Life sentence for Jose Rojas

In December, Jose Rojas was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and other charges for crimes that occurred in 2012. According to a news report, Rojas pled guilty two days into trial according to a news report. According to a report from the Miami Herald, Rojas raised an insanity defense before entering his plea. The docket also reflects Rojas’s intent to rely on an insanity defense.

A Judgment reflecting the conviction was entered in January 2024.

The State sought the death penalty on both counts.

In late 2023, there was litigation about the constitutionality of the death penalty in Rojas’s case. (These documents are not publicly available.)

Rojas’s penalty phase proceeded this month. On Thursday, the penalty phase ended with the jury recommending life in prison without parole (LWOP) after deliberating for “a few hours,” according to a news report. NBC also reported that the jury did not unanimously find that the State proved the HAC aggravating factor beyond a reasonable doubt. (The jury verdict form is not available on the docket.) The court then sentenced Rojas to LWOP as required under Florida’s 2023 statute. According to the report, the victim’s family was upset by the verdict.

NBC 6