Killer gunned down 10-year-old while robbing nail salon. Will he go to Death Row?
The death-penalty trial of the man who barged into a nail salon and gunned down a 10-year-old boy during a robbery abruptly ended on Tuesday, after prosecutors rested their case.
Anthawn Ragan Jr., 31, was on trial for the murder of 10-year-old Aaron Vu at his parents’ Hong Kong Nails salon in northwest Miami-Dade in November 2013. Ragan pleaded guilty last month to shooting Aaron to death and is facing the death penalty.
READ MORE: Father recounts pain of seeing his 10-year-old son killed at family’s nail salon
On Tuesday, a Miami-Dade Fire Rescue paramedic who responded to the scene testified in Ragan’s sentencing trial that Aaron was in a state of panic after the shooting. The paramedic said the boy couldn’t stay still and had to be transported to the hospital, where he died later that day.
The trial was shorter than an ordinary death-penalty case because Ragan waived his right to have a jury decide his sentence, opting instead for Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez to do so, an unusual move for a defendant facing execution.
Ragan’s defense attorneys did not present any witnesses. They have until March 10 to provide Tinkler Mendez with their evidence, which primarily will be transcripts from testimony in another murder trial that Ragan was a defendant in last year.
In that trial, a jury sentenced him to a lifetime behind bars for the murder of a small-time drug dealer at a motel during his three-week crime wave that culminated in Aaron’s murder.
Tinkler Mendez will set Ragan’s sentencing date after she reviews the defense’s evidence.
READ MORE: Man behind crime spree that killed 10-year-old pleads guilty, faces death penalty
Aaron’s father Hai Nam Vu testified during Ragan’s recent trial, recounting how an ordinary Friday at the nail salon turned into an afternoon of terror when two gunmen burst in and demanded money and jewelry from the salon’s customers and employees. Ragan and his accomplice, whom authorities have not found, were on their way out when Ragan turned and fired twice inside the salon, hitting both Vu and his son Aaron.
“I took a few steps forward and fell because so much blood was coming out of my body,” said Vu, testifying Monday about what happened on Nov. 22, 2013.
Vu said his family has been torn apart by Aaron’s murder, but Vu forgave Ragan in court because he said his son would have done that.
“Nothing is going to bring my son back..., but I’m thankful that at least he’ll be sent to prison where he’ll never hurt another innocent person again,” Vu said on the stand.
Should killer be executed?
During opening arguments, defense attorney Tony Moss summarized the evidence presented in Ragan’s previous sentencing trial, over which Tinkler Mendez also presided.
Ragan’s father was locked up for life after being convicted of murder while Ragan was still in his mother’s womb. (Moss defended Ragan’s father in a murder case in the 1990s.) Ragan was exposed to crime from an early age, and his family members were absent during his upbringing, many serving time for serious crimes, Moss said.
On Tuesday, prosecutors called to the stand a psychologist who said he evaluated Ragan for several mental health conditions and concluded that Ragan was faking his answers. The psychologist acknowledged that Ragan’s exposure to violence growing up likely affected him.
Ragan, Moss said during opening arguments, will not be able to appeal since he pleaded guilty, meaning Aaron’s parents won’t have to relive their son’s slaying in court.
“What a life sentence can provide can be finality,” Moss said. “This will be the last court proceeding they will ever have to attend.”
Prosecutor Scott Warfman argued that the case warrants the death penalty despite the murder not being carried out in a heinous, atrocious or cruel manner — or being committed with heightened premeditation.
“They [suffer] because of what Mr. Ragan has done,” Warfman said. “They were living their life until Mr. Ragan absolutely obliterated that life.”
Ragan’s violent crime spree began with the Nov. 1, 2013, execution-style killing of drug dealer Luis Miguel Perez at a Miami motel and ended with the Nov. 22, 2013, murder of Aaron at the salon at 14832 NW Seventh Ave. Last May, a Miami jury voted to sentence Ragan to life in prison, rather than the death penalty, for Perez’s murder.
