Florida Keys man found guilty of killing brother, stabbing father during 2020 rampage
A judge on Thursday found a Florida Keys man guilty of murdering his younger brother and stabbing his father during a 2020 rampage when he was a teenager that became one of the island chain’s most violent — and tragic — crimes in recent memory.
The single father, who survived the attack, became an advocate for his son, who he said suffered a childhood of abuse by his mother and endured turmoil within the juvenile justice system. His advocacy translated into him being a difficult witness for the state because he wants his son to receive mental health treatment instead of prison time.
After the verdict, the father, Ariel Poholek, told the Miami Herald he continued to stand by his son.
Daniel Weisberger, now 21, was a teenager when he stabbed his 14-year-old brother Pascal-Rene Zue Weisberger to death in the early morning of May 7, 2020, then turned a knife on Poholek, who was sleeping in the bedroom of the family’s Plantation Key townhouse when his neck was slashed.
Daniel then held his father hostage in the bedroom for about two hours before running away. Poholek ran to a neighbor’s house to call 911 when he noticed his son was gone.
A day-long manhunt ensued with Monroe County deputies joined by police officers from the mainland and U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents scouring the Upper Keys — from Islamorada to Key Largo — for Daniel Weisberger.
READ MORE: A dad, his two sons, and the dark secret that led to a deadly rampage in the Florida Keys
By the end of the day, it turned out he didn’t travel far. He was hiding in the woods in between the site of the stabbing, the Executive Bay Club at mile marker 87.2, and Founders Park, which is right next to the complex.
Around 7 p.m., 12 hours into the search, he ran out into U.S. 1 traffic and was struck by a pickup truck. Paramedics took him to Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami to be treated for serious injuries.
Both prosecutors and Daniel Weisberger’s attorneys agreed to hold the trial in front of a Monroe County judge in Key West, rather than before a jury.
On Friday, Judge Mark Jones found Weisberger guilty on one count of second-degree murder for the killing of Pascal and attempted first-degree murder for the attack on Poholek. His sentence is scheduled for Feb. 27. He faces life in prison.
Poholek contends his son was having a mental break when he attacked his family — the culmination of the abuse he suffered from his mother and the prior two years of being in and out of juvenile justice facilities. He wanted his son to be charged as a minor since he was 17 at the time. Prosecutors disagreed.
READ MORE: Blood-soaked letter provides glimpse of motive in Florida Keys knife murder
“My family and I are profoundly disappointed by the judge’s decision, and continue to strongly believe that the evidence showed Daniel was not in a rational state of mind on May 7, 2020, when he attacked Pascal and I,” Poholek said in a statement to the Herald. “We, and all who knew both of the boys, including Pascal’s closest friends, know that Daniel greatly loved Pascal, and could never have committed the acts he did unless he was in an altered mental state, as I personally experienced him being when the events of that day unfolded.”
Monroe County State Attorney Dennis Ward declined to comment on the case when reached Thursday.
From Boy Scouts to trouble with the law
The Weisberger brothers were popular and well-liked in the Upper Keys, where Ariel is a biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Both boys were active in the Boy Scouts, soccer and volunteerism, including shore cleanups. Poholek had been raising his sons by himself since gaining full custody of the kids from his wife in 2008.
But by high school, Daniel began getting into trouble and acting out at home and in school, his father told the Miami Herald in the months after the stabbings. He was arrested several times and placed into Department of Juvenile Justice detention in both the Keys and Miami-Dade County.
In January 2020, Poholek discovered Daniel had brought a gun home, and he called the police on his son. Daniel was placed in juvenile detention in Key West for 21 days.
During this time, Daniel and his mother — Poholek’s ex-wife — began speaking to each other, and she agreed to take Daniel to her Port St. Lucie home when he was released from custody. A judge allowed the arrangement, to which Poholek disagreed, fearing his son needed mental health help.
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Pretty soon, Daniel began getting into trouble again. Poholek said his ex-wife — whom he met in Gabon, Africa, while in the Peace Corps in the early 2000s — reacted by locking their son out of the house and denying him meals.
Poholek said the mother had abused Daniel before the divorce. Poholek provided a report from his son’s therapist diagnosing him with post traumatic stress disorder resulting from his childhood experiences.
In a blood-soaked note Daniel had in his pocket the day of the murder, he also claimed his mother abused him.
The mother, Joceline Nguema, sent a statement to the Herald in 2020 denying she ever abused either of her sons.
“I always imagined them one day saying they wanted to spend more time with their mom, and I never abused or neglected my children in any way,” she said.
Nguema said she was forced to call the police on Daniel on March 15, 2020, for a violent incident. He was arrested and placed on house arrest.
She said she wanted to keep Daniel, but Poholek picked him up early the next day before a scheduled emergency hearing.
Poholek agreed to let Daniel stay with him and Pascal in their townhouse at Executive Bay Club. Things were going well at first, Polohek said. However, Daniel again began to act out, smoke marijuana and get into trouble with the law. He also had dropped out of school for about a year at that point.
About a month later, Daniel fatally attacked his brother and gravely wounded his father.
Poholek told the Herald in July 2020 that Daniel is not only remorseful for killing Pascal, he grieves for him. Poholek added that he believes Daniel also doesn’t understand what made him do it.
“He prays to his brother every morning, and he hopes he’s in a place where he’s happy and forgives him,” Poholek said. “But, he doesn’t remember what happened that day. He doesn’t seem to dispute what happened, but he doesn’t remember it.”
After the trial, Poholek criticized the State Attorney’s Office, saying prosecutors tried to “silence our family ahead of the trial,” used “hearsay objections” to limit testimony from family members and Daniel’s therapist, downplayed his son’s abuse and “sought to do everything in their power to portray Daniel in the most negative manner possible.”
“They didn’t just present the facts and let them stand for themselves, they used every legal maneuver and strategy available to undermine Daniel’s defense in order to win the case, because clearly that, not the actual truth being known, was their goal,” Poholek said in his statement. “This was not justice for Pascal, but rather a mockery of the person he was, and all he stood for and loved.”
This story was originally published January 23, 2025 at 6:50 PM.
