Even the defense admitted that Chad Paul Anciaux, 36, fatally beat Jennifer Powell, 53, outside the Stage Stop Inn with a baseball bat on Nov. 6, 2020, according to The Ocala StarBanner. The question before jurors in that Marion County, Florida, courtroom was whether he committed a first- or second-degree murder.
They determined that he committed the more serious crime and was accordingly sentenced to life in prison, the Fifth Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office announced on Wednesday. Florida law does not allow parole for first-degree murder convictions. Prosecutors did not pursue the death penalty.
Defense lawyer Candace Hawthorne maintained her client committed second-degree murder, not first-degree murder. She argued Anciaux, in a “blind rage,” committed the act as part of a “depraved mind” under the law, according to the StarBanner.
Assistant State Attorney Toby Hunt reportedly pointed out, however, that Anciaux stopped during the attack, checked Powell’s pulse, turned her over, and hit her again, striking her 17 times in total.
The prosecutor told jurors that as Anciaux chased Powell at the motel, the victim called out, “‘Help, he’s going to kill me.’”
Chad Paul Anciaux fatally beat his girlfriend, Jennifer Powell, with a baseball bat, authorities said. (Mug shot: Marion County Sheriff’s Office)
Eyewitness Kristin Kemp delivered emotional testimony about the incident.
“And during this time, because it all happened so fast, I’m seeing a man hitting a woman with a baseball bat in her face numerous times,” she said in the account covered by the StarBanner.
Kemp said her fiance, Daniel, tried to stop this while armed with a chair. The defendant went to swing at her fiance and missed, or the bat flew out of his hand, and the defendant ran. The fiance chased.
Kemp said she went to the victim to try to help, but realized she could do nothing because of how Powell looked.
Powell, a mother of three, languished at a hospital for days before being taken off life support on Nov. 16, 2020. Powell’s daughter, Morgan Petersen, testified that her mother was beaten so badly that she did not recognize her. The victim would have turned 54 five days after she died.
The autopsy found multiple skull fractures. Anciaux had knocked out several teeth, with one even being in the back of the victim’s throat.
He pleaded guilty earlier this year to failing to comply with sex offender reporting requirements and was sentenced to 950 days behind bars. Anciaux had pleaded guilty in Iowa in 2011 to assault with intent to commit sexual abuse. The abuse survivor, a 14-year-old girl, said she met Anciaux at a mall and passed out after he gave her a beverage, according to authorities in a report from the Cedar Rapids newspaper The Gazette. She said she woke up later to find herself being sexually assaulted several blocks from her previous location.
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