Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2007. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Miami Herald - June 13, 2007
Wanda J. DeMarzo, wdemarzo@MiamiHerald.com
Prosecutors had asked the 12 jurors to sentence Wilk to death for the killing of BSO Deputy Todd Fatta as Fatta served a federal search warrant on Aug. 19, 2004.
The jurors heard two days of testimony during the sentencing portion of the trial.
No one has been sentenced to death in Florida in a federal capital case since the federal death penalty was restored in 1988.
To sentence Wilk to death, the jury would have had to reach a unanimous verdict.
Jurors, who began deliberating Tuesday at around 4 p.m., came back with a sentence around 2 p.m. BSO deputies crowded the courtroom, and Sheriff Ken Jenne came to hear the sentence.
Fatta's family left the courtroom quickly after the sentence was read, with his mother Josephine Fatta in tears. The family said they were disappointed with the sentence.
Last week, jurors convicted Wilk of murder, attempted murder, child pornography and obstruction of justice.
Prosecutors said Wilk, 45, planned to kill Fatta, contending that Wilk had held a grudge against law enforcement officers long before he shot Fatta in the chest with a high-powered rifle.
Wilk's defense attorney, Bill Matthewman, said his client was suffering from AIDS-related dementia and had appealed to the jury to spare Wilk's life.
On Tuesday, Matthewman told jurors that sentencing Wilk to life in prison is essentially like a death sentence, since Wilk will not be eligible for parole.
"In federal court, life in prison means life in prison," Matthewman said. "He will walk into a federal prison and come out in a casket."
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