Dayonte Resiles murder trial: Second day of jury deliberations end, but no verdict

Phillip Valys, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
·2 min read

Jurors finished a second day of deliberations in the high-profile murder trial of Dayonte Resiles without reaching a verdict on Saturday evening.

The jury, sequestered since late Friday, will pick up its discussion at 9 a.m. Sunday. Late Saturday afternoon, jurors requested testimony from the monthlong trial, but learned that testimony would not be available until the morning.

Resiles, 27, is accused of stabbing Jill Halliburton Su, 59, to death in her Davie home in 2014. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.

Testimony from the Broward Medical Examiner showed that Su sustained between 23 and 27 stab wounds and more than 20 “blunt force” wounds, concluding that the death of Su was far from instantaneous.

Prosecutor Maria Schneider said she didn’t have to prove a motive for the crime, although prosecutors believe Resiles killed Su because she could identify him once he broke into her home. His escape in 2016 from the Broward courthouse and his later effort to concoct an alibi showed the lengths to which he was willing to protect himself, she said.

In her closing argument Friday, defense lawyer Allari Domínguez told jurors there was plenty of room for reasonable doubt, and focused on the absence of Resiles’ DNA throughout most of the Su home. DNA was not on the murder weapon, and Resiles’ fingerprints were nowhere to be found.

Resiles’ DNA was found on a glass door believed to be the point of entry, and on a knife found on the front doormat – but that knife wasn’t the murder weapon.

“You can’t have it both ways,” she said, ridiculing the idea that Resiles could be so careful and sloppy at the same time.

Following the murder trial, Resiles faces nearly 70 more charges stemming from a plot to escape the Broward County courthouse in July 2016. His escape, in which he bolted from a fourth-floor courtroom, raced down the stairwell and jumped into a waiting car outside, led to a six-day manhunt that culminated in his capture in a motel room in Riviera Beach.