The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the conviction and death sentence of a Lee County man in the murder-for-hire death of his wife.
Justices unanimously rejected arguments by attorneys for Mark D. Sievers, who was convicted in the 2015 homicide of Teresa Sievers, a physician who was bludgeoned with hammers after returning dwelling from a trip.
Sievers was accused of asking a longtime buddy, Curtis Wayne Wright Jr., to homicide Teresa Sievers. Wright, who anticipated to obtain a portion of life-insurance cash, recruited one other man, Jimmy Ray Rodgers, and so they traveled to Florida from Missouri, in line with the Supreme Court opinion.
Teresa Sievers returned dwelling alone from a household trip and was attacked after coming into her dwelling. During a trial, an legal professional for Mark Sievers argued “there was no credible evidence” tying him to the crime, the Supreme Court opinion stated.
But a jury in 2019 discovered him responsible of first-degree homicide and conspiracy to commit homicide, and he was later sentenced to death.
Mark Sievers raised a sequence of challenges on the Supreme Court to the conviction and death sentence, however the justices rejected them.
“Wright’s testimony was sufficient to establish every necessary element of the crime, and it is not for our (Supreme) Court to determine the credibility of that testimony,” the 38-page opinion stated. “Specifically, the jury could conclude from Wright’s testimony that Sievers had promised to pay Wright to murder Dr. Sievers, that Sievers and Wright carefully planned the murder weeks in advance, and that Wright and Rodgers murdered Dr. Sievers according to Sievers’ plan.”