Capital murder trial is underway in Orlando

Prosecutor seeks death against man charged in killing of neighbor, 83

A death-penalty murder trial got underway Monday in Orlando, the first since Orange-Osceola State Attorney Aramis Ayala took office and vowed not to seek that punishment.

Special Prosecutor Brad King is now in charge of this case and nearly two dozen others. But three prosecutors from Orange County were in the courtroom Monday, questioning jurors.

King is seeking the death penalty against Juan Rosario, 29, who is charged with arson and first-degree murder in the beating death of his 83-year-old neighbor.

The body of Elena Ortega was found in the burned-out wreckage of her home on Sept. 18, 2013. A medical examiner ruled she died of blunt-force trauma to the head.

On Monday, Rosario sat in court, flanked by his lawyers, as jurors filed into the room. Attorneys asked them about their views on the death penalty and whether they could sit through a lengthy trial.

At a hearing last week, Orange Circuit Judge Leticia Marques said she would summon 75 potential jurors Monday morning, and if that’s not enough, 75 Tuesday and 75 Wednesday.

She predicted jury selection would take much of this week and that the trial likely would conclude late next week.

If jurors find Rosario guilty, they will have to return for another week in late May or early June to decide whether he should be put to death or get life in prison, the only other alternative in Florida for a first-degree murder conviction.

Rosario is the first capital murder defendant to stand trial since Gov. Rick Scott began taking murder cases away from Ayala after she announced on March 16 that she would not seek the death penalty against accused cop killer Markeith Loyd or anyone else.

Rosario’s attorney, Roger Weeden, last week asked the judge to kick King, who is based in Ocala, off the case. Weeden argued that the governor had no authority to take the case away from Ayala and, thus, King had no authority to prosecute his client.

Scott cited a provision in the Florida Constitution that he argues gives him the authority to assign cases to another prosecutor if he has good cause.

Two separate courts are trying to decide who is right.

Ayala has filed a federal lawsuit in Orlando and a petition in Tallahassee with the Florida Supreme Court, arguing in both that the Governor exceeded his authority.

Marques said last week that even though those challenges were pending, they had not resulted in a court order requiring her to halt Rosario’s trial. The trial will continue with King as a prosecutor.

On Monday in Tallahassee, members of the Republican-dominated state House announced they intend to file a friend-of-the-court brief backing Scott’s ouster of Ayala.

A group of liberal organizations and legal scholars already had filed a brief in support of Ayala last week. Sen. Perry Thurston, chairman of the Florida Legislative Black Caucus, said that he and others intend to file their own friend-of-the-court brief before Friday’s deadline.