Bessman Okafor, left, was convicted of the 2012 murder of Alex Zaldivar, 19, in Ocoee, Florida. A jury sentenced him to death, but the Florida Supreme Court overturned the sentence because it was not unanimous. (Okafor: Florida Department of Corrections; Zaldivar photo via his obituary)
After a rocky penalty phase process, jurors on Wednesday recommended — again — that Bessman Charles-Obinna Okafor, 39, receive the death sentence for fatally shooting Alex Zaldivar, 19, in a 2012 home invasion. The vote was 9 to 3, according to records out of Orange County, Florida.
Another panel reached the same decision in 2015, voting 11 to 1. The following year, however, Florida’s Supreme Court ruled that death sentences must be unanimous. This sparked a years-long fight over the nature of the death penalty in the Sunshine State. The current status quo is that jurors only need an 8 to 4 vote to recommend death.
Prosecutors tried again last year, but that hit a major snag when one of the new jurors caused a mistrial of the penalty phase. In November 2023, Kayla De Peña told the court she had discussed the case with a friend, which made her ability to be impartial impossible. In her sentencing on Jan. 4, she told Judge Mark Blechman that was a lie, that she made it up to get out of jury service and was struggling financially. She received the maximum sentence of 179 days behind bars and a $500 fine for contempt of court.
With that out of the way, jurors finished the most recent penalty phase against Okafor on Wednesday. Zaldivar’s father, Rafael Zaldivar, welcomed the news cautiously in light of the yearslong uncertainty over Okafor’s fate. After all, jurors once again fell short of unanimity.
“I’m grateful that he’s being sent back to death row, but we were looking for a 12-0 because we may need to come back here again in the future …” said Zaldivar’s father, Rafael Zaldivar. “They saw the pictures, you know. My son was executed on the ground. Two shots to the back or the head, you know, this is what happens in the Middle East.”
Okafor’s motive for shooting Zaldivar and two survivors was to stop them from testifying against him in a prior home invasion in which he sought but did not find drugs, authorities said. Co-defendant Nolan Bernard, 38, is currently serving a life sentence.
Okafor has yet to receive a formal sentence. The defense will have another opportunity to present more evidence against the death penalty in a Spencer hearing on April 22.
Brandi Buchman contributed to this report.
