State to seek death penalty in case of man police say killed girlfriend’s family member

The State Attorney’s Office says it will seek the death penalty in the case of a man accused of a Fort Myers woman’s death.

Ja’Quan Bernard Robinson, 25, is accused of killing the great-aunt of his children’s mother at a home on Utana Avenue in Fort Myers on Oct. 14.

The victim in the killing had a domestic violence protective order against Robinson.

According to an arrest report, Robinson had been recently released from SalusCare and was off his medication, but texted his girlfriend that he was going to kill her grandparents.

His girlfriend, with whom he has two children, reported the threats to the Fort Myers Police Department’s non-emergency phone number.

Fort Myers police say Robinson confessed he had planned to go to the home “with the intention of killing the whole family, including his own children.”

He told officers he snuck into the victim’s mother-in-law suite while Fort Myers police officers were taking a report of the threats. He said he hid in the bathroom and kitchen for hours until he eventually bludgeoned her to death with a baseball bat she kept to defend herself.

Robinson was indicted in December on charges of first-degree murder, first-degree burglary with assault or battery, and violation of the injunction, a first-degree misdemeanor.

Robinson has entered a plea of not guilty with the court.