Jury recommends death in murder case
Published 12:15 pm Wednesday, October 9, 2013
An Escambia County jury recommended Wednesday, by a 11-1 vote, for convicted murderer Cedric Floyd to receive the death penalty.
Circuit Judge Bert Rice will make the final decision on Floyd’s sentencing at a hearing, tentatively scheduled for sometime in January 2014.
Floyd was convicted Monday of fatally shooting his girlfriend, Tina Jones, at her home on Jan. 2, 2011.
If Rice does sentence Floyd to death, it will be the first death penalty sentence handed down in Escambia County since 2007, when Christopher Thomas Johnson was sentenced for the murder of his infant son. Johnson was executed in October 2011.
The Floyd trial was the longest criminal trial in Escambia County history, according to defense attorneys, who represented Floyd throughout the case until the defendant successfully petitioned Rice to represent himself just after the sentencing phase began.
Floyd asked no question of prosecution witnesses during the sentencing phase, nor did he call any witnesses of his own. His defense attorneys had been prepared to call witnesses and argue against the death penalty for their client.
