Family and friends of 15-year-old Kayla Rincon-Miller cried, sighed and asked for tissues, thanking law enforcement and prosecutors after jurors found Thomas Stein guilty of murder.
Jurors unanimously found on May 4 that Stein, 18, of North Fort Myers, did not intend to kill Rincon-Miller, but that he carried and possessed a firearm March 17, 2024.
The 12 people responsible for determining his guilt took about five hours of deliberations. They convicted him of one count of first-degree felony murder and three counts of attempted robbery with a firearm.
They did not unanimously find that he discharged the gun that killer Rincon-Miller.
Stein looked back as people exited the courtroom, some shouting in despair as bailiffs instructed them to go home.
“Mind your own business,” someone shouted outside the courtroom after the verdict.
Rincon-Miller’s mother, Luz Rincon, hugged Assistant State Attorneys Sara Miller and Alyssa Wolf. Friends and family thanked law enforcement and state prosecutors: “Thank you so much,” and “great job.”
Lee Circuit Judge Nicholas Thompson will sentence Stein on July 10. His attorney, David Wheeler, declined comment.
Stein was arrested in suspicion of shooting Rincon-Miller while attempting to rob her and her two friends, 19-year-old Emma Wright and 18-year-old Louann Dejaie as they walked from a Cape Coral movie theater, headed to McDonald’s.
Alongside Stein, Christopher Horne Jr., 18, struck a plea deal for second-degree felony murder and three counts of attempted robbery in Rincon-Miller’s death.
Horne’s deal meant he had to testify against Stein and, in exchange, he would receive a sentence of 25 years in prison.
Horne faces formal sentencing May 19.
Closing testimony was Monday morning
Stein had chosen to testify and provided his account of the events that happened on the night of March 17, 2024.
His testimony largely differed from Horne’s in several ways and was used as a point of contention for both the prosecuting and defense attorneys.
In his testimony on Friday, May 1, Stein explained that he did not think that he and Horne Jr. would be robbing anyone that night. He was under the assumption that they would break into cars.
Contradicting the defendant’s testimony, Wolf said in her closing argument that “the plan from the jump was that this was a night of robbery.
“The plan was never just to stick to car-hopping.”
Another significant difference between the testimony of Stein and Horne involved the number of people who actually attempted to rob the three victims.
Stein said that it was not just him and Horne in the car that night. He said there were two other people who he referred to as “JD” and “Trey.”
Stein said that he did not know JD and Trey, and they were friends of Horne’s. Stein and Horne picked them up at a church just “to hang out” with no particular plan in mind.
He said the four boys were driving when they saw Rincon-Miller and her two friends walking down the street and slowed down, calling them “beautiful”.
But the suspects were “not a couple of boys out trying to holler at some girls,” Wolf said.
“Those were criminals looking to rob an easy target and scoping out the best way to do it.”
Wolf appealed to the jury by telling them that Stein supplied the car and the weapons, and then after the murder, disposed of his gun and clothing.
“Under no circumstance is it believable that Thomas Stein is the only one in that vehicle that didn’t know this was going to be a robbery,” Wolf said.
Wolf told the jury that Stein and the other perpetrators “stalked” the three teens who became victims that night.
The attorney told the jurors that Stein’s testimony was an attempt to paint himself as a “hero”, a “victim” and a “patsy.”
“He is not the victim here today. There are three victims in this case: Louann Dejaie, Emma Wright and Kayla Rincon-Miller.”
Horne, who was also called to the witness stand to testify on Friday, remained adamant that there were only two people in the car the night of the shooting.
The surviving victims also contradicted Horne’s testimony. Wright and Dejaie remained unwavering in that there were more than two attackers.
However, Miller argued that it does not necessarily matter if there were two, three or four people in the car.
All that should matter to the jury is that Stein knew what was going to happen that night, the prosecutor said.
It is a “preposterous thing” to believe that Stein didn’t know that there was going to be an attempted robbery, and that he and the fellow perpetrators were just going to get the victims’ phone numbers, Miller rebutted.
“Thomas Stein wasn’t the victim of peer pressure. He’s the drug dealer. He’s the one with the guns. He’s the one with the car. He’s the one with the mom that permitted him to smoke weed and play with guns. He’s the bad influence,” Miller said.
“As a result of his behavior … he’s guilty for everything that happened, whether you believe he pulled that trigger or not.”
Horne claimed in his testimony that he is not responsible for shooting the gun that killed Rincon-Miller.
He said that his gun was not loaded and that he had taken the magazine out of the 1911 pistol he was carrying that night. He said that only Stein’s firearm was loaded with bullets.
Additionally, Horne said that anything that happened on the night of the shooting was Stein’s idea and not his own.
Horne disposed of his gun and cell phone in Southwest Florida waters, including the Caloosahatchee River, he said.
Neither the gun nor the cell phone were found by divers.
Regardless of who might have fired the gun, Stein would still be guilty of the murder just for his knowledge of the armed robbery alone, Wolf had said.
She reminded the jury that if a defendant helps someone commit a crime, then that defendant is just as guilty and “must be treated as if he had done all the things the other person or persons did.
“In for a penny, in for a pound,” Wolf said.
She says that “in Florida, we do not let defendants hide behind the actions of others. If this individual was involved in a robbery, everyone involved in that robbery is equally responsible for that.”
Stein’s defense attorney David Wheeler questioned Horne’s credibility as a truthful witness, accusing the 18-year-old of telling several lies while under oath.
Wheeler argued that the state attorneys “bought” Horne’s testimony “at a high price,” seeing as Horne would have faced life in prison had he not taken a plea deal to testify against Stein.
Furthermore, Wheeler claimed that the reason the prosecuting attorneys did not call Horne, who was supposed to be the state’s “star witness,” as their witness is because Horne had “too many lies, so he can’t keep it all straight.”
“His account is all over the place,” Wheeler said.
Miller rebutted the claim, stating that the prosecutors did not need Horne to prove Stein’s guilt, and that of 13 witnesses the prosecutors did call, there was enough evidence and testimony to prove the charges against Stein.
“Don’t be fooled by Thomas Stein’s testimony. Don’t be fooled by the lies he told you,” Miller said to the jury.
“As a result of his behavior … he’s guilty for everything that happened, whether you believe he pulled that trigger or not.”
Tayeba Hussein is a breaking news reporter for The News-Press & Naples Daily News. Reach her at thussein@usatodayco.com.
Tomas Rodriguez is a Breaking/Live News Reporter for the Naples Daily News and The News-Press. You can reach Tomas at TRodriguez@usatodayco.com or 772-333-5501. Connect with him on Threads @tomasfrobeltran, Instagram @tomasfrobeltran, Facebook @tomasrodrigueznews and Bluesky @tomasfrodriguez.
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This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Lee jury convicts teen in murder of 15-year-old Cape Coral girl
Reporting by Tayeba Hussein and Tomas Rodriguez, Fort Myers News-Press & Naples Daily News / Fort Myers News-Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
