Inset: Khyler Edman (Life Celebration Center). background: Ryan Cole during his trial for killing Khyler (WFTX).
A Florida judge on Monday sentenced a man to death for the murder of a 15-year-old boy who was shielding his sister as the man broke into their home.
The judge followed a jury”s recommendation by a 10-2 vote that 33-year-old Ryan Cole be put to death for the 2019 slaying of Khyler Edman at a Port Charlotte home. The jury earlier this year convicted Cole of first-degree murder and burglary.
Prosecutors in a memorandum in support of the death penalty for Cole described how the defendant was out of money and high on heroin and methamphetamine on Sept. 26, 2019, when he decided to burglarize Khyler’s home because he thought there may be drugs or money in the home.
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After using a tool to break into the carport at the home at around 4 p.m., Cole entered the kitchen where he encountered Khyler, who was at home alone with his sister, who was 5 years old at the time, while their mother was at work.
Khyler grabbed a chef’s knife to try to protect himself and his sister. A video clip from home security footage mostly captured audio of what happened next.
“During the six (6) second video clip, a voice can be heard stating ‘Come here friend’ and splatters of blood are seen dropping to the floor,” prosecutors wrote.
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Cole stabbed Khyler four times in the chest and abdomen. The boy died on the floor. His sister was hiding under a bed and was not physically injured. Cops later found Cole nearby, his hand bloodied from apparently grabbing the knife and overpowering Khyler. He claimed not to have remembered the attack.
Prosecutors argued that there were several aggravating factors that supported Cole receiving the death penalty. First, the murder occurred during a burglary. Second, Cole’s actions were “heinous, meaning extremely wicked or shockingly evil.”
“The Defendant’s voice on the video clip inside the kitchen stating, ‘Come here friend,’ is especially wicked and shockingly evil, as the Defendant was taunting a young boy,” prosecutors wrote. “The video documents that the Defendant was chasing [Khyler] inside his own home. Rather than leaving the home when the Defendant realized the home was occupied, the Defendant proceeded to grab the knife and repeatedly stab 15-year-old [Khyler].”
But Cole’s lawyer, who argued at trial her client should be convicted of manslaughter and not murder, said in a sentencing memo that life in prison was an adequate punishment.
“A sentence of life in prison is a slow, humane form of justice — one that ensures accountability while replacing execution with a lifetime of reflection and consequence,” public defender Kathleen M. Fitzgeorge wrote. “Life without parole is not freedom. It is not comfort. It is not peace. It is a slow death, carried out over decades in a concrete cell, stripped of autonomy, purpose, and hope.”
In the end, Judge Lisa Porter sided with prosecutors and the jury’s recommendation and sentenced Cole to death. In the Sunshine State, a jury can recommend a death penalty with as few as eight votes, after the state legislature changed the law following a jury’s 2022 recommendation to impose life in prison for the shooter who killed 17 students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.
Following Cole’s sentence, prosecutors and law enforcement in a press conference hailed the decision.
“He had this coming,” said Charlotte County Sheriff Bill Prummell. “There’s a special place in hell for individuals like this and he’s getting what he deserves.”
Christina Halston, Khyler’s aunt, spoke with local CBS affiliate WINK.
“Our family is broken. Grief is constant, heavy and unrelenting,” she said. “We have birthdays without him. We have holidays without his smile, an empty seat that reminds us every day what has been taken from us, his siblings, cousins and friends are left trying to understand something that should have never happened as adults, we can’t even imagine it ourselves.”
“Khyler mattered,” she added. “He still matters.”
