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Suspect In Double Homicide Faces Death Penalty

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By KYLE MARTIN

Hernando Today

Published: March 13, 2009

BROOKSVILLE - Prosecutors announced this week they are seeking the death penalty against a man accused of murdering an elderly Masaryktown couple.

Robert Jardin, 33, was arrested last July in connection with the brutal stabbing of Patrick and Evelyn DePalma in their home on Korbus Road.

The couple, who had grandchildren living in Spring Hill, were found dead by a close family friend in October 2006. More than a year passed before investigators linked Jardin and a teenage relative, David Bostick, to their murders.

Bostick remains under suspicion but has yet to be formally indicted by a grand jury.

Assistant State Attorney Pete Magrino said after Jardin's pre-trial hearing on Thursday the decision to seek the death penalty was made after months of discovery.

Specifically, Magrino uses the law to weigh aggravating circumstances against mitigating circumstances. Examples of mitigating circumstances include a history of mental illness, a spontaneous act and a clean criminal record.

Magrino said Thursday he made his death penalty decision because he was not aware of any mitigating circumstances in Jardin's case.

In other court news:

••A man accused of sex offenses on a girl younger than12 accepted a plea bargain that will send him to prison for 25 years.

Arthur K. Malm III, 33, was arrested last June on three counts each of sexual battery on a child under 12 and lewd and lascivious molestation; the charges were later pared down to two. On Thursday, Malm pleaded guilty to the lewd and lascivious charge, which carries a potential life sentence in prison.

His release will be followed by 20 years of sex offender probation, which carries a number of restrictions, including a curfew.

•A 53-year-old registered sex offender was sentenced to seven years in prison for having sex with his 17-year-old neighbor.

Authorities were called after a witness spotted Joseph Spera and the boy leaving an abandoned house in the neighborhood. Responding deputies said they recovered a towel containing evidence of sex from the house's back porch.

Spera reportedly admitted that his relationship with the victim had been going on for some time. He was convicted as an accomplice to sexual battery of a child in 1993, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Reporter Kyle Martin can be reached at 352-544-5271 or kmartin@hernandotoday.com.

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