ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – The juror blamed for causing a mistrial in the resentencing of convicted killer Bessman Okafor was sentenced to over 100 days in jail by a judge.
On Jan. 9, Kayla De Pena, 26, was ordered to spent 179 days in jail for direct criminal contempt of court charges and pay a $500 fine – both maximum sentences the court could impose.
Back in November, De Pena said during deliberations that she had talked about the Bessman Okafor case with a friend and got information that would affect her ability to be fair and impartial when it came to a possible death sentence.
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Thursday, De Pena told the judge that she lied about having any conversations about the trial, in the hopes of getting out of further jury service.
One juror in the previous case said De Pena was upset because that night she needed to be back at work.
“We were called back in the room, and the judge told us we were going to be sequestered for the night, explained the rules and then we went back to the deliberation room,” the juror told the court. “And she asked to speak to the judge and before she walked out, she said she was about to make that a mistrial.”
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.
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. Okafor’s sentence was 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.
Okafor was being resentenced under that law.
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