Convict says he wants to kill again

Murderer tells judge he has nothing to lose

A convicted killer facing the death penalty issued a chilling warning to a Broward judge Thursday.

Peter Avsenew, who was convicted last November of two counts of first-degree murder, told Broward Circuit Judge Ilona Holmes he no longer has anything to lose, and that means no one around him is safe. His rant echoed a racist, homophobic letter he wrote to the judge in March.

“It is my duty as a white man to cull the weak and timid from existence,” Avsenew, 33, wrote in a letter the judge received March 9. “Homosexuals are a disease to mankind and must be put down.”

He continued: “I will not ask for mercy and am not sorry… I can’t put into words the feeling of ending a life; it’s euphoric at the least.”

Avsenew was found guilty of the 2010 murders of Kevin Powell and Stephen Adams, a Wilton Manors couple who took him in after he posted a sexually suggestive classified ad on the Craigslist website.

After he was convicted, Avsenew appeared before the jury during the penalty phase of his

trial in January, gloating that he had no regrets and no remorse.

The jury deliberated less than three hours before recommending unanimously that Avsenew be put to death.

That decision, he said Thursday, left him with nothing to fear.

“I have no consequences for my actions,” Avsenew,

33, said Thursday. “I plan on hurting people… I wholeheartedly have nothing to lose, and I’m going to take it out on everybody I can.”

Holmes, who has presided over several death penalty cases in recent years, did not appear intimidated. “Can you at least wait until you get my ruling?” she asked.

After the jury’s recommendation, which she has the authority to override, Holmes appointed a new lawyer to research the defendant’s

personal history and provide her with reasons she should show mercy.

“This man, at an incredibly young and vulnerable age, was subjected to trauma that no child should be subjected to,” said the lawyer, Arthur Marchetta. The trauma included his sister being murdered and some evidence that Avsenew was sexually abused.

Avsenew told the judge mercy would be a wasted gesture.

“I’d rather just kill Avsenew said.

In his March 9 letter, Avsenew hinted that he has killed before.

“These weren’t the first and they won’t be the last,” he wrote of Adams and Powell. “If you only knew how many there really are, you would faint.”

Prosecutor Shari Tate, who argued for the death penalty, declined to comment outside the courtroom. Sentencing is set for Aug. 27. people,”