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00:00Three women had been murdered in just over 60 days, time period.
00:18Gunshot wound to the face, shot in the head, shot in the head.
00:29We did have a serial killer.
00:31Serial murderers kill because they like to kill and it's something they do.
00:35And it's just innate in them.
00:36This person that we're looking for is a clean cut person.
00:39They're preying on women that are from a lower rung of society.
00:45Some people may consider disposable.
00:48So they focused on the prostitution community.
00:50And any John they could stop, they were swabbing him for DNA.
00:54We had a good DNA profile, we just didn't know who he was.
00:57There had been big stories about serial killers being found and located with the use of genetic
01:02genealogy.
01:03Investigators here decided, no reason we can't.
01:07We can do it too.
01:08One of their undercover units was able to pick up a discarded bear can and a cigarette.
01:14And the next day we had a conclusive match.
01:16Fourteen years later, but I was pretty sure we had our guy.
01:19This is an individual who plotted and plotted and he preyed on these three women.
01:27And you will come back with the verdict for death.
01:319-1-1, where is your emergency?
01:47I was at the corner of Williamson and Mason.
01:52And there's somebody laying there in the woods to the south, right where you pull in at.
01:59Sure is.
02:00I wasn't sure, but it looked like, actually it looked like a female.
02:05And it looked like she was laying there, shaking.
02:09I didn't touch anything.
02:10I turned around and got the hell out of Dodge.
02:14Okay.
02:15Okay, sir.
02:16Thanks for letting us know.
02:17We'll get us out there to check it out.
02:22When police got there, they discovered the body of Awana Patton.
02:26My aunt didn't have any enemies.
02:28There was no one after her.
02:30It just, it just did not make sense at the time.
02:33Awana Patton was recovered in a, or on a walking path in a wooded area.
02:43My name is Andrew Urbanic.
02:44I'm an assistant state attorney in the Homicide Investigations Unit.
02:48She was found nude, gunshot wound to the face.
02:53The forensic evidence was a recovered .40 caliber American Eagle ammunition.
02:59Uh, and also the sexual assault kit was conducted on Miss Patton as well.
03:04DNA was recovered from her, from her vaginal swabs.
03:08It was the third such body to be found in three months in deserted areas of Daytona Beach.
03:14There was certainly a sense of fear in this community at that time because you had one homicide per month for three months.
03:22The first victim had been found the day after Christmas, Laquetta Gunther, who had a history of prostitution arrests.
03:29She was known as, as an energetic, happy person, uh, just engaged in a, a high risk lifestyle.
03:36She was found in a small alleyway, an alleyway that was so small that a grown man really couldn't walk down it.
03:45She had been murdered in a similar fashion, shot in the head.
03:49She was found, uh, stripped and alone and dead.
03:53They found in a piece of her clothing the bullet, or a bullet that was used to shoot her.
04:00They did a sexual assault kit where they collect DNA samples from various parts of a victim's body.
04:08And then in mid-January, the body of Julie Green was found in a construction area.
04:14Julie Green came from a good family as well, but she had, uh, come across some tough times.
04:20Um, she was, um, engaging in prostitution and drug use.
04:25She was found nude. She was found face down.
04:29She had been murdered in a similar fashion, shot in the head.
04:34Obviously, at this point, we had a, a serial murderer, uh, on the loose in Daytona,
04:38who was targeting people with prostitution in their background or prostitutes.
04:43My name is Jason Lewis, Chief of Homicide, State Attorney's Office, 7th Judicial Circuit.
04:51So, they're all shot in the head area, and all of them just left out there in the open to be found by somebody.
04:58Florida Department of Investigation released that they are officially calling the Daytona murders linked and the work of a serial killer.
05:05This person that we're looking for is a clean-cut person.
05:08This person that we're looking for is somebody, uh, this guy probably got a good job.
05:12He was somebody that you'll never suspect.
05:16But to, you know, open up the local newspaper and to see that, you know,
05:20Daytona Beach was actively pursuing a serial killer kind of just hits a little bit too close to home.
05:33My name is Lieutenant David Dinardi with the Daytona Beach Police Department.
05:37Each of the victims was found naked.
05:40Um, they were face down, and the only thing that they were wearing was socks.
