Aaron Glee, who is charged in the horrific 2020 murders of two Tallahassee women, stunned the courtroom when he opted against entering a guilty plea in the case and insisted instead on proceeding with a trial.
During a court appearance Monday before Leon Circuit Judge Frank Allman, Glee said he felt pressured by his defense attorneys to enter into a plea deal with prosecutors, who had offered to take the death penalty off the table. The plea had been in the works since November, according to court records.
Glee, 51, is facing first-degree murder, kidnapping and other charges in the deaths of Victoria Sims, 75, a retired state worker and community volunteer, and Oluwatoyin Salau, 19, a Tallahassee Community College student and Black Lives Matter protester.
Salau went missing on June 6, 2020, followed by Sims several days later. On June 13, Tallahassee police descended on a house where he’d been staying on Monday Road. They found Sims’ body inside a bedroom and Salau’s body under a pile of leaves in woods behind the house.
More:At her funeral, loved ones gather to remember ‘bright, resilient’ Oluwatoyin Salau
Background:Aaron Glee showed all the signs of a budding serial killer in deaths of Sims, Salau
Family and friends of both victims packed into the courtroom to watch, said Assistant State Attorney Georgia Cappleman.
“Many of them were prepared to speak,” Cappleman said. “So it was pretty gut-wrenching to have it not happen.”
There was some discussion of an August start to the trial, but no date was set. A case management conference was set for early March.
“We’ll be looking for a trial date,” Cappleman said.
According to court records, Glee admitted to both murders, telling police he sexually assaulted Salau and killed her to avoid arrest before kidnapping Sims and stealing her car. He fled to Orlando shortly before police closed in on him in Tallahassee but was apprehended a short time later.
More:‘The heart of a warrior’: Funeral service held for Victoria Sims at Bradley’s Pond
Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com and follow @JeffBurlew on Twitter.