commentary by Patrick H. Moore
Five years ago on Thanksgiving in Jupiter, FLA a large extended family gathered at the home of Jim and Muriel Sitton and ate their fill of a traditional turkey dinner, after which they gathered round the piano to while away some happy hours singing and dancing.
Patrick Knight, who is now a Miami attorney, was there with his wife Lisa and her family. Lisa was pregnant with their first child and they were eagerly anticipating starting a family. In total, there were 16 or 17 people there, one of whom, Paul Merhige, Muriel Sitton’s cousin, had been invited at the last minute.
According to the police, as the night wore one, for unknown reasons, Merhige left the house, returned with a gun and shot and killed four people. His victims were Jim and Muriel’s 6-year-old daughter Makayla, whom he shot and killed in her bed, his aunt Raymonde Joseph, 76, and Carla and Lisa Knight, his 33-year-old twin sisters. And there probably would have been more victims had many guests not escaped in terror into the night.
His mayhem complete, Merhige escaped at about 10 p.m. Thursday night in a blue, four-door 2007 Toyota Camry. After that, he was on the lam for nearly 30 days and according to court records, not only engaged in serious suicidal ideation, but actually took steps to end his life, ordering a suicide handbook and stocking up on suicide supplies including helium, plastic bags, scissors, duct tape and tubing. Despite his preparations, however, he chose to stay alive and and was eventually arrested in the Florida Keys.
As we all know, capital cases tend to drag on, sometimes for years, but then suddenly approximately 22 months after the murders, Merhige’s lawyers signaled that they might opt for the insanity defense and then, as an alternative to what would probably have been a messy, lengthy trial, proposed a plea deal that would spare him the death penalty.
It apparently happened very quickly, within a matter of days, and Jim Sitton, who had grieved steadily for his daughter Makayla ever since she was murdered, and had probably assumed Merhige would get the death penalty, was shocked by the deal. In fact, in what had to have been a highly irregular scene, at the hearing, he literally fell to his knees, begging the judge, Joseph Marx, not to accept a deal.
(I’ve seen some odd emotional outbursts in Federal Court and clearly remember the unforgettable sight of two large ______ _____ weeping and screaming uncontrollably down on the floor after one of them had received a rather moderate sentence of around three years. This happened out in the corridor and since it did not undermine the dignity of the Federal courtroom, the U.S. Marshals — in what was a rare display of understanding – let them scream for quite a while before asking them to cease and desist.)
In the Merhige case, however, Jim Sitton fell on his knees right there in the courtroom, and the deputies ordered him to get up off the ground, which he did.
Jim’s wife Muriel then stated in open court:
“This killer you see in the courtroom today is not the man that was in our home that night. (He) was a cold blooded killer without remorse without mercy just gunned down our family members and would have killed more of us had we not escaped out of the house.”
Later, Jim Sitton tearfully shared his heartbreak and Muriel said she would never forget seeing Makayla’s body on the stretcher.
“If the death penalty isn’t for this guy, who’s the death penalty for?” Jim Sitton said after the hearing.
In return for entering a guilty plea, Merhige’s lawyers agreed to withdraw the threatened insanity defense, and the killer was sentenced to seven life sentences (which is really only one life sentence when you think about it).
Although Jim Sitton was outraged that Merhige is escaping the DP, State Attorney Michael McAuliffe stated that the majority of the surviving victims and their relatives agreed with the LWOP sentence, in part because they just wanted to get it over with so that they could get on with their lives. Some of the participants, however, agreed with Jim Sitton that anything short of the DP would be unjust.
Merhige’s parents, who of course lost two children (Merhige’s twin sisters), said they supported the deal but Carole Merhige understandably said her life was ruined.
Patrick Knight, whose wife was killed, but has since remarried, said he agreed with the plea, but got a few zingers off calling Merhige a fat loser who was jealous and angry.
After the hearing, Jim Sitton also said he dropped to his knees in front of the judge because “they listened to the murderer’s plea. I thought maybe if I dropped to my knees someone would listen to me.”
I’m not sure exactly what he means by that because the judge appears to have had little choice other than to accept the prosecutor’s offer based on the fact the majority of the victims and their relatives supported the LWOP resolution.
Now as most of you know, I’m largely opposed to the death penalty, except possibly in extreme cases of sexual abuse of children culminating in their murder, in which case I can take it or leave it (not that I have any control over the outcome anyway).
But Jim Sitton’s stance leaves me pondering whether a bereaved family member of a murder victim whose killer is executed actually feels better as a result of the perpetrator receiving the ultimate punishment. Perhaps some do, while others don’t. Hopefully, I’ll never be in that position to find out for myself.
I’ve long been aware that I don’t respond as emotionally to many of these cases as many other crime followers do. I’m not sure whether this is a good thing or a bad thing, but without this protective quality, it seems unlikely that I would be able to cover these cruel and tragic cases on a daily basis without either slowly losing my marbles or falling into a realm of dark and inescapable bitterness.
Or maybe I’m simply being melodramatic…