05:49With two of the victims, Iwana Patton and Laquetta Gunther, there was a DNA match for the killer.
05:55The person who the DNA belonged to had never been arrested.
06:00We had a good, a good DNA profile, we just didn't know who he was.
06:04And for two of the victims, Julie Green and Iwana Patton, the bullets had come from the same gun.
06:10The gun that we knew that we were looking for was a Smith & Wesson .40 caliber, and the model was VE.
06:19The investigators at the time, um, they went around to local gun shops in Daytona Beach
06:25and started compiling a list of people who had purchased that weapon.
06:30And a crime analyst provided a profile of the killer.
06:33The key points of the profile was that we were looking for a, um, a white male, uh, somewhere between mid to late 20s to early 40s,
06:44uh, was thought to be in a relationship with a female, and then, but then it also had anger or a temper.
06:51Daytona Beach is known for its spring break gatherings.
06:59And an annual race week.
07:03But when that's not happening, Igg, Igg is still a quiet, sleepy beach town at times.
07:08With a lesser known area of homelessness and prostitution.
07:13Ministers have been walking the streets warning about a person stalking women.
07:17They're preying on women that are from a lower, uh, rung of society because of their lifestyle or because of a drug problem.
07:28Some people may consider disposable.
07:30So they focused on the prostitution community, tried to make arrests and stops in the prostitution community,
07:37particularly the Johns, uh, people, men that were engaging in prostitution.
07:41And any John they could stop, they were swabbing him for DNA.
07:44They sent hundreds of DNA samples over the next couple of years to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for comparison.
07:51For a while, it was a rumor that it was a law enforcement officer.
07:56For a while, it was a rumor that it was this doctor who was looked into.
08:00Um, but none of those leads ended up getting to anything solid.
08:04A tire track at one of the murder scenes led to the owner of a nearby junkyard.
08:09They have a serial killer in the family, is in prison.
08:13We got his DNA compared to the, uh, you know, to the known sample that we had.
08:18And it was not a match.
08:20So, you know, he's got definitely some skeletons in his closet, but he was not the person we were looking for.
08:27Uh, ultimately the task force was disbanded sometime in, um, probably 2008, uh, without the case, you know, being solved.
08:36This case was cold.
08:39It was very frustrating. I thought that they would never find her murderer.
08:45Iwana Patton's niece wondered if the women's suspected backgrounds made the case less urgent.
08:51I did think the word prostitute definitely denigrated and blackened the case for sure.
08:57And Iwana's family knew her to be a nursing home caregiver, not a prostitute.
09:01My aunt was not a sex worker. She had her own apartment. She worked several jobs. She took care of people. And she was a great woman. She was at the wrong place at the wrong time. And she linked up with the wrong person.
09:16We just kind of moved on with our lives and the fact of understanding that we wouldn't have foreclosure as a family.
09:27But 10 years later, the killer struck again.
09:30Another victim turned up, but not in Daytona Beach. A victim turned up in the West Palm Beach area. A woman, uh, was found nude, face down, murdered, strangled to death. DNA went sent to the laboratory. Detectives were told, we have a match.
09:50Serial murders kill because they like to kill and it's something they do.
10:08Jeffrey Dahmer confessed to 17 murders.
10:12Ted Bundy confessed to 30.
10:15John Wayne Gacy convicted of 33 murders.
10:18And it's just innate in them.
10:21Who knows why someone all of a sudden flips the switch on again. But ultimately, our serial killer, he did.
10:28The victim in West Palm Beach was Rachel Bay, who had worked as a prostitute.
10:33Her body was found once again naked. She was face down. She was actually strangled in that case, so it was a little bit different.
10:41But what was the same was the male DNA found on the victims.
10:45And that was like a gold mine to be able to figure that out and start piecing things together.
10:53It breathed life back into our case. It gave us hope that even after, you know, 10 or 11 years, we'd be able to, you know, make an arrest.
11:00But even though there was a DNA match, the identity of the killer remained a mystery.
11:07It was still unknown. You know, there was still nobody in the DNA database, even though it had been expanded, you know, a lot since 2006 to take in every felony arrest.
11:16But nothing had had hit at that point.
