Miami Herald, The (FL)-October 10, 1992
Author: JOSEPH WILLIAMS Herald Staff Writer
After spending 16 years and 233 days behind bars for the sensational murders of two lawmen at a Deerfield Beach rest stop, former Death Row inmate Sonia Linder Jacobs walked out of the Broward County Jail on Friday to freedom.
In an ironic end to one of Broward's most heinous crimes, Jacobs agreed to a plea deal for her role in the deaths of Philip A. Black, a Florida Highway Patrol trooper, and Donald Irwin, a visiting Canadian constable. Circuit Judge Howard Zeidwig convicted her of second-degree murder and kidnapping charges and sentenced her to 16 years -- the amount of time she has already served. She was released shortly after the 5:30 p.m. hearing.
When Zeidwig asked her if she planned to appeal the agreement before the one-month deadline, a smiling Jacobs replied, "According to the agreement I just had, I'm sure I will be satisfied one month from now."
The deal also brings to an end a series of hearings to determine if Broward State Attorney
Michael J. Satz -- who originally prosecuted the celebrated 1976 case -- should retry it. One codefendant has already died in Florida's electric chair, and another is serving two life sentences.
Last week, Satz was forced to defend himself on charges that he had withheld evidence, used the case as a springboard to office and ignored a conflict of interest with Ralph Ray, his chief deputy.
Both sides said the plea agreement was a compromise.
While confident that a jury would convict Jacobs, "the witnesses' memories are fading, and the case is so old," Satz said. In exchange for quick release, he added, Jacobs becomes a three-time convicted felon and the victims' families are spared from reliving painful memories.
"No one was real happy, as I am not, with the outcome," Satz said. Still, "this is the best disposition, and, in the final analysis, this was my decision."
The hearings to get Satz tossed off the case threatened to tarnished his reputation as a by the-book, law-and-order prosecutor. Satz, then an assistant prosecutor in charge of capital murders, was assigned the high-profile case shortly before launching his campaign for state attorney in 1976.
Ray, then a public defender, was co-defendant Walter Rhodes' lawyer, and advised him to plead guilty to stay out of the electric chair. After Satz was elected to office, he chose Ray as his chief deputy.
Jose Quinon, Jacobs' attorney, says that his client is innocent and that Satz's case was weak. But the offer to give her immediate freedom -- and bypass the risk of a possibly hostile jury -- was too good to turn down.
Jacobs entered an Alford plea, which concedes substantial facts against her but not her guilt, Quinon said.
"She does not admit to shooting anyone. I think Mr. Satz is correct when he said he's doing this in the best interests of the state," he said.
Jacobs' release closes a strange case that featured dozens of ironic twists and turns, and hinged on testimony from Rhodes, who changed his story twice after trial. Jacobs' fate received national attention when questions surfaced about whether the state prosecuted an innocent woman, and eventually forced Satz to take the witness stand.
It began the morning of Feb. 20, 1976, when Black and Irwin were gunned down at an Interstate 95 rest stop just south of the Palm Beach County line near Deerfield Beach.
Jacobs, then 28, was sleeping in the back of a Camaro with her two children.
Her boyfriend, Jesse Tafero, 29, was in the front seat and Rhodes, 25, an acquaintance, was behind the wheel.
About 7 a.m., Black and Irwin spotted the car and pulled up. Black spotted a pistol inside the Camaro and ordered everybody out. A fight broke out, gunshots followed, and the officers fell to the pavement.
The trio fled in the trooper's car, then kidnapped a retiree and commandeered his Cadillac. When Rhodes tried to crash through a roadblock, police opened fire, nearly severing his leg with a succession of shotgun blasts.
Two truck drivers saw the shooting from about 150 feet away, but their vision was clouded by an early-morning mist. Tests showed one gun killed both men, but the question was: Who pulled the trigger?
After passing a polygraph test, Rhodes turned state's evidence and received two life sentences in exchange for his testimony against Jacobs and Tafero.
He testified that Jacobs fired off shots from the back of the car, then passed the gun to
Tafero, who fired more shots. Tafero died in the electric chair in May 1990. Jacobs also received a death sentence, but the Florida Supreme Court in 1981 commuted it to life in prison.
In February 1991, an appeals court ordered a new trial for Jacobs. In its opinion, the 11th
Circuit Court said Satz relied on questionable evidence and withheld a polygraph statement that indicated Rhodes may not have seen Jacobs shoot the lawmen.
Flanked by her defense lawyers Friday, Jacobs climbed into a waiting car outside the jail and left
Her lawyers said they planned to take their client out to dinner.
Herald staff writer Pam Ferdinand contributed to this report. CHRONOLOGY
Feb. 20, 1976: Florida Highway Patrol trooper Phillip Black and visiting Canadian constable Donald Irwin are shot and killed at an Interstate 95 truck stop near Deerfield Beach.
Spring 1976: Shortly before his election to the Broward State Attorney's post, Michael Satz prosecutes Jesse Tafero, Walter Rhodes and Sonia Linder Jacobs.
April 6, 1976: In a confidential report to Satz, polygraph examiner Carl Lord writes,
"Rhodes could not be sure whether or not (Jacobs) had fired at all." The report is concealed from defense attorneys.
March 26, 1981: The Florida Supreme Court reduces Jacobs' death sentence to two life terms. She is taken to the Broward Correctional Institution.
May 4, 1990: Jacobs' lover, Jesse Tafero, dies in Florida's electric chair.
Feb. 6, 1992: The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta overturns Jacobs' conviction. The court finds that the state unknowingly used perjured testimony and concealed the polygraph examiner's report.
March 27, 1992: ABC airs a 20/20 segment on the murder case, suggesting Satz plea bargained with the trigger-man, Rhodes.
July 9, 1992: Jacobs is granted a retrial.
Aug. 10, 1992: Jacobs is denied bail despite testimony from four witnesses who became friends with Jacobs after her conviction.
Oct. 9, 1992: Jacobs pleads no contest to two counts of second-degree murder and is sentenced to time served. She walks out of prison -- 16 years later.
color photo: Sonia Jacobs (a); photo: Sonia Jacobs
(n), Walter RHODES, Jesse TAFERO
Memo: see CHRONOLOGY at end of text
Edition: BRWRD
Section: FRONT
Page: 1A
Record Number: 9206010952
Copyright (c) 1992 The Miami Herald
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