3 new restaurants coming this fall to Coconut Point Cape Coral City Council salary, stipend won’t appear on November ballot
FILE: The family of Dr. Teresa Sievers embrace one another after a jury finds her husband, Mark Sievers, guilty of first-degree murder in her vicious killing at their Bonita Springs home in 2015. (Credit: WINK News./FILE) The family of Doctor Teresa Sievers is focused on the future now, after a jury recommended the death penalty for Mark Sievers, Teresa’s husband who orchestrated her murder. “This man is a sociopath and he is where he belongs, and I want to move forward with my life with these two beautiful children that my mother and I are raising,” said Teresa’s sister, Ann Lisa. But the jury’s death penalty recommendation is just one step in a long process for justice. The penalty phase isn’t over yet. The jury recommended Mark Sievers be put to death, but ultimately Judge Bruce Kyle has the final say. The next step is a hearing that is scheduled for next month. In that hearing, Mark Sievers will get the chance to appeal directly to the judge. The judge could decide that day to spare his life or side with the jury. Then starts the lengthy legal battle. The Florida Supreme Court will automatically appeal the death penalty because it’s the law. It is likely Mark’s attorney will appeal the decision as well. That is one of the reasons the judge gave Sievers so much time to think about testifying, and now his lawyers can’t use that as a reason for appeal. But as a local attorney explains, they’ll be looking at a number of other things. “They could include ineffective assistance of council, it could include mental issues, they can include things that may not have directly been brought up in the trial such as newly discovered evidence,” Attorney, Peter Dennis said. The hearing where Judge Kyle could decide Siever’s fate is scheduled for January 9.