Jury reccomends life in prison for Oneal III

had made a decision in the ronnie o'neill trial that we have been following for the past two weeks now o'neil was found guilty of murdering his girlfriend and her special needs daughter last week we are going live now on abc action news reporter heather lee who has the decision live in court for us tonight heather good evening basically the

jury

couldn't come to a unanimous decision on sentencing him to die for these crimes so o'neill will spend the rest of his

life

behind bars. I caught up with Kenyatta Baron's family right after they left the courthouse and we'll have more of that sound at six, but I just wanted to give you a quick snippet of what the mother told him when I left.

In the courtroom, after hearing the verdict, I looked out and saw O'Neal's mother gathering in rejoicing. She says: how can you rejoice that your son is still alive and forget your daughter who lies in the grave? Obviously, it's a very, very sad and sad situation here. I'm not entirely happy with exactly what happened today, but I want to go ahead and let you see exactly how everything played out in court today to protect our children, the state needed to prove that the deaths of Kenyatta Baron and Ronivia were especially egregious and atrocious. and cruel that they suffered tremendously before dying she is disabled she is vulnerable that is why she cannot avoid it at all she cannot even speak and this is her father who is murdering her the state prosecutors believe that this objective was met the aggravating factors that have been proven to apply to Ms.

Barron and the murder of her nine-year-old daughter or an avalanche of objections in general, an avalanche of importance and power that nullifies and erases any suggested mitigation, but the defense says there are numerous traumatic events in either. Neil's past had a great impact on him. He was a victim of sexual abuse at the age of five. He was shot and nearly killed in a random drive-by shooting in 2017 and while he recovered from that, the state says he was left even more traumatized. when his mother told her that she tried to abort him, she was trying to use that as an example that he had another near-death experience and survived.

Assistant State's Attorney Jennifer Spradley says her biological father gave her schizophrenia and delusional disorder and she says what. Neil believes that what happened that night is a product of his mental illness. The mind of an idol is the devil's workshop. Ronnie feels attacked. He's up all night. He is paranoid. He is very alert. He believes he was the target of the shooting. An alternate

jury

that was officially dismissed. today he told reporters off camera that he would have voted for death, he says the 911 call was the most damning evidence and he says it has given him nightmares, they want to play that call for you and show you those photos over and over again and over and over and slower, slower, make it loud, play it again, let's stop it, let's talk about it because they want you to focus on the revenge, some strange moments during today's closing arguments, as well as O'Neill greeting the camera in court and holding signs that read "Love." You and the other quote only that no sin can cast the first stone.

He also raised the love you sign right after to a woman sitting in the audience even though the jury recommended the

life

sentence, but the life sentence at this time has not. It hasn't been made official yet. That will happen on July 23 at 10 a.m. m., the judge will hear from both sides one more time and then make his final decision for now. We are live. Heather Lee ABC Action News.