A Florida man will serve life in prison without parole plus 60 years to run consecutively for the 2018 slayings of his girlfriend and their young special-needs daughter.
Ronnie Oneal III represented himself during his trial, where testimony and evidence showed he viciously beat and shot his girlfriend, Kenyatta Barron, and then used a hatchet to kill their 9-year-old autistic daughter, who also had cerebral palsy.
Oneal also attempted to kill his 8-year-old son, stabbing him repeatedly before setting fire to the family home.
Judge Michelle Sisco sentenced the 32-year-old to three life terms, plus 90 years in Hillsborough County court Friday, saying she had rarely encountered such a horrible case.
“Nineteen years I’ve been in this job,” Sisco said. “I’ve seen human beings killed by the hands of others in every way imaginable. This is the worst case I have ever seen. I know I will be haunted for the rest of my life,” she told the courtroom.
Oneal, on the other hand, lacked emotion as he addressed his victim’s family, saying, “At first I want to say I’m not sorry for the things I didn’t do, and I’m not sorry for the things I did do. But I will say I’m sorry for your loss.”
“He done what a coward would do,” Carrie Lloyd, the mother of Kenyatta Barron, said.
Lloyd shared her frustration as she told the judge that she is not happy that the jury did not give Oneal the death penalty for his crimes.
“I’m not pleased with what the verdict was, and I wish you could overturn it and give him what he’s rightfully due,” Lloyd continued.
