HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — A jury on Friday recommended life in prison without the possibility of parole for convicted murderer Ronnie O'Neal.
He was convicted of brutally killing his girlfriend Kenyatta Barron and their daughter Ron'Niveya.
The jury began deliberating shortly before 1 p.m. Friday after closing arguments ended in the death penalty phase.
O'Neal appeared to be smiling after the sentence recommendation was read.
It took the jury about four and a half hours Monday to find O’Neal guilty on all counts in the 2018 murders of his girlfriend Kenyatta Barron and their 9-year-old daughter.
O’Neal argued he killed Barron but only because she killed their daughter with special needs.
The jury agreed with prosecutors that O’Neal brutally murdered them both before stabbing and setting fire to his then-8-year-old son, attempting to kill him, too.
The 12-person jury had to unanimously recommend capital punishment for that to be the sentence.
Prosecutors began the latest phase of testimony with the 911 call Barron had made after O'Neal shot her.
"That screaming is the defendant shooting her for the second time. What you hear is her pleading," prosecutor Scott Harmon said of the 911 call. "She knew she was going to die. That's what those screams were all about."
Harmon said O'Neal gave Kenyatta "no pity or mercy" after he had shot her twice and she was trying to escape to a neighbor's home.
"The last sound out of this woman's body was an expression of pain. This woman suffered. Every single second she suffered," he continued.
During closing arguments, Hillsborough County Public Defender Jennifer Spradley argued that O'Neal's life experiences had shaped him.
"Ronnie O'Neal is more than the worst things that he has ever done. He is a human being," she said. "Mr. O'Neal is not beyond redemption. Under no circumstances should you vote death."
Prosecutor Harmon acknowledged that O'Neal was sexually abused as a child and said the jury should consider that. He said it's up to the jurors to decide how much weight that carries when deciding where O'Neal lives or dies.