A man convicted of the decades-old double homicide of an 11-year-old girl and her babysitter attacked his own lawyer in a Florida courtroom on Monday, throwing an elbow into the attorney’s jaw before he was tackled by officers.
Hours later, he was sentenced to death.
Joseph Zieler, 61, appeared in court shackled at the wrists and wearing an orange jumpsuit. He demanded officials “take down” the cameras, using an expletive, according to The News-Press. He appeared to have the word “killer” scrawled on his teeth.
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As the hearing proceeds, footage shows him beckon to his lawyer, Kevin Shirley, who approaches him and leans over.
“He acted like he didn’t want our conversation to get picked up by the microphone,” Shirley later told WINK-TV. “... And he struck me.”
Without warning, Zieler launches an elbow at Shirley, who stumbles out of the camera’s frame. Two bailiffs then grab Zieler and tackle him to the ground.
As Zieler is escorted out of the courtroom, Shirley can be seen taking a seat, apparently unruffled. Responding to the judge, who asks him if he’s all right, Shirley says, “I used to box. I’ve taken a lot better shots than that one.”
“I had no idea he was going to do something like that,” he told WINK-TV. “Obviously he’s been planning on that. But as he was going down, he said he was sorry he missed.”
Last month, Zieler was found guilty of killing young Robin Cornell and her babysitter, 32-year-old Lisa Story. Cornell’s mother, Jan, discovered the bodies in the family’s Cape Coral apartment on May 10, 1990. Investigators later found that both victims had been suffocated and sexually assaulted. Several items were also stolen from the home.
The case went unsolved for more than a quarter-century before Zieler was arrested in Nov. 2016 on charges of assaulting his stepson. Forensic evidence subsequently linked him to the crime.
Monday’s assault was hardly Zieler’s first outburst in the courtroom. During his three-day trial, he flashed the middle finger, called Jan Cornell a “pig,” and screamed at the jury while testifying in his own defense.
“His conduct on the stand did not help,” Zieler’s other attorney, Lee Hollander, said at the time. “If you’re in a hole, stop digging. That’s what I wanted to say right then and there.”
On May 18, the jury returned a guilty verdict after three hours of deliberation. Zieler smirked at the camera as the decision was read aloud, according to WINK-TV. In a separate hearing, all but two jurors recommended he receive the death penalty.
Zieler has maintained his innocence throughout his arrest and trial, saying Monday, “I have nothing to do with this.”
The judge handed down the death penalty after a two-hour hearing during which six witnesses were called to testify, including Jan Cornell, Robyn’s sister Jani, and Story’s then-boyfriend.
“The person that did this,” Jani Cornell said, her voice shaking, “should never be able to hurt anyone else.”
