ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – A juror accused of causing a mistrial at the resentencing of a convicted Central Florida killer now faces contempt charges, after facing a judge Thursday.
The state is seeking contempt charges, jail time and court costs after prosecutors said Kayla De Pena spoke with a friend about the Bessman Okafor case during the death penalty resentencing trial.
During Thursday’s hearing, the judge charged De Pena with direct and indirect contempt.
“The jurors in this case spent 195 days of their life trying to follow the law in this case and be jurors on this case. In my mind, that’s the amount of time you’re looking at just on one of the counts of direct contempt,” Judge Mark Blechman told De Pena.
According to court records, “Juror 370 revealed to the parties that she had engaged in a conversation about the case with a friend and had received information from outside the courtroom which would affect her ability to be fair and impartial.”
“A mistrial is a tremendous expense and inconvenience to the parties, the court and the taxpayers,” Blechman said.
Okafor was originally sentenced to death in 2015, found guilty in the 2012 murder of Alex Zaldivar, 19, who was slated to testify against Okafor in a home invasion case.
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A jury voted 11-1 to sentence Okafor to death in 2015, but the Florida Supreme Court in 2016 ruled on unanimous jury recommendations for such a sentence. Following this, one of Okafor’s attorneys announced he would attempt to get his client off death row, seeing Okafor’s case overturned in 2017.
In 2020, a new Florida Supreme Court with more conservative justices ruled that a unanimous jury was not required to sentence someone to death, reversing the previous decision.
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law in April that allows death sentences to be imposed if eight out of 12 jurors recommend it, the law that Okafor was being resentenced under. Florida prosecutors originally sought to have Okafor’s death penalty reinstated instead of holding a resentencing trial at all.
Zaldivar’s father, Rafael Zaldivar, says he wants to see De Pena in jail for causing the mistrial.
“We don’t want to go through this again. I don’t want Alex’s mother to go through this again,” Zaldivar said. “It’s unbelievable that I still have to come out here and fight for my son and now this girl to do what she did.”
De Pena’s next hearing is scheduled for Jan. 4 at 10 a.m.
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