Ex-boyfriend convicted on DNA evidence

westpalmbeach - Sadrac Nelson's DNA was found all over the house of his former live-in girlfriend after she was stabbed to death in October 2004. And on her too.

"Meaningless circumstantial evidence," defense attorney Elizabeth Ramsey said during closing arguments Wednesday in Nelson's first-degree murder trial.

"The defendant's DNA is everywhere, and it's everywhere that matters," countered prosecutor Jennifer Millien. "We have the right man."

A jury agreed Wednesday night, convicting Nelson, 33, of first-degree murder in the slaying of Marie Fleurizard, 38, at her suburban West Palm Beach home. The mother of four was studying to be a nurse.

The jury must return to court today for the penalty phase of the trial. Prosecutors are seeking death. The defense wants the only alternative, life in prison. Circuit Judge Stephen Rapp is required by law to give "great weight" to the jury's advisory verdict.

The jury was given the case shortly after noon Wednesday. Jurors spent a good chunk of the day listening to a read-back of the testimony of two witnesses and a tape-recorded interview that Nelson gave police. They reached a unanimous verdict shortly before 8 p.m.

Nelson showed no emotion as the verdict was read. More than a dozen members of Fleurizard's family remained silent. But minutes later, in the courthouse hallway, they smiled and cried in gratitude.

"It's overwhelming," Kethlye Simon, Fleurizard's sister, said tearfully. "I know God was witnessing him doing it. He was here in the courtroom." She personally opposes the death penalty, but will be amenable to whatever sentence is imposed, she said.

Prosecutors don't intend to present any witnesses at today's penalty phase, but will rely upon the trial evidence. Defense attorneys said they have several witnesses.

Defense attorney Ramsey argued earlier in the day that since Nelson had lived with Fleurizard - for two years, according to her sister - the fact that his DNA was present was not surprising. But Millien pointed out that Nelson's DNA was on such objects as the bloody switchblade used to kill Fleurizard, under her fingernails and on a plastic cup and a bottle of bleach found by her body.

Also by her body was a typewritten suicide note that was complimentary of Nelson.

"They cannot tie that note to any computer Mr. Nelson had access to," Ramsey told jurors.

On the note, however, were two bloody thumbprints belonging to Nelson. That, along with the DNA, were the keys to his conviction, co-prosecutor Kirk Volker said afterward.

Ramsey contended that police targeted Nelson early on as the suspect to the exclusion of others. Among the latter, she said, were a tenant in Fleurizard's home, a former boyfriend and her eldest son, whom she "repeatedly called the police on ... and excluded from the home." No DNA was taken from any of them, she said.

Several members of Fleurizard's family filed out of the courtroom during Ramsey's argument in a show of displeasure over her suggesting that Fleurizard's son may have killed her.

"There's no way," said Simon, who did not leave the courtroom.

Prosecutor Millien said the son had an alibi - he was with his grandmother in Homestead, two counties to the south. In fact, Nelson had taken him there, she said.

Fleurizard's mother testified that days before her daughter's slaying, Nelson threatened her if she didn't marry him so that he could stay in the United States legally. He is a Haitian citizen.

When he was questioned by police less than 24 hours after his former girlfriend's murder, Nelson was "cold, calm and unaffected," Millien said. "He planned to kill Marie Fleurizard and he killed her."