FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A South Florida defendant who once made national news when he escaped by dashing out of a courtroom during a pretrial hearing on murder charges has been convicted of that killing.
Dayonte Resiles, 27, was convicted Friday of first-degree murder for the 2014 stabbing death Jill Halliburton Su at her suburban Fort Lauderdale home. Su was bound at her hands and feet, forced into a bathtub and stabbed about 25 times during a burglary. Prosecutors said DNA found in the home tied Resiles to the scene.
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The jury will now decide whether Resiles should be sentenced to death or life in prison without parole.
During a 2016 hearing, Resiles unlocked his shackles and fled from a hearing, running down the courthouse stairs to an awaiting car. He was recaptured after a six-day manhunt.
His case again gained national attention in December when his first trial for the Su slaying ended in an unusual mistrial. The jury announced it had convicted him of manslaughter, but the jury forewoman then said she disagreed with the verdict. She said she believed he was guilty of murder.