The Florida Supreme Court on Wednesday unanimously rejected an appeal by a man sentenced to death for the 2009 murders of his wife and five children in Collier County.
The appeal by Mesac Damas centered, in part, on whether he had been mentally competent to stand trial for the murders and whether he received proper legal representation. The opinion, written by Justice John Couriel, said that “after years of threats, domestic violence, and litigation” Damas killed his wife and children, all under age 10, by slitting their throats. He fled to Haiti, where he was arrested.
Damas confessed to the murders, “which he attributed to ‘bad spirits’ and voodoo spells cast upon him by his mother-in-law,” Couriel wrote. The opinion said competency hearings and evaluations were held over a number of years before Damas ultimately pleaded guilty in 2017.
In the appeal, Damas contended that his convictions and death sentences were unconstitutional because he was incompetent and his lawyers were ineffective in exposing the issue, Couriel wrote. But the Supreme Court turned down the arguments.
“The record reveals that defense counsel, the circuit court, the state, and mental health experts treated the issue of Damas’s competency with the serious consideration required under Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure … During the eight years between Damas’ arrest in 2009 and his sentencing in 2017, he was evaluated for competency 12 times by five different mental health experts,” Justice Jorge Labarga wrote in a concurring opinion. “The circuit court rendered orders on Damas’ competency in 2011, twice in 2014, and again in 2017.”
Damas, 49, is an inmate at Union Correctional Institution, according to the Florida Department of Corrections website.
