Convicted child killer sought to fire attorneys before third death penalty sentencing
Howard Steven Ault, who was convicted in 1999 of raping an 11-year-old girl in front of her 7-year-old sister before killing both, appeared in Broward court Wednesday after his latest bid to dismiss his legal team.
The 57-year-old awaits his third death penalty resentencing for the 1996 murders of DeAnn Emerald Mu’min, 11, and Alicia Sybilla Jones, 7. Ault, already convicted of child sex crimes, befriended the girl’s mother, who was living out of a camper in Oakland Park.
Ault lured the girls to his Fort Lauderdale duplex with Halloween candy. He then raped and strangled DeAnn while Alicia, her younger sister, watched. After strangling Alicia to death, he stuffed their bodies in his attic.
The brief hearing in front of Broward Circuit Court Judge Martin Fein came after Ault sent the judge a letter complaining about his attorneys’ handling of witness depositions. Fein, in court, said Ault’s representation was not only competent but excellent.
Throughout his case, Ault has had tumultuous relationships with his multiple defense attorneys. He attempted to fire several of them — even, at some points, opting to represent himself.
Ault’s resentencing, which is now his third with the death penalty on the table, will begin with jury selection on Feb. 5. Fein also set a hearing for all pending motions on Dec. 19.
In 2017, the Florida Supreme Court granted Ault, who was on death row, a new sentencing hearing after it found that Florida’s death penalty process was unconstitutional because it didn’t require jurors to make a unanimous decision.
The jury in the 2007 resentencing recommended Ault be put to death in a 9-3 and 10-2 vote for the murders of DeAnn and Alicia, respectively.
Jurors in the first sentencing, which took place in 2000, decided to send Ault to the electric chair. But three years later, the Florida Supreme Court ordered a new sentencing over concerns about the jury selection process at Ault’s trial.
Now facing the possibility of being condemned to death row a third time, Ault’s fate will depend on eight jurors after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law that allows juries to recommend a death sentence with an 8-4 vote instead of a unanimous vote.
Before his original trial in the ‘90s, Ault claimed he wanted to waive his rights and die in the electric chair. He changed his mind a week later. He then asked to plead guilty in exchange for two life sentences, but a judge said that wasn’t possible.
A case that shocked South Florida
DeAnn and Alicia were reported missing by their mother after they didn’t return home from school. The girls, who were model students at Lloyd Estates Elementary School in Oakland Park, were well taken-care of, despite the grinding poverty their family faced. The girls, their mother and their 2-year-old sister lived in a small travel-trailer they parked in a wooded area when they could afford the $18-a-night camping fee.
When the girls didn’t return home in November 1996, their mother went to Ault’s home and asked him about the girls’ whereabouts. He said he hadn’t seen them. But three days later, police found their bodies in Ault’s attic — even though they searched the home the same day the girls’ mother reported them missing.
Ault, who had a history of at least five arrests in Broward County, was on probation for sexually assaulting a child at the time of the murders. Two of his past arrests were for child sex crimes.
After Ault’s arrest, police uncovered that he was a suspect in the attempted rape of an 11-year-old the previous year. If those charges had been filed, Ault may have been behind bars on the day he strangled the girls.
Throughout the years, Ault confessed to police, reporters and fellow inmates. He told investigators where to find the girls’ bodies and divulged details about how he cleaned up the girls’ blood and how he disposed of their books and clothes behind a West Palm Beach grocery store. He did the same with television reporters and wrote letters to newspapers, also confessing to other killings.
That’s why prosecutors — and defense attorneys — expected a guilty verdict in the short trial. His attorneys instead focused on casting more light into Ault’s mental state and disturbing history.
In an interview, Ault spoke openly about his urge to molest young girls and how it began after he was molested as a child by his older brother. His brother denies the allegation. At one point, he told psychologists that he had multiple personality disorder, and that one of his personalities, “Richard,” drove him to kill. Doctors said he was faking.
Ault was previously treated for clinical depression and paranoid-schizophrenia, though on Wednesday he told the judge today he hasn’t been on any medications since 2015.
Letters to newspapers, including some sent to the Miami Herald, offer a glimpse into the convicted child killer’s mental state.
“I am a demonical believer in the occult, I worship the prince of darkness and spirits that possess the inside of me,” Ault said in a letter sent to the Herald decades ago. “I will greatly pay for my failures, for Satan has told me so. I wish I could kill again to make up for my failures.”
This report was supplemented with stories from the Miami Herald archives
This story was originally published November 15, 2023 at 12:40 PM.
