Woman accused of lying to get out of jury deliberations arrested
ORLANDO, Fla. - A juror accused of causing a mistrial was handcuffed in court on Thursday.
Kayla De Pena, 26, admitted to lying to the court after being selected in the re-sentencing of convicted killer Bessman Okafor.
In November, De Pena told a judge that she talked about the case with a friend, which would have affected her ability to be fair when it came to the death sentence. On Thursday, she claimed that she never had a conversation about the trial and that she fabricated the story to get out of deliberations. De Pena was handcuffed and taken to jail, charged with contempt of court.
Okafor was convicted of killing 19-year-old Alex Zaldivar, who was scheduled to serve as a witness in Okafor’s home invasion trial in 2012.
He was previously sentenced to death by a vote of 11-1, but it was overturned by the Florida Supreme Court because the vote wasn’t unanimous.
This year, Governor Ron DeSantis created a new law that eliminated the need for a unanimous vote. In this case, the re-sentencing trial was to be carried out with the new rule, which requires an 8-4 vote.