TAMPA – A man convicted of the murder of an 11-year-old girl and her nanny in southwest Florida caused a chaotic scene in a courtroom Monday after elbowing one of his attorneys.
As shown in video taken inside the Lee County courthouse, Joseph Zieler of North Fort Myers was being led by two deputies when he made a sudden move and elbowed an attorney in the forehead.
The footage shows the two deputies immediately grabbing Zieler and throwing him to the ground. The lawyer said that he was fine after the incident.
Zieler was found guilty of the murders of Lisa Story, 32, and Robin Cornell, 11, which occurred in Cape Coral in 1990.
In accordance with News-Pressthe bodies of the babysitter and the little girl were discovered by the mother of the minor, when she returned home after spending the night at her boyfriend’s house.
Zieler was arrested in late 2016 after a DNA sample linked him to the case, and a jury found him guilty in May of this year.
At Monday’s hearing, a judge dismissed his request for a new trial for the crimes. Zieler could be sentenced to death.
