The Vampire Clan

The Defendant, then sixteen, led a small group of teenagers who called themselves a vampire "clan" and believed they drew power from blood and ritual. In November 1996 the clan traveled to Eustis, Florida, to collect a fellow member and run off to New Orleans. At the home of that member's parents, the Defendant entered while the father dozed on a couch and beat him to death with a crowbar, then killed the mother the same way when she surprised him. The clan took the couple's car and credit cards and drove off. Arrested days later, the Defendant — steeped in role-play about immortality and the occult — faced two counts of first-degree murder along with armed burglary and armed robbery. He admitted the killings. The remaining question was whether a teenager who believed himself a vampire could be sent to the electric chair for it.