11:19Police brought in Rachel Bay's boyfriend, Jose Gonzalez.
11:24Okay.
11:25So you want to help because this is a person that you cared about?
11:29Yes.
11:30And who are we talking about?
11:31Rachel.
11:32Okay.
11:33I call her Ray Ray.
11:34You know her by Ray Ray.
11:35She works the street, right?
11:36Yeah.
11:37Okay.
11:38So each time she left, was she seeing clients?
11:42Yeah.
11:43She said she was going to meet someone.
11:45Okay.
11:46She said she had a date.
11:48Okay.
11:49Exactly where it says, I'll be back, I'll have a date.
11:52Okay.
11:53So do you have any opinion on the race of the person that called?
11:57He was black.
11:58That didn't fit the profile of a white male that detectives had been relying on.
12:03He said she knows the person, it's one of her regular clients.
12:08All right.
12:09So let me ask you this.
12:12Were you, you've had relationship with her before.
12:15I'd like to ask if you would consent to giving us mouth samples for DNA comparison.
12:21Okay.
12:22His DNA was not a match.
12:25It was in 2017, we contracted with a private lab called Parabon and we sent them our DNA.
12:40And they couldn't give us a name of who we were looking for.
12:42But they did tell us for the first time that we were looking for a black male.
12:46And detectives now realize the profile had led them down the wrong road for years.
12:52And I think that created a belief within the investigators minds that we're looking for a middle aged white male.
12:59We're not looking for a younger person.
13:01We're not looking for anybody from a different ethnicity.
13:04We're focusing on white males.
13:06There had been big stories about serial killers being found and located with the use of genetic genealogy.
13:12The best known was the so called Golden State serial killer who had gone undetected for more than 50 years until genetic genealogy tracked him down.
13:22The answer was and always was going to be in the DNA.
13:28Investigators here in Daytona and down in Palm Beach County decided no reason we can't. We can do it too.
13:35So genetic genealogy is only used for to identify violent criminals or unidentified human remains.
13:46C.C. Moore is one of the pioneers in the new world of genetic genealogy.
13:51This case it was the first time I worked on a serial case or a known serial offender case.
13:57It's a very powerful tool but it relies on public participation and support.
14:04What's involved is essentially building a family tree using DNA submitted to various commercial ancestry sites.
14:12It took more than a year till they found a possible family connection.
14:17Law enforcement goes out and asks family members of that top match if they are willing to provide their DNA to help solve this case.
14:25And one of those people who agreed to help turned out to be the half sibling of the suspect.
14:34So then it was in Detective Dinardi's lap.
14:38We found out that she had three, three half brothers, all of them living in Florida.
14:45Palm Beach County took the lead. They recovered DNA from the first two, half brothers first. Both of those were ruled out.
14:54They then focused on the third half brother following him to a bus stop in West Palm Beach.
15:00One of their undercover units was able to pick up a discarded bear can and a cigarette that he had been drinking and smoking while waiting for the bus.
15:09They were able to collect those items, sent them to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
15:15And the next day we had a conclusive match.
15:21Fourteen years later, but I was pretty sure we had our guy.
15:24His name was Robert Hayes.
15:27Mr. Hayes?
15:32Yes, sir?
15:33James Evans.
15:34You know what, sir? Why am I here, sir? I don't...
15:36They brought him to the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office. I remember seeing him that day, you know, in the interview room.
15:41Just by your body language and by the thing that you've said to me thus far, I'm sure you're concerned about what's going on and you may have a lot of questions about why you're here and what's going on. Am I correct thus far?
15:52Yes, sir.
15:53But detectives knew the DNA match would only go so far. He may have been a customer of the prostitutes, but it did not necessarily prove he killed them.
16:03They needed a confession.
16:06Okay, we're just gonna come out and let you know exactly what's going on and why you're here. Do you understand?
16:24Yes, sir.
16:25Detectives from the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office had the first crack at Robert Hayes.
16:30Let me ask you a question, Mr. Hayes. This female here, okay? Her name is Rachel Bay. Are you familiar with this female?
16:41No, sir.
16:42Rachel Bay, have you ever seen her, met her before in your life?
16:45No, sir.
16:46You've never had any communication, encounter, or any type of interaction with her in your life?
