A Broward jury sat and listened Wednesday to the 1996 confession of Howard Steven Ault, who told police he killed two little girls because he was on probation and he needed their silence to keep from being sent back to prison.
His confession may help send him to death row.
Ault, 57, is in the middle of his third penalty-phase trial — his death sentences from 1999 and 2007 were each overturned on appeal. The current jury in Broward County has been told that Ault is guilty of the rape and murder of DeAnn Emerald Mu’min, 11, and the murder of her sister, Alicia Sybilla Jones, 7, in Oakland Park.
Jurors must agree unanimously that Ault meets the legal requirements to justify a death sentence. One justification would be that the victims were killed to prevent them from testifying against the killer.
In his recorded confession, Ault gave prosecutors exactly what they wanted, admitting that the murders were committed after he raped Mu’mim because he was on probation for previous sexual batteries against minors and did not want to go back to prison.
“There is no help for people who think like me,” he said.
In his confession, Ault also said he had been sexually abused in his youth by his brother. Juries are allowed to consider that evidence as a mitigating factor to argue against the death penalty.
Jurors must find that prosecutors have proved at least one aggravating factor beyond a reasonable doubt in order to justify a death sentence, and that those aggravators outweigh mitigators.
Once that determination is made, eight of the 12 jurors must recommend death. If fewer than eight agree, Ault will be sentenced to life in prison.
The trial is expected to conclude next week.
Rafael Olmeda can be reached at rolmeda@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4457.