina. She died while Zile was spanking and slapping her for relating what he believed were lies about having been sexually abused in Maryland before moving to Florida.

John and Pauline Zile were arrested a month later after police began investigating Pauline Zile's report that Christina had been lost or abducted from a Fort Lauderdale-area flea market on Oct. 22, 1994. The second-grader's body eventually was uncovered in a field near a Kmart in Tequesta.

EXCERPTS

From the first letter dated Thursday:

Mr. Cupp,

My name is Robin and I am running the camera in the courtroom.

I have a problem regarding something lead counsel for the defense said to me yesterday. ...

The ramifications of the statement by Mr. (Craig) Wilson would create an extremely strong post conviction relief brief after appeals were exhausted. I believe it is intentionally being done. If you could spare 2-5 minutes during a recess I would like to tell you exactly what was said. ... Watch both counsels for the defense very closely - I suppose you already know that.

From the second, undated letter about a Wednesday conversation:

Mr. Wilson was entering the courtroom and I came up to him to discuss trials and preparation. ...

I don't know how the conversation came around to this trial. I told him that I hadn't followed the coverage and so far I couldn't see how the State could prove premeditation for first-degree conviction. Mr. Wilson then said that the state would definitely get a conviction. I just shook my head and repeated I couldn't see how. That's when he said I hadn't heard John's statement. Then I'd know he did it. That's when I became alarmed. ...

Staff researcher Michelle Quigley contributed to this story.

NEW REMARKS THROW WRENCH IN ZILE RETRIAL
SUSPECT DECIDING WHETHER TO RETAIN HIS LEAD ATTORNEY
Sun-Sentinel
November 2, 1996
Author: STEPHANIE SMITH Staff Writer

The small-town ways of Polk County have thrown another kink in the protracted murder trial of John Zile, charged with the beating death of his stepdaughter.

This time, a free-lance camerawoman and would-be law student has disrupted the trial by writing prosecutors about what she deemed inappropriate remarks by Zile's lead attorney, Craig Wilson. Zile has demanded a hearing so that he can determine whether he wants to retain Wilson or become his own co-counsel with his other court-appointed attorney, Ed O'Hara.
The twist was triggered by three notes Robin Rogers Thompson of Winter Haven sent to Assistant State Attorney Scott Cupp expressing her alarm at remarks she said Wilson had made to her about the inevitability of Zile's conviction. Thompson, 29, quoted Wilson as saying he thinks that Zile's confession that he spanked his stepdaughter, Christina Holt, the night she died gave prosecutors the proof they needed to convict Zile. "I asked him if he was supposed to proclaim his client's innocence at al l times," Thompson wrote in her note. "He just said he wasn't a `bull-------.'" Prosecutors handed over the notes on Thursday to Wilson, who promptly shared them with Zile.

On Friday morning, a trembling Zile demanded that his retrial be postponed until he could decide whether to keep Wilson.

"At this point, I know I'm pretty upset about the letters," he said. "I think it's compromised my case."

Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Roger Colton scheduled a hearing on the matter for Monday, when he will decide how the case will proceed. The case has misfired twice, and Zile's legal bills, which are paid for by Palm Beach County taxpayers, are approaching $200,000. Wilson has played the lead role in preventing Zile's conviction. In May, Zile was spared a conviction when jurors deadlocked 11-1 for conviction, triggering a mistrial. A unanimous verdict is needed in any criminal case. Wilson then prevailed upon Colton to move Zile's retrial outside Palm Beach County to ensure an impartial jury. But in August, jury selection in Bartow had to be scrapped after Polk County's court clerk made comments to prospective jurors about the volume of evidence compiled against Zile. Attorneys contacted on Friday described the twists and turns in the Zile trial as amazing. "Every once in a while, a case develops a life of its own," said Jack Goldberger, a Palm Beach County criminal defense lawyer who has followed the case. "It's a jinxed case."

Goldberger dismissed the significance of Wilson's remarks to Thompson. He said similar conversations routinely take place between reporters and lawyers in South Florida and do not become a legal issue.

"That's just horrible, that's just small-town mentality," Goldberger said of the notes. "You don't go reporting that."

Thompson's revelations -weren't shocking since Wilson told the jury in opening statements on Oct. 25 that Zile takes responsibility for his stepdaughter's death but disputes that it was first-degree murder.

Whether a defense lawyer believes his client is innocent doesn't matter, legal experts say. The defense lawyer's job is to ensure a fair fight and force the prosecution to prove the crime. Only prosecutors have the obligation of seeking the truth and not convicting an innocent person.

Thompson said on Friday that she is not a reporter and that the case was her first trial. Her experience is limited to "how-to" videos and political commercials.

She operated the courtroom camera in the Zile trial to help her father, who owns Jimmy Rogers Productions in Winter Haven. Nine South Florida television stations hired the company to operate a pool camera to avoid sending their own employees to Bartow.