16:51Not to my knowledge. Not to my knowledge.
16:54When you say not to your knowledge, you know that's a somewhat ambiguous statement. What exactly do you mean when you say not to my knowledge?
17:01I don't know her, sir.
17:02You don't know her?
17:03No, sir.
17:04So, you don't know her, so I'm assuming you saying you don't know her, that means you've never had any type of romantic relationship with her at all?
17:12No, sir. I don't know her, sir.
17:13Have you ever had sex with her?
17:15I don't know her, so I can't tell you if I had sex with her. I don't know her. I don't know who this woman is.
17:21Rachel Bay was killed on March 7th of 2016. She was killed on March 7th of 2016.
17:30How about a hookup? You said you've been with your fiancee for a few years?
17:35Yes, sir.
17:36Do you ever stray a little bit and maybe, you know, look to see if you can get some variety in your romantic life?
17:41It's happened.
17:42It has?
17:43Yes.
17:44How many partners, how many encounters would you say you've had with females that you've met via Backpage or some other social media site?
17:53Probably at least 50.
17:55At least 50?
17:56Yes, sir.
17:57And what about when you were in Daytona?
17:58No, sir.
18:00I don't remember a lot of them, sir. I'll be honest with you.
18:03Okay.
18:04When you say you don't remember a lot of them, what does that mean?
18:07I went in, I did what I did and I left.
18:11Would you typically use condoms with them?
18:13Yes.
18:14Did you have a preference for black women or white women or you didn't care or what?
18:18Well, whatever caught my eye at the time.
18:21Any kind of violence or anything?
18:22No, sir.
18:23Or girls said you didn't pay me enough money or anything else like that?
18:26No, sir.
18:27You said to be honest, I'll be honest.
18:28Yes, sir.
18:29Yes.
18:30Normally when I was calling Backpage I was either extremely drunk or on something.
18:35Detectives discovered that Hayes attended college in Daytona Beach at the time of the
18:40three murders there.
18:42He participated in cheerleading at the university and ended up graduating with Thune Cookman
18:47with a bachelor's degree in criminal justice.
18:49And he was actually questioned at the time as one of the people who bought a Smith & Wesson
18:54.40 caliber pistol at Buck's gun rack.
18:57They asked him, you know, do you have the gun?
19:00Mr. Hayes told them, no, I do not have the gun.
19:03I gifted it to my mother this year.
19:07And that kind of ended the investigation of Mr. Hayes.
19:12Hayes did not fit the profile of a middle-aged white male.
19:16And I think that Mr. Hayes got lost in the volume of the case.
19:22In the ten years between the crimes, Hayes had led a quiet life and was the father of two children.
19:31Mr. Hayes, have you looked at this picture real good, Mr. Hayes?
19:34Sir, I don't know this woman.
19:35You don't know this woman?
19:36No, sir.
19:37You have to be advertised via back page.
19:38You know?
19:39And to be quite frank with you, sir, we have irrefutable scientific evidence that establishes that you know her.
19:49Not only did you know her, you had sex with her.
19:52Mr. Hayes.
19:54I said, sir, I don't know this woman.
19:57All right.
19:58We have your profile, Robert Tyrone Hayes.
20:02You said you've never met Rachel Baker?
20:04You said you've never had an encounter with Rachel Baker?
20:07I don't know this woman, sir.
20:08We have your DNA, semen, inside of her vagina.
20:13That's impossible.
20:15I don't know this woman.
20:17I saw someone who was scared and someone who, you know, had got away with something for so long.
20:24And it was slowly dawning on him that he didn't get away with it.
20:28I don't have anything to do with this.
20:30All right.
20:31You don't?
20:32No, sir.
20:33I don't have anything to do with this.
20:34Whatsoever?
20:35No, sir.
20:36I don't hurt people, man.
20:38I go to work and I come home.
20:40You said something just now that captivated me.
20:43Remember you said I didn't do nothing to anybody?
20:46You just said that, right?
20:47You did.
20:48Why did you say that?
20:49Why wouldn't I say that?
20:52No, I'm asking you.
20:53What led you to say I didn't do nothing to anybody?
20:56Because that's an unequivocal statement.
