The death-penalty phase in the double murder trial of Marcelle Jerrill Waldon starts Monday when witnesses, including a doctor, are expected to testify on behalf of the defense as his attorneys try to convince the jury to spare his life.
He was found guilty Wednesday of two counts of first-degree murder and eight other crimes in connection with the killings of former City Commissioner Edie Yates Henderson and David Henderson in their Lake Morton home.
The State Attorney’s Office filed an intent to seek the death penalty in the Waldon case on Dec. 21, 2020, just shy of seven weeks following the grim discovery of the Hendersons in their bloody and ransacked third-floor bedroom.
The prominent Lakeland couple had been stabbed 23 times with a large kitchen knife missing from their kitchen butcher block, the prosecution said at trial. Waldon was also convicted of attempting to burn down the house after the killings, stealing and torching David Henderson’s Audi A6, and stealing expensive jewelry, credit cards and checks.