Yet Thompson, who is considering attending law school, said she knew enough about the law to realize that Wilson's comments should immediately be reported to prosecutors.

"You should never tell that," Thompson said. "He's just set ground that there was inadequate legal counsel when the appeals are done."When questioned on why a lawyer would set himself up to be deemed incompetent, Thompson said she didn't understand the motive.

Bruce Carter, news technical service manager for WTVJ-Ch. 6 in Miami, which arranged to hire Thompson, said on Friday that Thompson has been fired for overstepping her role and won't be covering the rest of the trial.

"In a pool situation, they are there to take pictures in the courtroom, not to get involved. We would never want them to get involved," he said.

Thompson said she did the right thing. "Unfortunately, ethics are not appreciated in this world."

ZILE CASE MAY END IN MISTRIAL -- AGAIN
Miami Herald, The (FL)
November 2, 1996
Author: AMY DRISCOLL Herald Staff Writer

Misfortune continues to plague the John Zile murder trial.

A deadlocked jury the first time around.
Retrial moved to remote Bartow -- only to have a careless remark from a court clerk taint the entire jury pool.

And Friday, with a new jury seated and a week's worth of testimony completed, the trial fell into legal limbo once again.

The latest blunder: The defendant's own lawyer told a freelance camera operator in the courtroom that he thinks his client ``did it.'' Zile is accused of killing his stepdaughter and faking her abduction.

Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Roger Colton on Friday announced a recess until Monday to allow Zile time to decide whether to fire his lead lawyer.

``I'm going to ask for a continuance because my life is on the line in this case,'' Zile, 34, told the judge. ``I know it's an inconvenience to the state and to the jury, but there's a lot at stake here.''

That became apparent after camera operator Robin Rogers Thompson, of Bartow, wrote a letter to state prosecutor Scott Cupp on Thursday detailing a conversation with attorney Craig Wilson the previous day.

In the letter, she said Wilson told her that his client's confession would prove he is guilty of murdering his stepdaughter, Christina Holt.

The statement may be enough to trigger yet another mistrial, local defense lawyers say.

`An abundance of caution'

``If I were the judge, I'd call a mistrial in an abundance of caution,'' said well-known South Florida defense lawyer Fred Haddad. ``If the client no longer expresses confidence in his attorney, at this stage in the trial, that's coming awfully close to a mistrial.''

The case could continue with one lawyer, Ed O'Hara, as defense counsel, but most death penalty cases -- as this is -- dictate the use of two lawyers for fair representation, according to Fort Lauderdale criminal defense attorney Jeffrey Harris.

``You need one person for the guilt phase, telling the jury why your client isn't guilty for reasons A, B or C,'' Harris said. ``And then you need the second lawyer -- if the defendant is convicted -- to say OK, disregard all that other stuff, here's why he should be spared the chair.''

Thompson, hired by NBC-6 in Miami to operate the camera for all TV stations wanting footage, was fired Friday. ``Based on the events as we have learned them today, we have discontinued this relationship,'' the station's statement said.

In her letter to Cupp, Thompson said she told Wilson she didn't think the state could prove that Zile had planned to kill his 7-year-old stepdaughter. He is charged with first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse.

``Mr. Wilson then said the state would definitely get a conviction. I just shook my head and repeated I couldn't see how,'' Thompson wrote.

``That's when he said I hadn't heard John's statement. Then I'd know he did it. That's when I became alarmed.''

Gag order

Wilson and Cupp said they were prohibited from commenting about the letter because of a standing gag order.

Christina was reported missing from a Fort Lauderdale-area flea market on Oct. 22, 1994. Prosecutors say Zile beat the girl to death, then he and his wife, Pauline, concocted a story that she had been abducted.

The second-grader's body eventually was uncovered in a field near a Kmart in northern Palm Beach County.

Christina's mother, Pauline Zile, was convicted last year and sentenced to life in prison. John Zile is being tried on a first-degree murder charge and three counts of child abuse.

John Zile's first trial in May ended in a mistrial. A Palm Beach County jury split 11-1 for a first-degree murder conviction. The lone holdout wanted a second-degree murder conviction.

The second trial was moved to Bartow, in Polk County, due to heavy publicity in South Florida. In August, the first attempt at a retrial was halted during jury selection after a potential juror said a court clerk told the jury pool that a truckload of evidence existed in the case.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

WOMAN HAS PERSONAL STAKE IN ZILE ISSUES
FREELANCER GOES TO BAT FOR PRISONERS
Sun-Sentinel
November 3, 1996
Author: SARAH RAGLAND Staff Writer

A freelance camerawoman, whose letters to prosecutors have disrupted the murder trial of John Zile, is married to a convicted felon and advocates better treatment of prisoners.
Robin Rogers Thompson, 29, of Winter Haven, who was hired to videotape the trial's proceedings for nine Florida television stations, brought the trial to a halt last week by sharing her concerns about some off-the-cuff remarks she said were made by Craig Wilson, Zile's lead attorney.

