Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 16, 1994 TAG: 9402160096
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: GAINESVILLE, FLA. LENGTH: Medium
Danny Harold Rolling, 39, of Shreveport, La., now faces a sentencing hearing to determine whether he will be sent to the electric chair.
"These crimes warrant the death penalty," State Attorney Rod Smith said.
The plea came just as the court was preparing to pick a jury. Starting today, a jury will be selected to hear the penalty phase of the trial and recommend the sentence for Rolling. But the judge will make the final decision.
Relatives of the victims quietly wept during the plea and while the prosecutor gave a chilling account of each of the crimes, which included one decapitation.
They later issued a plea for privacy through Police Detective Sadie Darnell. "They need this time to process the information," she said.
Rolling's plea covered 11 counts - five of first-degree murder, and three each of sexual battery and armed burglary.
"Your Honor, I have been running from first one thing and then another all my life. Whether from problems at home or with the law, or from myself. But there are some things that you just can't run from . . . this being one of those," Rolling told Circuit Judge Stan Morris.
Rolling is already serving several life sentences in Florida State Prison as a career criminal for robberies and burglaries.
The primary evidence against Rolling was DNA, the genetic blueprints left behind by blood and semen; marks made by a screwdriver; fibers; and confessions, including a signed, handwritten confession.
Mario Taboada, brother of victim Manuel Taboada, said it was difficult to hear the prosecutor talk about his brother's slaying.
"I've been imagining what took place that day, over and over," Taboada said. "It angers me that it ever took place.
"I don't choose to focus my energy, my anger and my sorrow on this individual. I have no pity for the individual. This is a life form gone bad."
Smith said Taboada was sleeping when Rolling pried open the door, stabbed him repeatedly, then attacked his roommate.
"While still covered with the blood of Manuel Taboada, the defendant then subdued Tracy Paules," Smith said, adding that Rolling taped Paules' mouth and hands with tape, tore off her T-shirt and raped her. He then stabbed her three times in the back.
Public defender Rick Parker told reporters after the hearing that Rolling had decided Jan. 26 to plead guilty because "he wanted to do the right thing."
The mutilated bodies of Christina Powell, 17, of Jacksonville, and Sonja Larson, 18, of Deerfield Beach, both University of Florida students, were found Aug. 26, 1990, in their townhouse. The decapitated body of Christa Hoyt, 18, of Archer, a student at Santa Fe Community College in Gainesville, was found early Aug. 27.
The bodies of Paules and Taboada, both 23 and from the Miami area, were found in the apartment they shared Aug. 28.
by CNB