20:58I don't even know why I'm here and you're bringing me about this woman and I didn't.
21:03He ended the interview as the detective kept pressing on Rachel Bay.
21:11I'd like to speak to the lawyer, man.
21:13This is good .
21:14I don't want to talk to y'all no more.
21:16I don't know what it is y'all trying to pull on me, man, but I don't.
21:19I want to go home to my family, bro.
21:21I don't.
21:22I need to talk to somebody, man.
21:24I don't want to do this no more.
21:25I need to talk to somebody.
21:26Okay, and I'll be right with you, okay?
21:28You need anything, Mr. Hayes.
21:29You knock on the door.
21:30I just want to go home with my family, bro.
21:33I don't.
21:34Well, you're not going home to your family, sir.
21:38You're under arrest.
21:40You're not going home to your family.
21:43You're under arrest.
21:44And I think you've pretty much figured that out.
21:48And then detectives let Hayes talk to his fiancee to see what he would say to her.
21:54I don't know what's going on.
21:57You know what I mean?
21:58It's not getting you and the f*** coming back.
22:01That's what's going on, brother.
22:03We're not f***ing coming back.
22:06Today is the last f***ing thing these people say I will see you.
22:09That's bull****, bro.
22:11That's bull****.
22:12I didn't do none of this, bro.
22:13You better f***ing kill him with him.
22:15I didn't do none of this.
22:17Well, who the f*** is saying you did?
22:19I don't know.
22:20I didn't do none of this, man.
22:22Oh, my God, Robert.
22:23I don't even understand what they have on me, Robert.
22:26You don't understand.
22:28You don't understand.
22:30This s*** can't put you away from your f***ing life.
22:33I didn't do this, Shawnee.
22:34I didn't do this.
22:35Okay?
22:36I did not do this.
22:37They said you did, Robert.
22:39You're not coming back.
22:41This is murder.
22:43What the f*** did you do?
22:45I didn't do nothing.
22:47I'm trying to tell you that I didn't do nothing.
22:49They said you were not the bandit.
22:51I'm thinking you are, man.
22:52So you better f***ing explain.
22:54I didn't do none of this, Shawnee.
22:56Robert, you better be telling me to f***.
22:58Robert.
22:59Shawnee, I'm telling you I didn't do nothing of this, man.
23:01You, are you, are you, you, what the f*** you do in your past?
23:06Today we called this press conference because we'd like to announce that we have obtained three indictments in the case that's been commonly referred to as the Daytona serial killer case involving Robert Hayes as the defendant.
23:21I can tell you that we will be seeking the death penalty.
23:25It's something inside of him pulling him to commit that crime again.
23:29And maybe he can fight off the urge for ten years but not forever.
23:32We expect opening statements in the Daytona Beach serial killer trial of Robert Hayes.
23:51Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in this case.
23:55If you had just seen him in court, you would be like, oh, this guy's not a murderer.
23:58He's just a regular Joe Schmo.
24:00But murderers and especially serial killers, they're able to hide who they really are and make it through all this time without being caught.
24:07Friends and family of the victim were in the courtroom throughout.
24:11It was hard, but it was, it was justice.
24:14And I made sure that I made eye contact to let him know we know you did it and we're not happy about it.
24:20Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, the jury.
24:24And this evidence will show, will prove beyond a reasonable doubt, that back in 2005, 2006, the defendant in this case, Robert Hayes,
24:34killed not one, not two, but three women here in Volusia County, specifically in the city of Daytona Beach.
24:43Whether it was about sexual proclivity or whether it was about dominance for being sexual, or it was just about killing them, he started to enjoy it.
24:51Nothing significant happens for nine years.
24:58And then in 2016, there's a fourth murder, a fourth victim.
25:04Hayes wasn't on trial here for the murder of the fourth victim, Rachel Bay, because that happened in another jurisdiction, West Palm Beach.
25:12But prosecutors were able to use the facts of her case.
25:17We could use it to prove identity, motive, common scheme or plan, intent.
25:23And the big thing was an absence of accident or mistake.
25:26The similarities between Palm Beach County and our three victims was overwhelming.
25:34Law enforcement sees this pattern.
25:36They see these striking similarities.
