People rallied in support of Dayonte Resiles, a convicted killer, Wednesday outside the Broward County Jail in Fort Lauderdale, hoping he could see them from his jail cell.
Family and friends of Resiles’ held up signs of support claiming his innocence.
On March 18, a jury found Resiles guilty of first degree murder in the stabbing death of Jill Halliburton Su in her Davie home in 2014.
Resiles now faces the possibility of the death penalty as a sentence.
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That has increased the pressure for those who believe he is innocent to show support for him and circulate a petition to avoid the death penalty.
“It’s definitely to prove his innocence,” Nisha Scott of Fort Lauderdale said. “We believe firmly that Dayonte is not guilty and we are going to go to whatever extent we can to prove this to the community.”
State prosecutors say DNA evidence found in three places at the crime scene link him to the 2014 murder.
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“So I have absolutely zero doubt that he is guilty and I think that a lot of the people that support him are just not well informed,” prosecutor Maria Schneider said.
Resiles also escaped from the Broward County Courthouse in 2016 and is on lockdown 23 hours a day.
A hearing is set for April 1st to schedule the penalty phase, which is estimated could take several weeks to complete.
