VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. – A man accused of killing a Daytona Beach couple during Bike Week in 2022 is asking that the death penalty be waived due in part to the alleged unavailability of witnesses to speak in his defense, court records show.
Jean Macean, 35, faces two charges of first-degree murder with a weapon in the stabbing deaths of Terry and Brenda Aultman, whom police say were randomly attacked while riding their bicycles home from Bike Week three years ago this month.
Macean was arrested in Orlando after a sprawling suspect search — allegedly confessing to the killings, according to police — and now faces the death penalty if convicted.
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Macean is due back before a judge at 1:30 p.m. Friday for the motion to waive the death penalty to be heard in court.
In the motion, Macean’s defense states that virtually the entire case in mitigation will be premised on abuse, brain damage, mental illness, and intellectual disability which began in his childhood, adding the foundation of the case would be the testimony of Macean’s family members and collateral witnesses, all of whom are located in Haiti.
The motion hones in on the defense’s so-called inability to thus conduct “a full and thorough mitigation investigation as required by law” until “travel to Haiti becomes safe in order to secure the testimony of these witnesses.”
In light of the compelling testimony these witnesses would offer, and its significance as the foundation of the entire case in mitigation, it would be impossible for Mr. Macean to receive a fair and reliable sentencing without the witnesses’ testimony. The Court’s refusal to continue this matter until such time as travel to Haiti becomes safe in order to secure the testimony of these witnesses for the sentencing therefore violates Mr. Macean’s rights under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment and Article I, Section 17 of the Florida Constitution to present mitigating evidence and to a fair and reliable sentencing determination.
DEFENDANT'S MOTION TO PRECLUDE THE DEATH PENALTY DUE TO UNAVAILABILITY OF CRUCIAL WITNESSES AND CRITICAL MITIGATION FACTS | p. 7-8 (excerpt)
All said, a footnote in the motion does acknowledge that “the defense has no intention of waiving Mr. Macean’s compulsory process rights and will be forced to trial without the Haitian witnesses only over vigorous objection.”
ClickOrlando.com will plan to stream the hearing live at the top of this story