JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Dec. 14 (UPI) -- A Florida jury says David Kelsey Sparre should face the death penalty in the stabbing death of a Navy wife he met on Craigslist.
Sparre was convicted earlier this month of first-degree murder in the slaying of Tiara Pool, 21, a mother of two who was found stabbed to death in July 2010, The (Jacksonville) Times-Union reported Wednesday.
The 20-year-old man from Waynesville, Ga., had answered Pool's personal ad on Craigslist and visited Pool while her Navy husband was deployed at sea. Sparre admitted having sex with the woman and then killing her, but said it wasn't premeditated, the newspaper said.
The unanimous death penalty recommendation was made Tuesday after about an hour of deliberation.
Chief Assistant Public Defender Refik Eler said he was prepared to call more than a dozen witnesses on Sparre's behalf but the defendant told the judge he didn't want the witnesses to testify.
Eler said Sparre was the victim of physical and emotional abuse as a child.
"Some people would say a life sentence without parole is a sentence worse than death," Eler told jurors in his closing argument. "… Will society gain anything by putting Kelsey to death? I suggest to you, no."
