VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. – R.J. Larizza, state attorney for the Seventh Judicial Circuit, gave notice Wednesday that the state intends to seek the death penalty against Charles Leon Ivy.
Ivy, 34, of Ormond Beach, is charged with first-degree arson, two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder in the deaths of 30-year-old Den’Jah Moore and her 10-month-old son in November, as well for injuries inflicted on a 4-year-old and a 5-year-old — Ivy’s children — who were hospitalized in critical condition after investigators say they were all left to die their burning Daytona Beach home. Moore had been stabbed more than 100 times, found dead by firefighters who were called to the Countryside Apartments on Beville Road, and her son died at a hospital, according to law enforcement.
The following day, Ormond Beach police fulfilled a request to notify Ivy that his children were in the hospital as Daytona Beach investigators found themselves unable to contact him in any way. Ivy was reportedly seen that afternoon loading suitcases and bags into an SUV at his Ormond Beach residence, where he was subsequently brought to the Daytona Beach Police Department for questioning after a traffic stop, arrested and held on no bond by Volusia County Corrections.
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The accused killer was indicted by a grand jury earlier this month on his charges. Most recently in Volusia County court, Ivy’s defense asked the judge to put a temporary restriction on media discovery and on comments to the media from people involved in the case, referencing Daytona Beach police Chief Jakari Young’s sentiment that Ivy “deserves a special place in the gates of hell for what he did to this mother and these children,” claiming the chief showed prejudice.
“If those statements were to be said over and over again from law enforcement or the head law enforcement officer, I could see where the defense then could be concerned, but a two-sentence quote in an article one time, I do not find is prejudicial,” Judge Leah Case said, ultimately denying the request.
Larizza’s notice states that the prosecution believes it can prove beyond a reasonable doubt Ivy has a history of threats of violence, that capital felonies were committed for the purpose of avoiding or preventing a lawful arrest or effecting an escape from custody and more aggravating factors, including that the felonies were “especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel” and that they were “committed in a cold, calculated, and premeditated manner without any pretense of moral or legal justification.”
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