25:38They see that not only are the crime scenes similar, how the victims are left is similar, how they die is similar, their lifestyle is similar.
25:45But also, all the crimes are connected.
25:49The defense challenged the importance of the DNA by bringing up the women's backgrounds.
26:17Attack the fact that they were prostitutes.
26:20Just because he had sex with them, with prostitutes, doesn't mean he was the one who killed them.
26:26Your attention is going to be very important to the details.
26:32The sounds, when you talk about DNA being located at the difference of the crime scenes are.
26:44How did it get there?
26:45When did it get there?
26:47How does it correlate with the actual charge that Mr. Hayes caused the death of Ms. Cumm?
26:56Caused the death of Ms. Cumm? Caused the death of Ms. Cumm?
27:02The prosecution began with the nuts and bolts of the forensic evidence that Robert Hayes bought a Smith & Wesson pistol of the kind used to kill the women.
27:12And did he actually pick up the firearm?
27:15He put it on layaway on 17 November 2005 and retrieved the firearm, paid the balance due on December the 2nd of 2005.
27:29And that the DNA collected from Robert Hayes at the bus stop, the beer and the cigarette butt matched that from three of the crime scenes.
27:38The observed foreign DNA profile is greater than 700 billion times more likely to occur if the sample originated from Robert Tyrone Hayes than from an unrelated individual.
27:57Would you call the next witness for the record?
28:01Florence Hayes.
28:02And then prosecutors called Hayes' mother to testify by Zoom.
28:07About his claim to police, he had given the murder weapon to her before the killings.
28:13And ma'am, at any time when Mr. Hayes was abolished, did he ever give you a firearm as a gift?
28:20No.
28:22Did he ever in his entire life give you a firearm as a gift?
28:25No.
28:26Of course, no parent wants to testify against their child.
28:29But she was a stand-up individual who just came up there, told the truth.
28:34Just one more question, Hayes.
28:36Um, you understand that this is your son's trial, right?
28:39Yes.
28:41Thank you, ma'am. I have no further questions.
28:43His own mother was calling him a liar.
28:45My name is Jose Gonzalez.
29:00Did you know Rachel Bay, sir?
29:03Yes, I did.
29:05Did you know Miss Bay at all to, uh, participate in, um, prostitution?
29:11Yes, she was.
29:14When we say sex workers or prostitute, maybe their life just may not be that important.
29:21Or maybe that, you know, they, they deserved it.
29:25But for prosecutors it helped to explain the biggest problem with their case.
29:29The only weakness that we had a concern about was in Julie Green's case.
29:34Um, it is, there was DNA found of somebody who was not Mr. Hayes in, in her, uh, vaginal area.
29:43So obviously that's a concern because that could point to another suspect.
29:46A point Hayes' defense lawyer made repeatedly as he cross-examined the state's experts.
29:52The bottom line question is you, maybe you're just giving the answer.
29:57You did find a male contributor.
30:01However, that male contributor, uh, Mr. Hayes was excluded as that male contributor.
30:07Is that correct?
30:08That's correct. Mr. Hayes was excluded to the mixture.
30:11Yes, ma'am. Thank you very much. I have no other questions.
30:12And we knew the best counter argument we had was, well, she's a prostitute.
30:17I mean, she had sex with somebody else.
30:19And to, to steer the jury back towards the ballistic evidence.
30:24So we could say, even though his DNA wasn't there,
30:27the same gun that killed Julie Green killed Awana Patten.
30:37Could you please state your entire name? It's by your last name for the court reporter.
30:40Uh, yes. Good morning to the jury. My name is James Keithan Evans.
30:47Spelling of my last name is E-V-A-N-S.
30:51And Mr. Evans, where are you employed, sir?
30:54I'm employed with the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.
30:57And did you end up participating in an interview of Mr. Hayes on September 15th of 2019?
31:02Yes.
31:03The prosecution played the entire interrogation of Hayes conducted by Detective Evans about Rachel Bay.
31:10This female here, okay? Her name is Rachel Bay.
31:16Are you familiar with this female?
31:18No, sir.
31:19Have you ever had sex with her?
31:21I don't know her.
31:22Okay.
31:23I don't know her, so I can't tell you if I had sex with her. I don't know her. I don't know who this woman is.