Thompson sent three notes to Assistant State Attorney Scott Cupp expressing her alarm that Wilson told her that Zile would likely be convicted of killing his stepdaughter, Christina Holt, 7.

Prosecutors gave the notes to Wilson on Thursday, who shared them with Zile. Zile on Friday asked the judge to postpone the case until he can decide whether to keep Wilson as his lead attorney.

Thompson defended her actions on Friday, saying it was the "ethical thing to do."

Thompson has written at least two letters to The Ledger, in Lakeland, arguing for more humane treatment of prisoners and criticizing the Winter Haven Police Department.

She has a personal stake in the issues.

In February, Thompson married Gerald Thompson at the Columbia Work Camp, where he is serving a three-year, seven-month sentence for armed burglary, state records show.

"Incarceration is to punish, but the public and Legislature need to realize these men and women remain human beings, have loved ones who suffer along with them, and one day, most will return to society," Thompson wrote in a letter to The Ledger published in September.

Thompson's actions in the Zile trial cost her the freelance videotaping job and left legal experts in dismay. Attorneys say it doesn't matter whether a defense attorney thinks his client is innocent. Their job is to ensure a fair fight and force the prosecution to prove the crime.

Thompson's revelations also were not surprising because Wilson told the jury in opening statements that Zile takes responsibility for his stepdaughter's death, but disputes it was first-degree murder.

ZILE LOSES ATTEMPT TO DROP ATTORNEY
JUDGE: REMARK NOT A REASON TO FIRE COUNSEL
Sun-Sentinel
November 5, 1996
Author: STEPHANIE SMITH Staff Writer

Murder defendant John Zile failed on Monday to have the trial judge dismiss his lead attorney for telling a television camera operator he expected Zile to be convicted of killing his stepdaughter.

"It only takes one mistake to cost me my life in this case," Zile said.

Even as he praised Craig Wilson for doing an "exceptional" job representing him, Zile cited the publicity surrounding out-of-court comments made by Wilson to television camera operator Robin Rogers Thompson of Winter Haven. Thompson said in a letter to prosecutors that Wilson told her he did not believe in Zile's innocence.

Zile, 34, said he fears the jury has heard that his own attorney expects he will be found guilty of killing Christina Holt, 7.

Zile admitted he spanked Christina for lying, but he said her subsequent death was an accident, not murder. Zile led police to Christina's grave in Tequesta after a failed hoax to stage Christina's abduction from the Fort Lauderdale Swap Shop.
Zile is on trial for first-degree murder, and the state is seeking the death penalty.

Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Roger B. Colton said on Monday that ineffectiveness of counsel is the only reason Zile can fire his lawyer, and even Zile admits his attorneys, Wilson and Ed O'Hara, have done a remarkable job, including an 11-1 jury deadlock at his first trial in May.

"Your lawyers have burned the midnight oil," Colton said. "They've slept little - concerned about you and their performance."

But Colton agreed to individual questioning of jurors today to determine whether they have heard about letters from Thompson to prosecutors about her conversation with Wilson.

Jurors have been ordered to avoid reading or listening to anything about the case.

At the hearing on Monday, Zile dropped his earlier request to represent himself along with O'Hara. O'Hara said he could not single-handedly represent Zile and asked for help from a second attorney if Wilson was dismissed.

"Clearly, I wasn't prepared to carry these 28 boxes around alone on my shoulders," O'Hara said outside court of the massive defense research in the case.

Even as Zile asked the judge for Wilson's dismissal, Wilson continued to advise him. After Wilson jotted down notes on a legal pad between them, Zile asked the judge to question jurors about the incident and declare a mistrial if the jury has been tainted.

Zile said if the jurors were unaware of the comments, he wanted Wilson to remain as his attorney.

Zile said Wilson's comments were taken out of context by Thompson, who has aspirations of attending law school and has a husband in prison.

"[Wilson) has told me that he said since I have taken responsibility for the accidental death of Christina that surely I will be convicted of something. But, we both agree, that he should not have said anything in the first place.

"But now the damage is done. And it is irreversible."

Wilson refused to explain to the judge his version of the conversation with Thompson, who has since been fired by the South Florida television stations that hired her to monitor the trial.

"I will not today or ever breach the confidence of my client," Wilson said, his voice breaking.

After talking to legal ethics experts at The Florida Bar, Wilson asked to be dismissed as Zile's attorney if there is any possibility that he hurt his client's case.

Even Zile's mother, Patricia Zile, opposed his decision to fire Wilson. During a break before the judge made his ruling, Zile and his mother got into an argument. "You've made the second largest mistake you've ever made," said Patricia Zile about firing Wilson.

