Robert Holton (Photo from Miami-Dade County Corrections and Rehabilitation)
A man will spend the rest of his life in prison for the 2013 killing of a woman he once dated by stabbing, beating, and drowning her in a toilet inside her Florida apartment after he learned she had been seeing another man.
Robert Holton, 42, learned his fate after he was found guilty of first-degree murder and first-degree arson in the death of Kayla Gloster, 22. Jurors, who had a choice between life without parole or death, took under an hour to return their verdict.
Holton’s defense was pleased, NBC Miami affiliate WTVJ reported.
“There was much more to Robert Holton and his worthiness to life than his actions on that particular occasion,” said one of his attorneys, Tony Moss, according to the station. “Obviously, the jury agreed with us, and we are very happy about that.”
Gloster’s family was relieved after having endured three trials in the case, as two previous ones ended in mistrials.
“Justice was served,” said Gloster’s mother, Tangela Johnson, WTVJ reported. “Today was a win. I really didn’t have a preference of what it was — either life or death. I’m satisfied the big victory was guilty.”
Caron Dixon, the victim’s grandmother, hopes the killer suffers, the outlet reported.
“He has to suffer just like my baby suffered,” she said. “He’s got to suffer.”
The killing happened in November 2013, when Holton went to Gloster’s apartment. After the two had sex, he killed her, strangling and stabbing her, setting her mattress on fire and drowning her in a toilet in a jealous rage after he learned about another man, prosecutors said. Her body was found in a pool of blood in her apartment in Homestead, a Miami suburb. Prosecutors said DNA from blood around the apartment tied Holton to the crime, the Miami Herald reported. Holton was arrested nearly a year after the killing.
“He beat her. He stabbed her. He strangled her, and he drowned her,” Warfman told jurors earlier this month, the Herald reported. “He’d been rejected for years by the object of his affection and obsession.”
Assistant State Attorney Lara Penn described the gruesome scene as the defendant stabbed his victim in the neck, the outlet reported.
“She’s moving and fighting, he’s restraining her, that knife slips and does that cut to his right hand,” Penn said.
Another Holton attorney, Jimmy DellaFera, had denied his client was the killer and tried to poke holes in the investigation, arguing key evidence was overlooked.
“For 11 months after they [police] were in complete control of all the evidence they were going to get on Robert Holton, they did not arrest Robert Holton. And that’s because Robert Holton did not kill Kayla Gloster,” DellaFera said, according to the Herald.
Gloster’s mother described her daughter as “smart, intelligent, sociable, witty, fun to be around, and very caring and loving.”
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