31:30That can be a fantastic piece of evidence.
31:33He's lying. He is lying to law enforcement.
31:36And the reason he's lying is because he's guilty. Because he did it.
31:39Mr. Hayes, it sounds to me like your case is coming to a conclusion. And this is the time that you will have the opportunity to, you have to make a decision whether or not you'd like to testify or you don't want to testify.
31:59You know, if I was a betting man, I thought he was going to testify.
32:02Did you have an opportunity to talk with your lawyers about whether or not you'd like to testify or not testify?
32:10Um, I haven't discussed what we have been. We decided that I would not testify.
32:16Okay. Oh, you say we.
32:18I haven't discussed.
32:19Thank you. All right, very well. So is it your intent now, Mr. Hsieh, to rest?
32:24It is, Your Honor.
32:25I acquitted Gunther on December 26th, Julie Green on January 14th, and then I won a patent on February 20th.
32:39Three months, three dead women.
32:42These women were easy targets for Mr. Hayes.
32:46They were all in close proximity to where Mr. Hayes lived.
32:50Can't hide your genetic fingerprint, ladies and gentlemen.
32:52And then in March of 2016, he left his genetic fingerprint again.
32:58He left it on Rachel Bay.
33:01And he denies knowing.
33:03Over and over, he denies knowing Ms. Bay.
33:07So I ask you to consider that as well.
33:08And again, it's the lie, but why is he lying?
33:12Why is he lying to the police?
33:14And again, common sense is one reason and one reason alone.
33:17Because he knows exactly why his DNA is there.
33:20He knows exactly why he's not giving out his phone number, the right number.
33:27He's a criminal justice major.
33:29He understands how the criminal justice system works.
33:33Ladies and gentlemen, the evidence in this case is clear.
33:36It's supported by science.
33:39It's supported by fact.
33:40And because the evidence is supported by fact and it's supported by science, I would ask that you return the verdict that that evidence supports.
33:49And that's finding Mr. Hayes guilty as charged in the indictment of murdering Julie Green in January.
33:55We want to patent it in February.
33:57We want to patent it in February.
33:58We want to patent it in February.
33:59And it's gone there in December.
34:01As we all understand, this is a case of three separate and distinct homicides that occurred back in 2005 and 2006.
34:15Hayes' lawyer reminded the jury that Hayes DNA was not found on Julie Green.
34:22I submit to you that the state has not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that it was Mr. Hayes who created or caused an act that killed or took the life of Ms. Green.
34:36And he argued the fact that Hayes DNA was found on the other victims does not prove he killed them.
34:44We have no definitive time as to when the sexual encounter took place.
34:50So we have virtually no connection between the actual homicide and the DNA.
35:05To reach these conclusions, you would have to speculate.
35:09And speculation is not part of the burden that the state has.
35:16They have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt all of those facts.
35:22So I'm telling you that the facts in this case speak for themselves.
35:29I'm asking you to reach the conclusion that the state has not proven beyond a reasonable doubt counts one, count two, and count three.
35:41We knew when we walked out of the courtroom after closing, if the jury has an issue, it's going to be Julie Green.
35:49If they take their time or anything comes back not as charged, it's going to have to do with the Julie Green crime.
35:56The case of accused serial killer Robert Hayes is now in the hands of the jury.
36:11If convicted in this case, Hayes faces the death penalty.
36:14I have been informed that there is a verdict.
36:17They were out for like nine hours, which was a complete shock.
36:20Madam Clerk, will you publish the verdict?
36:23Defendant, please rise, face the jury, and hearken to the verdict.
36:27Verdict, count one.
36:28We the jury find the defendant, Robert Tyrone Hayes, as follows.
36:31Count one, first degree premeditated murder of Julie Green.
36:34She was the first victim.
36:37Guilty of first degree murder.
36:43Count two, first degree premeditated murder of Julie Green.
36:47She was the only victim where Hayes DNA was not found.
36:53Guilty of first degree premeditated murder.
36:56Verdict, count three.
36:59First degree premeditated murder of Iwana Patton.
37:02She had just finished a double shift as a nursing home caregiver.
37:11Guilty of first degree premeditated murder.
37:15Emotionless.
