Bessman Okafor, left, was convicted of the 2012 murder of Alex Zaldivar, 19, in Ocoee, Florida. A jury sentenced him to death, but the Florida Supreme Court overturned the sentence because it was not unanimous. (Okafor: Florida Department of Corrections; Zaldivar photo via his obituary)
After a rocky penalty phase process, jurors on Wednesday recommended — again — that Bessman Charles-Obinna Okafor, 39, receive the death sentence for fatally shooting Alex Zaldivar, 19, in a 2012 home invasion. The vote was 9 to 3, according to records out of Orange County, Florida .
Another panel reached the same decision in 2015, voting 11 to 1. The following year, however, Florida’s Supreme Court ruled that death sentences must be unanimous. This sparked a years-long fight over the nature of the death penalty in the Sunshine State. The current status quo is that jurors only need an 8 to 4 vote to recommend death .
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Prosecutors tried again last year, but that hit a major snag when one of the new jurors caused a mistrial of the penalty phase. In November 2023 , Kayla De Peña told the court she had discussed the case with a friend, which made her ability to be impartial impossible. In her sentencing on Jan. 4, she told Judge Mark Blechman that was a lie, that she made it up to get out of jury service and was struggling financially. She received the maximum sentence of 179 days behind bars and a $500 fine for contempt of court.