Man Is Sentenced to Death in Murder of Two Young Sisters
A convicted pedophile and killer was sentenced to death Monday for the murder of two young sisters he strangled after he raped one of them.
The Howard Steven Ault case led to a new Florida law expanding public access to information on convicted sexual predators.
Circuit Judge Marc Gold accepted jurors’ September recommendation that Ault be sentenced to death for the 1996 slayings.
Ault was convicted Aug. 11 of first-degree murder in the deaths of DeAnn Mu’min, 11, and her 7-year-old sister, Alicia Jones. Ault raped the older girl.
Ault, 33, also was convicted on two counts of capital sexual battery, kidnapping and aggravated child abuse. He was on supervised community release for a 1988 sex crime when he befriended the girls’ mother and picked the children up from school one day, promising them candy.
As a result of Ault’s case, legislation was passed in 1997 tightening loopholes on public listings of registered sexual predators and adding several new measures, including providing photos on request.
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