Florida prosecutors will seek the death penalty for a 34-year-old man who killed his ex-girlfriend and her 10-month-old baby and left them and two other children in their burning Daytona Beach apartment.
Charles Leon Ivy stabbed Den’Jah Moore, 30, more than 100 times, as CrimeOnline previously reported. When firefighters extinguished the blaze, they found the three children inside with their mother. Ten-month-old Messiah Calixte had been stabbed, but died from the fire, officials said.
Charles Leon Ivy Prosecutors Seek Death Penalty by kc wildmoon on Scribd
The other two children — a 4-year-old girl and a 5-year-old boy — were not stabbed but were left “left to die in a fully engulfed fire,” Daytona Beach Police Chief Jakari Young said. Ivy is the father of those two children, but Moore had custody of them.
“The capital felonies were especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel,” prosecutors wrote in their notice about the death penalty, filed Wednesday, adding that they “were committed in a cold, calculated, and premeditated manner without any pretense of moral or legal justification.”
Firefighters responded to the blaze late on November 21 and found evidence of arson throughout the apartment and evidence leading to Ivy. He was taken into custody after police saw him and an unnamed woman loading suitcases and bags into an SUV.
Young said the woman cooperated with police and would not face charges. According to an arrest report, she said that Ivy left for work at 4 p.m. on Monday and said he was going to drop off money for Moore after work. He arrived back at home shortly before midnight and undressed on the porch because, he said, he didn’t like how his work clothes smelled.
Ivy had injuries to his leg and hand, and the woman said he told her he hurt himself while working on a trailer. Police questioned co-workers at the fast food restaurant where he worked, and they said Ivy left just after 10 p.m. and had no injuires at the time.
Young said Ivy has not confessed but “put himself on scene around the time that these murders would have occurred.”
“With what we witnessed throughout this investigation, the defendant in this incident deserves a special place in the gates of hell for what he did to this mother and these children,” Young said. “Again, I have never witnessed anything this horrific in my entire career.”
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[Featured image: Den’Jah Moore/Facebook and Charles Ivy/Volusia County Corrections]