37:16No, no response that I saw from watching him in the courtroom.
37:22I think he knew he did it.
37:25And had already accepted the fact that it was probably not going to go his way.
37:29The death penalty is an appropriate sentence for Mr. Hayes.
37:32This is the phase where you were asked to consider whether or not the death penalty is an appropriate sentence for Mr. Hayes.
37:38This was one of those cases that was the worst of the worst and warranted seeking the death penalty.
37:47You're going to hear evidence that Robert was abused as a child sexually.
37:56You're going to hear that Robert Hayes is not all bad.
37:58And it also entails presenting family members.
38:02Starting with the daughter of Lakata Gunther.
38:05My mother was only 45 when she was taken from us.
38:09The what ifs and what could have been either keep me up at night or haunt my dreams.
38:14My mom mattered.
38:18Julie Green's sister was next.
38:21Yes, Julie did have a high-risk lifestyle.
38:25But no matter what lifestyle she lived, she did not deserve to be her.
38:32Iwana Patton's niece spoke for their family.
38:37It was hard, but it was justice.
38:41This is who my aunt was and this is what you did to our family.
38:44My aunt was the most selfless, loyal, caring, and compassionate woman you could ever meet.
38:51She treated everyone like family.
38:53She was taken from us far too soon.
38:56It was some portion of closure for me to see that through for her because she was not able to when he took her life on that night.
39:07For the defense, Robert Hayes' sister took the stand.
39:11So you and Robert and the family were raised in some rough neighborhoods, weren't you?
39:17Yes, but it's been decades of sexual abuse in our family.
39:30There was a lot of alcoholism in my family.
39:36There's a lot of violence and aggression in our family.
39:42Hayes became upset after his lawyer showed photos of his two children.
39:47Well, Mr. Hayes, if you wish to be excused from the proceedings, I'll allow you to do that.
39:52But I noticed that you became very upset and I don't want to, I don't have any sort of violent reactions in the courtroom.
39:59No, so don't bring, they're not going to be violent reactions.
40:03It's just very upsetting.
40:05I've been very clear that I'm not really in my children.
40:08Okay.
40:10If you were shown in the skin, there would be any violence, nothing like that.
40:16I'm just very upset at that.
40:18Well, I saw you clenched your fist and that caused me some concern.
40:21I apologize.
40:22Okay, alright.
40:23The defense closed its case with Dr. Joseph Wu, a psychiatrist who has testified for defendants in scores of death penalty cases.
40:31He claimed Hayes had undetected autism.
40:35This particular pattern of homicides is very characteristic of autistic spectrum homicides.
40:43Any cross-examination?
40:45So when you spoke to Mr. Hayes and asked him about the murders, what did he tell you?
40:50I didn't speak to Mr. Hayes.
40:52Wait, you didn't speak to Mr. Hayes?
40:54No.
40:55So you came up with all these opinions without ever talking to Mr. Hayes?
40:59That's correct.
41:03This is an individual who plotted and plotted and he prayed on these three women and then killed them, ladies and gentlemen.
41:12And I ask you when you go back there, ladies and gentlemen, it is going to be a tough decision.
41:18It's going to require courage.
41:20There will be no question in your mind.
41:22And you will come back with a verdict for death.
41:30Folks, life in prison without parole is forever.
41:37His freedom will be taken from him.
41:41Every minute of every day will be controlled and decided by others.
41:45It's a tough life.
41:47Look, all life is important.
41:49All life is valuable, including the three lives that were taken in these homicides.
41:54Mr. Hayes is not all bad. There's a good side to him, a good side that, I hope I persuaded you, makes him one that should go to prison for life without parole ever, rather than be executed.
42:11All 12 jurors had to vote for death. It was a yes or no question.
42:15The jury came back 11 to one that there was one holdout. He got life in prison.
42:28Hayes still faces trial for the murder of Rachel Bay in Palm Beach County, where they are also seeking the death penalty.
42:35I believe an eye for an eye. I'll say that. I'll say that. He's a psychopath. They don't have emotions. They don't have sympathy. There's no remorse. There's no remorse there.
42:48And I am grateful and thankful that he will never kill again.
42:52Sorry. I am grateful and thankful that he will never kill again.
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