Convicted pedophile: horrific murder of two sisters in Fort Lauderdale

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Jury hears details of the murder of little girls by Howard Steven Ault

South Florida Sun-Sentinel
By Lisa J. Huriash
August 14, 2007

A jury that is new to the 11-year-old case of Howard Steven Ault got a quick education Tuesday about the horrific murder of two sisters in Fort Lauderdale.

Broward jurors, who will decide if he stays in prison for life or is executed for killing DeAnn Mu'min, 11, and Alycia Jones, 7, heard and saw a videotape of Ault confessing and telling a police detective he never even knew their names.

Ault, now 41, had picked up the girls in his truck on Nov. 4, 1996, saying he would drive them home. Instead, the convicted pedophile took them to his own home, raped the older one, strangled them both, re-dressed the older girl and then climbed an 8-foot stepladder so he could stuff the bodies in his attic. He threw their schoolbooks in a Dumpster.

Ault, who was on probation for sexual assault at the time of the crime, was convicted in 1999 and a jury voted 9-3 to recommend his execution. The Florida Supreme Court threw out the sentence, saying a potential juror had been wrongly dismissed. ...

continued: Jury hears details of the murder

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Convicted killer facing death penalty claims he was victim of sex abuse

By Lisa J. Huriash | South Florida Sun-Sentinel
August 17, 2007

Doctors called by his defense attorney said Thursday that Howard Steven Ault is a sick man, painting a grim picture of the child killer in an attempt to spare him from the death penalty. ...

continued: Convicted killer facing death penalty claims he was victim of sex abuse

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Child-killer's mental state debated

BY DIANA MOSKOVITZ
dmoskovitz@MiamiHerald.com

Posted on Thu, Aug. 16, 2007

Doctors today debated the mental health of Howard Steven Ault and whether he was in control of his actions the day he raped an 11-year-old girl, then killed her and her little sister.

Doctors for the defense portrayed Ault as having an abnormal brain and the victim of childhood sexual abuse.

But the prosecution argued that little proof existed of Ault's abuse and that he was faking illness.

The debate took place before the nine-man, six-woman jury that will decide whether Ault is sentenced to death or life in prison for raping DeAnn Mu'min, 11, then killing her and younger sister Alicia Jones, 7, on Nov. 4, 1996. ...

continued: Child-killer's mental state debated

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Testimony is under way in a new sentencing hearing for a convicted child killer.

Murdered girls' mom: `I want it to be over'

BY JENNIFER LEBOVICH
jlebovich@MiamiHerald.com
Posted on Tue, Aug. 14, 2007

When 11-year-old DeAnn Mu'min and her younger sister, Alicia Jones, 7, left for school one November morning, their mother never imagined she would never again see them alive.

Ten years later, Donna Jones has still not been able to find closure for her little girls. Their convicted killer -- Howard Steven Ault -- sentenced long ago to death, is once again in Broward County court hoping to escape execution. ....

continued: Murdered girls' mom: `I want it to be over'


Convicted child-killer Howard Steven Ault,
right, confers with his lawyer, Mitchell Polay,
as testimony gets under way Monday in a new
sentencing hearing.
CANDACE WEST / MIAMI HERALD STAFF

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Final arguments given in Ault sentencing

By DIANA MOSKOVITZ
dmoskovitz@herald.com
Posted on Mon, Aug. 20, 2007

Jurors heard final arguments Monday afternoon in the sentencing of Howard Steven Ault, already convicted of killing two sisters after raping one of them.

The nine-man, six-woman jury now will decide if Ault will be sentenced to death or life in prison.

Ault already has been convicted of raping an 11-year-old girl then killing her and her little sister inside his Fort Lauderdale apartment on Nov. 4, 1996. He hid the bodies of DeAnn Mu'min, 11, and Alicia Jones, 7, in a crawl space.

At about the same time, their mother reported the girls missing from the Oakland Park camp site where the girls were staying. ...

continued: Final arguments given in Ault sentencing

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Jury still debating convicted killer Ault's fate

BY DIANA MOSKOVITZ
dmoskovitz@MiamiHerald.com
Posted on Tue, Aug. 21, 2007

A Broward jury was sequestered for the evening after struggling unsuccessfully to reach a consensus in the second sentencing of Howard Steven Ault, accused of murdering two young sisters more than a decade ago.

