Man who killed girl and mom finally had to ‘face the consequences,’ prosecutor says
Prosecutor Tony Loe remembers when the father of a 4-year-old who was stabbed to death tearfully recounted his last moments with his daughter before he headed to work on June 28, 2000.
Hans Mullings told jurors that morning started like any other. But he recalled that his daughter Hanessia pleaded with Mullings to stay longer, telling him: “Dad, do the robot.”
Loe, who was a homicide prosecutor in Broward County for three decades, said that moment has stayed with him. When Mullings told the story, those in the courtroom were taken back to the last time the father spoke to his daughter and his pregnant girlfriend Odessia Stephens, 24.
“Anytime a child is murdered, it certainly has a tendency to stand out more,” Loe told the Miami Herald. “That was one of the most emotional things that has ever happened to me at a trial. It took a lot of people by surprise. The impact of [Mullings] describing the last time he saw his 4-year-old daughter.”
Mullings testified in the 2006 trial of Richard Knight, his cousin, who a jury convicted of Stephens’ and Hanessia’s killings.
Knight, 47, was executed by lethal injection at 6:13 p.m. Thursday, according to the Associated Press. His final words: “I want to give thanks to Yahweh, who is the most high.”
Knight didn’t meet with visitors or have a last meal, according to reports. Broward State Attorney Harold F. Pryor attended the execution to support the victims’ family members.
READ MORE: Man who stabbed Broward mother and her 4-year-old to death is set to be executed
Stephens, who worked as a clerk at a Fort Lauderdale hospital, was a model and attended Broward College, according to Miami Herald archives. She became the target of Knight’s ire, prosecutors hinted during trial, because she wanted Knight out of her home.
Knight lived with Stephens, Mullings and their daughter Hanessia in their apartment at 8409 Forest Hill Blvd. in Coral Springs, according to Herald archives. Knight had stayed with them for about three months at the time of the double murder.
Looking back at the killings, Loe pointed out how Hanessia, who was stabbed at least four times, was murdered so that she couldn’t identify Knight as her mother’s killer. Stephens, who was six weeks’ pregnant, was stabbed 21 times, court records indicate.
“It was a very brutal and sad, sad crime,” the former prosecutor said. “Knight [now] gets the opportunity to face the consequences of what he did 26 years ago.”
A bloody scene
Several pieces of physical evidence at the crime scene linked back to Knight, according to herald reports at the time: DNA underneath Stephens’ fingernails — and blood on clothing located under a bathroom sink.
Investigators also uncovered four knives inside the apartment. The blades of two butcher knives snapped off during the killing spree. The apartment was drenched in blood.
“Each knife plunged into her knowing what was happening,” Loe said. “Was it heinous, atrocious and cruel? Absolutely. Was it cold, calculated and premeditated? Absolutely. He kept getting another murder weapon until he knew he had accomplished what he set out to do.”
Knight, court records indicate, confessed the gruesome details of the crime to another inmate:
After an argument with Stephens about him moving out, he grabbed a knife from the kitchen and went into the master bedroom, where Stephens and Hanessia were in the bed. He stabbed Stephens until she curled up on the bedroom floor. He then stabbed Hanessia until he believed the girl was “drowning in her own blood.”
But Knight didn’t stop, according to the confession. He retrieved another knife and headed back toward Stephens. She had managed to crawl into the living room, but Knight turned her over and stabbed her again.
On the day of the killings, Knight was arrested after police spotted him emerging from bushes in front of the apartment. He said he had gone for a jog, although he was wearing dress shoes and had just taken a shower.
When he was cuffed, Knight had Stephens’ blood on his hands and her DNA on his shirt, according to court records. But he was not indicted in the murders until a year later. (Early into the investigation, Knight was arrested for sexually abusing a minor. He was convicted in that case.)
The jury, Loe said, saw heaps of evidence due to the hours of work dozens of people — including detectives and DNA experts — poured into the case.
“We went through everything to find that was the right person, no question about it,” the former prosecutor said.
Loe said he will never understand why Knight killed a pregnant woman and a defenseless 4-year-old girl.
“When I first started dealing with homicides, I thought the longer I did it, the better I would be able to understand why people kill other human beings,” he said. “Sadly, I don’t think I’m any closer today to understanding why that happens than when I started” in the 1990s.
In a statement, Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty expressed sorrow for Stephens’ and Hanessia’s murders, but pointed out how Knight’s life was troubled from the moment he was abandoned on a bus in Jamaica as a toddler. Although Knight was taken in by a family, he was sexually abused as a child.
The group said Knight’s execution leaves questions unanswered, notably who left an unidentified fingerprint on the blade of one of the murder weapons. The Florida Supreme Court rejected Knight’s last-minute appeal — and request to test the unidentified fingerprint, adding that the evidence was known at the time of the trial.
In a message to a friend after his execution date was set, Knight said he needed prayers “that if they kill me, I handle it with grace,” according to the statement.
“The death penalty asks ordinary people to accept extraordinary things: that constitutional violations can become final, that unanswered questions can remain unanswered forever, and that human beings can be reduced to case numbers and execution dates,” said the statement from Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. “Tonight, Florida asked the public to accept all of those things at once. We should refuse.”
This story was originally published May 21, 2026 at 11:33 AM.
