Jimmy Dac Ho to be sentenced to
life in prison for killing of Boynton escort
By Marc Freeman, Sun Sentinel
Grief-stricken mother Sandi Cooper
says she waited three years, two months and 17 days for the justice she finally
received Thursday: A Palm Beach County jury found former police officer Jimmy
Dac Ho guilty of killing her 29-year-old daughter, Sheri Carter.
Moments after the 12 jurors
delivered the first-degree murder verdict and left the courtroom, Cooper stood
with Kerry Carter, the victim's father, and thanked the jury and prosecutors
Adrienne Ellis and Takisha Richardson.
Then she turned toward Ho, 51,
and condemned the former Florida Atlantic University officer who entered Sheri
Carter's Boynton Beach apartment on Jan. 31, 2011 to pay for sex, but wound up
handcuffing the escort and shooting her twice.
“You made the conscious
decision ... to end our daughter's life by brutally torturing and murdering
her,” Cooper said. “You, Mr. Ho are not God, so you do not have the right to
end her life nor anybody else's. You stole my daughter's future, and you robbed
me of mine, my only child.”
The jury's decision followed
about 51/2 hours of deliberations, which included watching for the second time
a video of Ho's confession to police just hours after the shooting — while
Carter still clung to life. The aspiring law school student, who advertised her
escort services on the website Backpage.com, was taken off a ventilator and
died Feb. 4, 2011.
Circuit Judge Glenn Kelley said
Ho will be sentenced May 2 to life in prison for the murder charge. Ho showed
no sign of emotion during the reading of the verdict and Carter's parents'
remarks; he opted not to testify during his weeklong trial.
The defendant — who last year
rejected a plea deal for a 30-year term — also was convicted of kidnapping with
a firearm because he handcuffed Carter. That charge will be addressed at the
sentencing hearing. The defense already is planning an appeal.
“I thought she was going to go
for a knife,” Ho told detectives on the video. He claimed he acted in
self-defense, after Carter raged when he changed his mind and refused to pay
her $160 for sex that didn't happen.
“I just wanted to come out of
there alive because she was going crazy,” Ho said.
Assistant Public Defender
Elizabeth Ramsey said Ho's revolver accidentally fired during a struggle. She
asked the jury to reject a prosecution based entirely on speculation and lacking
proof the shooting was premeditated.
“There is nothing in this case
[to show] Mr. Ho went there with the intention of kidnapping Ms. Carter or
killing her,” Ramsey said.
But Assistant State Attorney
Richardson argued the career cop got mad because someone he viewed as a “lowly
prostitute” rejected him, so he cuffed her and “pumped two shots into her.”
“It defies logic, reason,
common sense to think this was accidental,” Richardson said during closing
statements Wednesday. “He most certainly intended her death.”
Kerry Carter told the judge of
the joy he experienced watching his daughter take her first breath 32 years
ago, and the horror of seeing her “slowly die a horrible death” as a result of
a “senseless” shooting.
“There's no amount of
punishment that's ever going to bring my daughter back,” he said after the
verdict. “But I'm glad to see justice was served here today.”
Carter was raised in Boca Raton
and later graduated from the University of South Florida in Tampa, with a
bachelor's degree in English literature. At the time of her death, she was
studying for the Law School Admission Test and charging escort customers for
sex to pay for her tuition.
Ho's attorney labeled Carter a
“vivacious” prostitute who had plastic surgery, drove a Lexus and owned
designer handbags and clothing. No one disputes Ho met Carter through her
Internet ad and he was off-duty at the time.
“He was there to have sex with
her in exchange for money,” Richardson said.
After the shooting, Ho left
Carter's Casa Loma Boulevard residence at 4:56 p.m.; the exact time is known
because Ho was seen on video surveillance.
Ho tossed the gun in a canal,
drove to his Boynton Beach home, met live-in girlfriend Margarita DeJesus, and
they went out for a dinner of nachos, ribs and beer, according to trial
testimony. Police used phone records to quickly identify Ho as a suspect.
The now-convicted murderer
worked in law enforcement for about 20 years. His career included work for
Lauderhill police, and a two-year stint with Broward Sheriff's Office, which
fired him in 2004 after he was charged with battery against his wife.
During the trial, Ramsey and
Assistant Public Defender Allie Menegakis accused Boynton Beach police of
shoddy work, including a failure to recover one of the bullets from Carter's
bedroom, and the destruction of video taken of Ho in a police station holding
cell.
Prosecutors contended there's
nothing on the missing video that would have helped Ho's defense.
And Rob Eichorst, senior crime
scene investigator for Boynton Beach Police, testified Tuesday he conducted an
exhaustive search for the projectile that hit Carter in the abdomen and exited
her body.
Chief Assistant State Attorney
Ellis showed the jury the bullet that was recovered from Carter's neck during
an autopsy. The jury also got to view Ho's handcuffs and gun.
Cooper, Carter's mother, has
filed a wrongful death civil lawsuit seeking damages from FAU.
Attorney Michael Bernstein
wrote in the suit that Ho's “actions must be deemed to have occurred within the
course and scope of his employment as an FAU police officer.”
The university denied having
any liability.
“The actions of Jimmy Dac Ho
had nothing to do with his employment with Florida Atlantic University as a
police officer and were solely personal in nature,” attorney Stephen F.
Radford, Jr., wrote on Feb. 24.