Jurors hear evidence of teenager's sexual assault, will decide whether mother's boyfriend deserves death penalty

Orlando Sentinel - 4/16/2018

April 16--Alexandria Chery got off the bus at Olympia High School one day in 2014 crying, her former boyfriend Damian Thomas said on Monday.

Thomas asked her what was wrong, but she didn't want to tell him. He kept asking, and a few days later she relented: Her mother's boyfriend Sanel Saint-Simon, who had raised her since she was about 5, had touched her inappropriately.

The same jurors who in February convicted Saint-Simon of murdering 16-year-old Alexandria in 2014 returned to court Monday to decide whether Saint-Simon should be sentenced to death or life in prison.

Thomas, now 19, said Alexandria did not want him to tell anyone what she told him. Thomas eventually told her older brother, Fanzo Chery, who agreed to not let Saint-Simon be alone with Alexandria.

In her opening statement, Assistant Public Defender Erin Hyde asked jurors to show mercy. Saint-Simon will be in prison for the rest of his life, she said, asking that jurors allow him to die there of natural causes, not by execution.

"You are not just applying to law, you are applying your own sense of mercy," Hyde said.

Jacob Langston / Orlando Sentinel

Sanel Saint Simon listens in during opening statements in his trial at the Orange County Courthouse on February 5, 2018. Simon could get the death penalty if convicted of murdering his 16-year-old step-daughter Alexandria Chery in 2014. (Jacob Langston/Orlando Sentinel)

The first phase of the trial took place in February. Jurors already heard how Alexandria was reported missing after her mother came home and found her and her belongings gone from her bedroom, and how the teenager's body was found in the woods near the Osceola-Polk county line. They deliberated for 7 1/2 hours before finding Saint-Simon guilty of first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and of lying to a law-enforcement officer investigating a missing-child case.

But on Monday they heard more about Alexandria's life from her family and friends, who read emotional victim impact statements explaining how her death affected them.

Her cousin, Peter St. Fleur, called her "the girl who smiled through everything." The family called her "Valiz," the Haitian-Creole word for purse, because she wanted them to bring her along wherever they went.

"Her beauty was -- she didn't just care for herself. She cared for others as well, including me," St. Fleur said.

Her funeral is the first and only he has ever been to, he said.

"It still doesn't feel right without her," he said.

Alexandria's best friend, Franchesca Cadet, remembered meeting her in junior high and feeling an instant connection as soon as they started talking, after Alexandria and her cousin, St. Fleur's sister, offered her birthday cake. Cadet said she would rather remember not her friend's death but "the woman she was becoming."

"I like to talk about the Alex with the beautiful smile, the outgoing personality," she said. "They don't talk about the girl who loved sweet tea, the girl who really thought ice cream was food, the girl who was so afraid of dogs but wanted one, the girl who made a joke out of anything. I think we laughed at everything just to get away from what was going on in the world."

Alexandria older brother, Fanzo Chery, described the first time he held his newborn baby sister at the hospital. She had chubby red cheeks, he said.

"She represented joy, ever since she was a baby. She would walk and hug you for no reason, she would dance with no music," Fanzo Chery said.

Alexandria and Fanzo Chery's mother, Rosalie Joseph, left the courtroom crying as he spoke to jurors.

"When Alex died our family fell apart," Fanzo Chery said. "It was a whirlwind. Uncles and daughters stopped talking. Fathers and brothers got into heated conversations. I believe the love we had within the family died with my sister Alex."

This afternoon jurors are expected to hear from Saint-Simon's family members who still live in Haiti, where he grew up.

This is a developing story. Please check back for more details.

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Feb. 13, 2018: Sanel Saint-Simon found guilty of killing his girlfriend's teenage daughter »

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