State attorney says files requested by death-row inmate don’t exist
A man sentenced to death for the 2015 murder-for-hire of his wife demanded in November the release of additional files in his case.
But the state said isn’t possible: Those records don’t exist.
Court records indicate that on Nov. 30 Assistant State Attorney Cynthia Ross responded to a Nov. 7 demand for additional public records in the case against Mark Sievers, 55.
Sievers, convicted in the murder-forhire of his wife Teresa Sievers, 46, had requested his cellphone and burner phone records, as well as those of his late wife and co-conspirator Curtis Wayne Wright, Jr., 55, and his wife.
Additionally, Mark Sievers had requested files on Wright and his wife, which the State Attorney’s Office declined having, records show.
The State Attorney’s Office further said it doesn’t have independent files related to a second co-defendant, Jimmy Ray Rodgers, 33.
Sievers also had requested photos of Teresa Sievers’ diary and business records pertaining to the Sievers.
As for correspondence between the state and Mark Sievers’ trial attorneys Michael Mummert and Greg Messore, the state said in court records that it compiled a document from an archive searching the attorneys’ last names.
Samantha Syoen, spokesperson for the State Attorney’s Office, on Monday wrote in a statement that she’s not able to elaborate on the case “due to this being actively in court.”
What did Mark Sievers request?
Lee Circuit Judge Bruce Kyle ruled Sept. 18 that the Postconviction Records Repository by Nov. 30 deliver containers from the District 21 Medical Examiner’s
Office; the Lee County Sheriff’s Office; the Florida Department of Corrections; the Collier County Sheriff ’s Office; the Charlotte County Sheriff ’s Office; and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for an in-camera inspection.
An in-camera review happens when a judge looks at confidential or sensitive information and determines which may be made public.
Sievers, on death row for the murder-for-hire of Teresa Sievers, on April 26 and June 9 filed separate motions for a court order directing the Postconviction Records Repository to send all sealed or redacted documents.
The Postconviction Records Repository maintains and indexes the copies of records submitted to them by law enforcement, investigative or other agencies.
The motions said that failing to release the records would violate Mark Sievers’ Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendment constitutional rights.
Case files sought for months in Mark Sievers’ case
In May, the state asked for a three-month extension in the release of files including an excess of 80,000 pages of discovery, more than 60 depositions, hours of audio and millions of videos in the case Mark Sievers to the repository of the Secretary of State, which oversees executions.
The files include the documents Sievers is asking Kyle to review.
In July, Sievers’ post-conviction counsel sought the release of files allegedly in the possession of his trial attorneys, which they said was “destroyed” by Hurricane Ian in September 2022.
Sievers’ initial death row appeal was denied last year.
The Florida Supreme Court on Feb. 3 affirmed his sentence and conviction.
Background to Mark Sievers’ case
A jury convicted Sievers on Dec. 4, 2019, in the slaying of Teresa Sievers, a Southwest Florida doctor.
On June 28, 2015, Teresa Sievers left a family vacation and returned alone to her Bonita Springs home. After she pulled into the garage, retrieved her luggage and walked into the house, Wright and Rodgers beat her with hammers.
Kyle sentenced Rodgers to life in prison after he was convicted of second-degree murder and trespassing by a Lee County jury in October 2019.
On Feb. 10, 2020, Kyle sentenced Wright to 25 years for his role in the murder after he pleaded guilty.
Sievers hired Rodgers and Wright to kill his wife.