A Broward jury will try again to determine the fate of a man whose double-murder conviction was over-turned on appeal.
Peter Avsenew was found guilty in 2017 for the 2010 murders of Kevin Powell, 52, and Stephen Adams, 47, in Wilton Manors.
During closing arguments Thursday morning, assistant state attorney Molly McGuire laid out the evidence linking Avsenew to the crime.
The evidence included his living with the victims, going on a shopping spree with their credit cards, and “ditching” their car at a Walmart in Haines City where his mother lives.
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“The only reasonable scenario is that Peter Avsenew killed these men in their home and [left],” she said.
Public Defender Gabe Ermine said there were at least two other people who could have committed the murders.
“[Prosecutors] want you to convict and kill Peter Avsenew,” he shouted in court. “He is not guilty.”
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Jurors deliberated for three hours Thursday and resumed Friday morning.
The Florida Supreme Court overturned the 2017 conviction partly because his since-deceased mother testified against him via a video monitor and the judges found he was not able to face his accuser in person.
Avsenew, now 37, met the two men through personal advertising on Craigslist seeking an older established male partner who could “take care of him.”
Powell and Adams took him into their Wilton Manors home in 2010. Their “brutally” beaten, and bullet-riddled bodies were discovered around Christmas.
