CHEYANNE JESSIE || Unwanted Child Filicide | Florida mother who brutally murdered her six-year-old daughter and her own father in 2015 | Sentenced to LWOP | ALS

Cheyanne Jessie. Autographed Letter, Signed. Handwritten, Commercial #10 (4.125 × 9.5 envelope). Ocala, FL. Pmk: November 21, 2023. Content unknown. SEALED.

Twenty-five-year-old Cheyanne Jessie of Lakeland, Florida, would notify the police that her father and daughter were missing. It was quickly discovered by the police investigating that this was more than just a case of a missing person. Cheyanne Jessie had killed the child and her father weeks prior to the 911 call, as investigators would soon find out. Following her arrest, Cheyanne Jessie was found guilty of both killings.

The Florida woman was sentenced to life for her fathers murder however the jury recommended that she be sentenced to death for the murder of her child. The judge presiding over the case did not agree and sentenced her again to life in prison without parole.

Convicted double-murderer Cheyanne Jesse will spend the rest of her life in prison for the brutal murders of her 50-year-old father, Mark Ivan Weekly, and 6-year-old daughter, Meredith Leeann Jessie.

“It is this court’s conclusion that Cheyanne Jesse should lose her liberty, not her life,” said Circuit Judge Jalal Harb. “Accordingly, as to count one, you are sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. As to count two, you are sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

Cheyanne Jessie, who is now 31, confessed in August 2015 to killing her father and daughter, who investigators believe died on July 18, 2015 — the day they were last seen by a friend of Weekly’s. Weekly was stabbed at least 12 times and shot in the head three times, while Meredith was repeatedly stabbed and shot in the back of the head. It happened in Weekly’s rented west Drane Field Road home.

Following the murders, Jessie placed the bodies in two plastic storage bins and put them in a shed in their landlord’s backyard next door to their home, where they decomposed throughout the last two weeks of July. Prosecutors said her boyfriend wanted to break up with her because Meredith had extreme behavior issues for which she was placed in in-patient psychiatric care at one point.

“The defendant, the court concludes, was unable to cope with the severe stress that was created upon her due to her daughter’s emotional and behavioral conditions,” Harb said. “The defendant was diagnosed with major depressive disorder and suffered from numerous psychological deficits.”

Harb cited Jessie’s own mental capacity when he handed down the life sentence on Friday afternoon.

“The first-degree murder was committed while Cheyanne Jessie was under the influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance,” Harb said. “The circumstances of the capacity of Cheyanne Jessie to appreciate the criminality of her conduct or to conform her conduct to the requirements of the law was substantially impaired.”

He went on to say that Jessie had been physically and sexually abused as a child while she was living with her mother and, when she was 4 years old, she was removed from her mother’s custody and given to her father to raise.

“When she came to live with her father, she had difficulties walking, talking and had other developmental difficulties,” Harb said. “Around the time of the homicides, the defendant was described as mentally and emotionally unstable and extremely depressed and that she was controlled by her boyfriend.”

As Harb was sentencing her, Jessie, sitting in the jury box, could be heard mumbling something as she kept her face hidden. A court bailiff, who was standing close to her, later said Jessie was trying to tell the judge she did not commit the murders. During the trial, her attorneys said her boyfriend, Matthew “Cody” Munroe, had committed the crimes and Jessie had confessed because she was afraid of him.

No woman from Polk County has ever received the death penalty.

On Friday, the only people in the courtroom were the judge and his assistant, Jessie’s two attorneys, two attorneys for the state, several court bailiffs, a court reporter and two journalists from The Ledger. No one from Jessie’s family, Weekly’s family or Meredith’s father’s family attended the brief hearing.

Prosecutor Paul Wallace said Meredith’s father lives in Georgia and had very little to do with the girl when she was alive.

Following the hearing, one of her two attorneys, Jervis Wise, said they were satisfied with the sentence.

“We think the court made a fair and just decision under difficult circumstances,” Wise said.

Chief Assistant State Attorney Jacob Orr said they were disappointed.

“We clearly thought it was a death penalty case — our opinion hasn’t changed,” Orr said. “We thought it deserved the death penalty and so did the jury.”

In July 2019, a jury recommended the death sentence for the murder of Meredith, while they voted 10-2 for a life sentence for Weekly’s murder.

When Harb was finished, Jessie was fingerprinted and taken to a holding cell. She will spend the remainder of her life in a Florida prison for women.ⁱ

VIDEO: Cheyanne Jessie: Unwanted Child Filicide | https://youtu.be/SkXKZCKGUuI

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