"My life is on the line, Mom. I can't take a chance," Zile said.

Patricia Zile has been in Bartow since jury selection on Oct. 15 and takes her son's clothes home at the end of each day to launder and press them for his court appearances.

There was no testimony on Monday. Testimony from prosecution witnesses resumes today. The defense portion of the trial is expected to begin on Friday.

JURORS DIDN'T HEAR ABOUT ZILE'S PLEA TO FIRE ATTORNEY
The Palm Beach Post
November 6, 1996
Author: VAL ELLICOTT
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

The jurors who will decide the murder case against John Zile apparently never learned that Zile tried to dismiss his lead attorney last week because of comments the attorney made outside the courtroom.

The 12 jurors and two alternates each answered "No" when asked by Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Roger Colton Tuesday whether they had been "accidentally exposed" over the weekend to any publicity about Zile's case.
"I have no doubt whatsoever that these jurors individually and collectively are adhering to instructions" to avoid exposure to coverage of the case, Colton said.

Zile, however, declined to retract his request that attorney Craig Wilson be removed from his case, a request Colton rejected on Monday. Because of the way Colton worded his question to jurors, Zile said, it was impossible to know for sure if the jury had been tainted by the recent publicity.

That publicity focused on claims by a freelance TV camera operator that Wilson told her outside court that Zile will be convicted in the killing of his 7-year-old stepdaughter, Christina Holt.

Wilson later told Zile that the camera operator, Robin Thompson of Winter Haven, had reported his comments out of context. Wilson and Zile's other attorney, Ed O'Hara, have consistently said that Zile accepts responsibility for Christina's death and can expect to be convicted - but of something less serious than the first-degree murder he is charged with.

Tuesday afternoon, Wilson moved for a mistrial because jurors could have been influenced by seeing a court bailiff wearing rubber gloves and carrying a deodorizer spray can when prosecutors exhibited the children's tent that Christina's body was wrapped in when she was buried in Tequesta. Colton denied the motion.

The tent, which retains a noxious odor two years after her body was unearthed, was sprayed with a deodorizer to prevent jurors from detecting the stench.

Jurors also heard the 76-minute tape recorded statement Zile gave Riviera Beach police beginning at 3:28 a.m. on Oct. 28, 1994, after he led investigators to Christina's makeshift grave.

In the statement, Zile says Christina seemed to suffer a seizure around midnight Sept. 16, 1994, after he slapped and spanked her and "flicked" her on the lips with his finger to discipline her. He said he had become angry with her for her inappropriate sexual behavior with his youngest son, for changing details of her claim she had been raped before moving to the Ziles' Singer Island apartment and for defecating on the floor. When she began crying, he covered her mouth to keep her from wa king his sons.

Christina died of asphyxiation, according to medical testimony at Zile's first trial, which ended in a hung jury.

JURY HEARS TAPE OF ZILE CONFESSING TO POLICE: `I WAS SAVING MYSELF'
Miami Herald, The (FL)
November 6, 1996
Author: Associated Press

Jurors on Tuesday heard for the first time accused killer John Zile's confession in which he said his life would be ruined if he called for help once his stepdaughter stopped breathing following a spanking.

Zile, 34, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Christina Holt, 7, then faking her abduction. He told police she had a seizure and died after he hit her for soiling her pants.
``The bruises would have been seen and my whole life would be torn apart. I was saving my family. I was saving myself,'' Zile said in the taped confession.

Jurors leaned forward in their chairs listening to more than an hour of testimony by Zile two years ago.

He gave his taped confession to police a few days after he and his wife, Pauline, claimed the girl had been abducted from a Fort Lauderdale flea market.

Zile spent a good part of the time in his interview with police talking about poor behavior on Christina's part. He said he punished her the night she died because she had lied to him about being sexually molested.

After a scolding, Christina dirtied her pants, which prompted him to punish her again by yelling at her and spanking her, he said.

``We thought because she wanted to go home [back to her grandmother's], she was going to try to p--- us off enough to take her home,'' he told police.

At one point, she pulled a younger brother's pants down and played with his penis, Zile told investigators. She also claimed to have been penetrated, but gave different stories about who did it.

Explaining about the night she died, Zile acknowledged hitting her, and said it was after she had sassed him. When he asked why she soiled her pants, she replied: ``because I felt like it.''

He said he gave Christina cardiopulmonary and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation after the seizure and tried putting her in the bathtub unsuccessfully to revive her.

After she died the Ziles put her in bed and covered her as though she were asleep.

When the Ziles' other children weren't around, the couple put Christina's body in a closet.

The body was then removed four days later when Zile took her remains to a field near a Kmart and buried them.

Prosecutors say Zile beat Christina to death and Pauline Zile concocted a story that the child had been abducted. She was convicted last year and sentenced to life.