JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A man convicted of killing a woman and her 10-month-old baby in 2004 was sentenced to death once again 19 years after the murders.
John Mosley Jr. was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Lynda Wilkes and sentenced to death for her son’s, Jay-Quan Mosley, murder in 2005. The two disappeared in 2004 and when authorities found Wilkes in Alachua County a month later, her body was burned. Her son’s body was never found.
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Mosley was charged with two counts of first-degree murder. Prosecutors said he killed Wilkes and the baby when she asked for child support. Mosley denied the baby was his and invoked his right to a speedy trial.
The death sentence was vacated in 2016 because the vote wasn’t unanimous. In 2018, Mosley filed for a new trial, stating that there was new evidence.
A resentencing hearing was held in 2019, and the jury was unanimous for the death penalty.
Days before the final phase of the death penalty case, Mosley said he wanted to represent himself as his own lawyer.
The judge denied that request and sentenced him to death for a second time in January 2020.
Mosley appealed again with the U.S. Supreme Court siding with him. The court ruled that the trial judge should have let him represent himself in the hearing. In the May 31 hearing, Mosley had a lawyer and was sentenced to death again Friday.
He still denies that Jay-Quan was his child.
Because this third death sentence still goes to the original case, there are still years of appeals ahead in state and federal courts.