JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A 20-year-old man was convicted Friday of first-degree murder in the stabbing death of a 21-year-old Navy wife he met on Craigslist.
David Sparre could face the death penalty when he's sentenced for killing Tiara Pool. That phase of the trial will begin Dec. 13.
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During the trial, prosecutors described what they called the ruthless and violent killing of Pool, a mother of two boys, in her Hodges Boulevard apartment in July 2010.
"Eighty-nine. Over 89 stab wounds or cuts made by that man when he brutally killed the young lady," prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda said. "What killed this innocent young lady was major stab wounds to her back. She was cut across her neck, she was stabbed across her back numerous times, and she was left on her bedroom floor naked, left to die."
Prosecutors said Pool posted an ad on Craigslist seeking friendship. They said Pool's husband was out at sea, and they were having problems in their marriage. Prosecutors said Pool's sons were out of town with her in-laws when she was killed.
Attorneys said Sparre, who was living in Georgia, responded to the online ad, and he and Pool text messaged each other for about a week until they finally met in Jacksonville.
Sparre told Pool he was visiting his grandmother, who had to go to St. Vincent's Medical Center, prosecutors said. Surveillance video shows him walking around the hospital.
Prosecutors said the two met at the hospital, but eventually went back to Pool's apartment. That's where attorneys disagree on what led to her killing.
"He realized what had happened, and it was too late," defense attorney Michael Bateh said. "He saw the body of Tiara Pool laying there in her own blood."
Defense attorneys said Sparre and Pool were intimate, and when Sparre found out she was married, he blacked out and then found her dead, not realizing what he did.
Prosecutors said Sparre never blacked out. He not only killed her with her own kitchen knife, but stole some of her things before leaving and heading back to the hospital, prosecutors said. They said he even sold her PlayStation to a pawn shop in Georgia.
Police said it was four days until a concerned friend, Michelle Edwards, went to check on Pool and found her dead in her bedroom.
"I went to open the bedroom door," Edwards testified. "When I opened it, I noticed that her hand was there, and then I ran, I turned around and ran out the door."