A Florida man was sentenced to death, so he elbowed his own lawyer in the face. In 1990 he had raped and suffocated an 11-year-old girl and her babysitter, and when his DNA matched 26 years later, he told the jury he had slept with the girl’s mother. She was just “too much of a pig” to wash her sheets.
His name is Joseph Zieler. The girl was Robin Cornell. Her babysitter, Lisa Story, was 32. Robin’s mother Jan found them both when she came home to their Cape Coral apartment on the morning of May 10, 1990.
The case went cold. Zieler lived for 20 years at the same address in North Fort Myers, the next town over. In 2016 he was arrested for shooting his son with a pellet gun. The jail took his DNA, and it matched.
In the video below you see the hit. It’s June 26, 2023, in a Fort Myers courtroom, and Zieler, 61, is in an orange jumpsuit and handcuffs. His lawyer said later he never saw it coming.
Hours later the judge made it official. Zieler sat through it chained at the hands and feet, in a corner of the courtroom so he couldn’t hit, spit or kick anyone.
A month earlier he had taken the stand. The prosecutor asked if his DNA really stayed on those sheets for 5 months, from December 1989 to May 1990.
“Yes.”
“Because they’re pigs and they don’t wash their sheets, right?”
“Exactly.”
He had already put it in writing, in a letter from jail to the mother of the girl he was charged with killing. If she let them convict him, he would drag her, Robin and Lisa “through appeals all the way to the US Supreme Court.”
Asked how he could send that to her, he said: “She’s calling me a rapist and a murderer, and I’m calling her a pig for not washing her sheets.”
The judge sent the jury out.
The vote for death was 10-2. In April 2026 the Florida Supreme Court upheld both death sentences.
He’s keeping his promise anyway. On December 4 the US Supreme Court meets to decide whether to take his case.
Jan Cornell opened that door 36 years ago, and she’s still in court because of him.
Does a man like this deserve every appeal the law allows, or has she waited long enough?
His name is Joseph Zieler. The girl was Robin Cornell. Her babysitter, Lisa Story, was 32. Robin’s mother Jan found them both when she came home to their Cape Coral apartment on the morning of May 10, 1990.
The case went cold. Zieler lived for 20 years at the same address in North Fort Myers, the next town over. In 2016 he was arrested for shooting his son with a pellet gun. The jail took his DNA, and it matched.
In the video below you see the hit. It’s June 26, 2023, in a Fort Myers courtroom, and Zieler, 61, is in an orange jumpsuit and handcuffs. His lawyer said later he never saw it coming.
Hours later the judge made it official. Zieler sat through it chained at the hands and feet, in a corner of the courtroom so he couldn’t hit, spit or kick anyone.
A month earlier he had taken the stand. The prosecutor asked if his DNA really stayed on those sheets for 5 months, from December 1989 to May 1990.
“Yes.”
“Because they’re pigs and they don’t wash their sheets, right?”
“Exactly.”
He had already put it in writing, in a letter from jail to the mother of the girl he was charged with killing. If she let them convict him, he would drag her, Robin and Lisa “through appeals all the way to the US Supreme Court.”
Asked how he could send that to her, he said: “She’s calling me a rapist and a murderer, and I’m calling her a pig for not washing her sheets.”
The judge sent the jury out.
The vote for death was 10-2. In April 2026 the Florida Supreme Court upheld both death sentences.
He’s keeping his promise anyway. On December 4 the US Supreme Court meets to decide whether to take his case.
Jan Cornell opened that door 36 years ago, and she’s still in court because of him.
Does a man like this deserve every appeal the law allows, or has she waited long enough?
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