Stuck in a Miami Beach apartment alone with a man who had just gotten out of prison for severely beating a tourist in Broward County, 18-year-old Karolay Adrianza knew she was in trouble. Over a period of two hours and 39 minutes in the predawn hours of St. Patrick’s Day 1998, she dialed the number of another man 100 times in a desperate bid to get out of her situation.
He never came back. She never saw another sunrise.
Had Michael Seibert been in prison serving a reasonable portion of his sentence for the 1986 kidnapping and beating of British nurse Kathryn Mary Jones, Adrianza might still be alive today. She certainly would not have died at Seibert’s hands or suffered the grisly fate that investigators discovered when they made their way into the apartment he shared with a friend on Collins Avenue.
More than 25 years later, Seibert has joined the list of former death row inmates who have been given another chance at a life sentence due to court rulings about the constitutionality of Florida’s death penalty process. The Florida Supreme Court ruled in 2017 that Seibert was entitled to a resentencing because the jury in his original trial, which began in late 2002 and ended with his sentencing on March 24, 2003, was never asked whether the state proved the capital punishment was legally warranted.
At the time of the state Supreme Court ruling, Florida’s death penalty laws were in flux, with the U.S. Supreme Court finding the state gave too much power to judges and not enough to juries.
Today those issues have been settled. A Florida jury must find the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The jury must find, unanimously, that the state proved “aggravating factors” beyond a reasonable doubt, and that those aggravating factors outweigh any mitigating factors presented by the defense.
Only then can the jury entertain a death sentence recommendation. At least eight jurors have to recommend the death penalty in order for the judge to send a defendant to death row.
For Seibert, now 56, the sentencing phase retrial is an opportunity to seek a mercy he never showed Jones or Adrianza.
Seibert was six days shy of his 20th birthday when he pleaded guilty to attacking Jones in exchange for a 30-year sentence. According to the South Florida Sun Sentinel coverage at the time, he knew he faced a life sentence if he had taken the case to trial.
“It’s good to know that the guilty man is behind bars, that he won’t attack anyone else,” said Peter Spiceley, the British consul in Miami.
Spiceley’s prediction would not come to pass. Seibert served only 10 years and 58 days. Officials blamed prison crowding and lenient state and federal laws — It wasn’t unusual at the time for prisoners to serve about one-third of their sentences because of parole and sentencing guidelines.
Parole has since been abolished in Florida.
According to the file in the Miami Beach murder case, Seibert had lived with his roommate for a few weeks. He was still using drugs — according to trial testimony he, the victim and the other man, whom the victim had been dating, were snorting cocaine together in the hours before the murder.
Seibert’s roommate and the victim’s boyfriend left about 3 a.m. to get beer and cigarettes. When the roommate returned, Adrianza learned her boyfriend left without her. That’s when she started trying to call him. Seibert convinced his roommate to give him time alone to seduce Adrianza. The roommate testified that he left about 4 a.m.
When the roommate tried to return hours later, Seibert wouldn’t let him into the apartment. He even threatened to commit suicide, which prompted the roommate to call 911.
After one officer got a glance of a severed foot in Seibert’s bathroom, Seibert made a break for the hallway. He was quickly apprehended.
The details in the case file are horrific. The victim’s flesh from the waist down was mostly gone. Investigators believe Seibert cut her and flushed pieces down his toilet.
At first Seibert denied committing the crime. A few minutes later, after being told he was being charged, he said he messed up. “I guess I am going to prison,” he said.
Seibert was in court Friday for a status hearing, affirming that he does intend to represent himself. A phone call placed to an attorney who previously represented him was not returned as of Friday afternoon.
Prosecutors typically do not discuss pending cases, but the gruesomeness of the crime is likely to be raised when the sentencing retrial goes to a jury, which is expected to happen at some point in 2025.
Rafael Olmeda can be reached at rolmeda@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4457.