The jurors return at 9 a.m. today to continue deliberation to decide between a death sentence or life in prison. ...

continued: Jury still debating convicted killer Ault's fate

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Jury: Broward man should die for strangling of 2 girls

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.
Published Aug. 21, 2007 4:40 pm

A jury recommended the death penalty Tuesday for a convicted pedophile who strangled two young sisters in his apartment, then hid the bodies in his attic.

Jurors decided that Howard Steven Ault, 41, should be sentenced to death for the November 1996 murders of DeAnn Emerald Mu'min, 11, and Sybilla Jones, 7.

Ault had been sentenced to death in 1999 for the murders, but the Florida Supreme Court later threw out the sentence - but not the conviction - because a potential juror had been wrongly dismissed.

Now, Circuit Judge Marc Gold must decide whether to follow the jury's recommendation when he sentences Ault, who had prior convictions for preying upon young girls. ...

continued: Jury: Broward man should die for strangling of 2 girls

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Broward jury recommends death for child-killer Howard Steven Ault

By Tonya Alanez | South Florida Sun-Sentinel
August 22, 2007

The jurors ate lunch, went on a cigarette break and returned to the deliberation room to cast their votes, on paper, in secret: life in prison or death.

They chose death, twice.

The seven-man, five-woman Broward jury told the judge Tuesday that Howard Steven Ault, a convicted pedophile, should die for luring two Oakland Park sisters, ages 7 and 11, to his apartment, where he raped the older girl, strangled both and stuffed their bodies into his attic. ...

continued: Broward jury recommends death for child-killer


Death sentence
Howard Steven Ault is handcuffed after a Broward County jury's
recommendation Tuesday that he should die for the killing of two
young Oakland Park girls in 1996.
(Sun-Sentinel/Lou Toman / August 22, 2007)

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IN THE SUPREME COURT OF FLORIDA HOWARD S. AULT, ) ) Appellant ... PDF FILE

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF FLORIDA HOWARD S. AULT, ) ) Appellant ... HTML Version

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1996 MURDERS: Child-killer Ault should be executed, jury decides

A second panel of jurors reached the same verdict as the first for convicted child-killer Howard Ault: death.

BY DIANA MOSKOVITZ AND JENNIFER LEBOVICH
dmoskovitz@MiamiHerald.com
Posted on Wed, Aug. 22, 2007

One juror noted afterward: ``Someone had to speak up for those two little girls.''

And on Tuesday afternoon, after about six hours of deliberations, a Broward jury spoke -- recommending that Howard Steven Ault be executed for the 1996 murders of DeAnn Mu'min, 11, and her sister, Alicia Jones, 7.

Ault, now 41, sat stoically in his seat as the verdict was read; the courtroom was silent except for the clicking of a photographer's camera.

''It was probably the hardest decision . . . I've ever made in my life,'' said juror Michael Jacobson, 50, of Oakland Park. ...

continued: Child-killer Ault should be executed, jury decides


For the second time a jury has decided that
Howard Steven Ault should be executed for the
1996 murders of DeAnn Mu'min, 11, and her
sister, Alicia Jones, 7.
R.C. WHITE/FOR THE MIAMI HERALD

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Jury sees convicted child-killer's taped confession

Jurors saw and heard a taped 1996 confession in which Howard Steven Ault admitted to killing two young girls.

BY DIANA MOSKOVITZ
dmoskovitz@MiamiHerald.com
Posted on Wed, Aug. 15, 2007

In a chillingly calm voice, Howard Steven Ault described matter-of-factly how he raped an 11-year-old girl and killed her and her little sister.

He said he raped DeAnn Mu'min on the floor of his Fort Lauderdale living room, between the front door and the couch.

When she put up a fight and said she would tell her mother, Ault strangled her.

When asked why he killed both children, Ault said: ``I was afraid of getting caught.''

The decade-old confession was shown to jurors in Broward Circuit Court on Tuesday as they consider how Ault should be punished for the 1996 crime. ...

continued: Jury sees convicted child-killer's taped confession