Seminole County

Former death row inmate to be retried in 2004 stabbings

once again ranks among the five healthiest counties in Florida.

A Seminole County judge accused of bias against a former death row inmate whose guilt was called into question by the Florida Supreme Court refused to hand the case over to another judge.

Defense lawyers for Clemente Javier Aguirre-Jarquin sought to remove Judge Jessica Recksiedler, just weeks before Aguirre is slated to be re-tried in the grisly stabbings of Cheryl Williams and her mother Carol Bareis in 2004.

“Even if you think you can be fair, a reasonable defendant sitting in Mr. Aguirre’s shoes cannot possibly have confidence that this court can give him a fair proceeding,” defense lawyer Marie-Louise Samuels Parmer said during a hearing Tuesday.

Recksiedler, who’s prohibited by law from commenting on cases before her, issued a written order denying the lawyer’s request as legally insufficient. She added, “The Court is not permitted to deny the allegations supporting the motion as untrue. To do so establishes independent grounds for disqualification.”

After she denied the request, defense lawyers said they’ll likely appeal her decision to the Fifth District Court Of Appeals.

The judge then continued with a hearing about a witness in the case, despite defense lawyers arguing she should halt further hearings until the appeals court rules on their request.

Aguirre was previously tried and convicted in 2006 and sentenced to death. But in 2016, the Florida Supreme Court overturned his convictions and ordered a new trial after defense lawyers found 150 untested bloodstains from the crime scene. The bloodstains, since tested, did not contain his DNA. But eight bloodstains had DNA matching Samantha Williams, Cheryl Williams’ daughter.

Samantha Williams also made at least five statements to different people confessing to killing her mother and grand-

mother, another reason for the justices’ decision to toss Aguirre’s convictions.

The state’s highest court unanimously decided the new evidence, combined with Williams’ confessions, “weakens the case” so much as “to give rise to a reasonable doubt as to his culpability.”

Before those justices reversed his conviction, Recksiedler denied Aguirre a new trial and upheld his conviction. She later cited that ruling as an example of her judicial decision-making in an interview for a seat on the Fifth District Court of Appeal. Meanwhile, the case was still on appeal. The case went back to her court and State Attorney Phil Archer decided to try Aguirre again.

Defense lawyers pointed to Recksiedler’s interview with the appeals court as an example of bias, along with other behavior during jury selection last month, which ended with an entire jury pool being dismissed and the re-trial being rescheduled for March 28.

“She had tried to leverage this case for her own gain by touting her denial of post-conviction relief in her application for a position on the District Court of Appeal, even while the appeal of that decision remained pending before the Florida Supreme Court,” defense lawyers said in their motion. They accused Recksiedler of having a personal investment in proving that her decision not to grant Aguirre a new trial was right all along with a second conviction.

Aguirre, a native of Honduras who was in the country illegally, has always maintained his innocence. He said he went into the women’s home to get beer and found them dead, but didn’t call police for fear of deportation.

Samantha Williams will not testify in the re-trial, Recksiedler decided, after the state’s psychiatrist evaluation concluded she was not competent to stand trial. The defense’s psychiatrist deemed her competent. She was allowed to testify in the first trial — and was later described by the state Supreme Court as a “key witness” for the prosecution.

Defense lawyers plan to admit her confessions during the trial. Lawyers had a hearing Tuesday to argue whether the state’s psychiatrist will be allowed to testify that Williams has a long history of mental illness and could have made the statements during a psychotic episode.

The judge said she would issue a ruling later.