MIAMI – Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Ellen Sue Venzer delayed the re-sentencing of Ronald Eric Salazar again Monday.
Salazar killed his 11-year-old sister Marina "Estefani" Salazar in 2005. Prosecutors had DNA evidence and a video of his confession. Salazar -- then 14-years-old and now 24 -- was charged with first degree murder, which carries a mandatory life sentence.
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Now prosecutors fear, he may have an opportunity to re-enter society. On Tuesday, during the five-day re-sentencing hearing, Miami-Dade prosecutor Reid Rubin said Salazar is like a character from "a bad slasher movie" and was not the type of convict to "let loose on the streets."
Psychologists and criminal defense attorneys have been pushing a legal dilemma about appropriate punishment for juveniles based on scientific research that shows a teen's brain may not be fully developed and therefore he or she is more prone to violence and less able to assess future consequences.
During his re-sentencing hearing, Salazar said he changed his mind about considering suicide.
"That wasn't going to make the situation any better," he said before starting to cry.
Salazar's re-sentencing hearing is possible, because of Miller v. Alabama, a U.S. Supreme Court case ruling June 25, 2012 that life sentences without the possibility of parole were reserved for juveniles whose crimes were "irreparably corruptible." Prosecutor Christina Zahralban said Salazar's case epitomizes just that.
Laura Rojas, a Miami-Dade County public defender representing Salazar, said she believes in Salazar's capacity for reform.
"He has worked really hard to change," she said during the re-sentencing hearing.
Under the new rules, a judge needs to examine a juvenile convict's past to consider rehabilitation. Venzer described Salazar's upbringing as "horrible." After the re-sentencing hearing, the convict could still get life in prison.
Rojas wants Venzer to override his two life terms sentences to a term of less than life in prison with judicial review. Salazar claimed he had not misbehaved behind bars, learned how to speak English and volunteers as a tutor to help others, defense attorneys said.
The only two girls he had sexually abused were his sisters, Salazar said. About 14 percent of sex offenders commit another sexual offense after five years and 24 percent after 15 years, according to the National Center for Victims of Crime.
Venzer first scheduled the re-sentencing for Friday. She rescheduled it for 3 p.m. Monday and then delayed it for later this week.