Murder Accused Punches Lawyer In US, Flashes Killer Etched On Teeth As He Is Sentenced

Sep 23, 2023

He was immediately tackled to the ground by the surrounding officers.

Florida man, Joseph Zieler, who was convicted of murdering an 11-year-old girl and her 32-year-old babysitter in 1990, punched his own lawyer on Monday after he was sentenced to death for double murders. The 61-year-old reportedly had the word "Killer" etched onto his teeth at the volatile sentencing.

The video of the incident has surfaced on the internet. It shows Zieler appeared to gesture for his attorney, Kevin Shirley, to come close so he could whisper something to him without the microphones picking it up. Despite being surrounded by two cops, Zieler punched his lawyer Kevin Shirley.

He was immediately tackled to the ground by the surrounding officers.

A judge in southwest Florida has sentenced #JosephZieler to death pic.twitter.com/BuejerAGbb

The judge asked the lawyer if he was ok, and he calmly responded, "I'm fine. I used to box, I've taken a lot better shots than that."

According to Independent report, Joseph Zieler was found guilty in May for the 1990 murders of 11-year-old Robin Cornell and her babysitter Lisa Story, 32. The victims were found beaten, raped and suffocated to death by the child's mother, but it would be more than two decades before an arrest was made in the case.

In 2016, investigators in Cape Coral, Florida linked Zieler when forensic tests revealed that semen found at the scene matched his DNA.

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He was arrested in 2016 and seven years later, a grand jury delivered a guilty verdict and recommended that he should be sentenced to death for his crimes, the media outlet reported.

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