Jury recommends death for killer of 'Jane Doe I-275'

LARGO -- Franklin Delano Floyd blames state prosecutors for framing him with murder. He blames a judge for helping them. He sometimes blames his attorneys for not listening to him.

After he spent an hour testifying on Tuesday about his troubled youth that included alcoholic parents and sexual abuse at an orphanage, a prosecutor asked Floyd if an awful childhood was to blame for his life of crime.

This time, Floyd didn't blame anyone at all.

"I've been a criminal for 50 years, and I take full responsibility for my background," he said. "Nobody had a gun to my head."

A jury deliberated for just over an hour on Tuesday before recommending to a Pinellas-Pasco circuit judge that Floyd be executed for the 1989 killing of an 18-year-old Brandon dancer, Cheryl Ann Commesso, whose body was dumped off Interstate 275.

Her skeletal remains were found six years after her death. She was dubbed "Jane Doe I-275" before she was finally identified.

The 12 jurors were unanimous in their recommendation. Judge Nancy Moate Ley has the final decision, one that may take several months to reach. She must by law give the jury's recommendation great weight.

Floyd, 59, who has been prone to angry outbursts throughout his nine-day trial, exhibited no anger as the jury's decision was announced by a court clerk. Seven bailiffs ringed the courtroom, expecting his usual tantrum.

John Commesso, the victim's father, said he was overjoyed at the jury's recommendation and said he planned to visit his daughter's grave on Long Island over the weekend.

"I'm going to say, 'We did it,' " he said.

A jury had convicted Floyd of first-degree murder Friday. He didn't testify during his trial. But Floyd took the stand Tuesday during the penalty phase of his trial.

Floyd testified about a troubled childhood. He said both his parents were alcoholics. His father died while Floyd was still an infant, and his mother abandoned him in an orphanage and rarely visited.

In the orphanage, other boys sexually abused him, Floyd said. He said the continuing abuse finally led him to renounce God. He recalled shaking his fist at the heavens until, he said, a lightning bolt struck and split a nearby oak tree.

Floyd wasn't impressed. "I didn't even take that as a sign," he said.

Later, he said, he was sexually abused in prison. Floyd said he has 19 felony convictions dating back to the early 1960s, from child molestation to bank robbery and kidnapping. He is serving nine consecutive life terms in Oklahoma for two unrelated kidnappings and assaults.

When pressed by prosecutor Glenn Martin, Floyd acknowledged he had made many bad choices in his life and accepted responsibility for many, though not all, of his crimes.

One crime he refuses to accept responsibility for is Commesso's killing. He said he wasn't the one who abducted her and then pumped two bullets into her head.

And he became outraged when Martin questioned him about a conviction for a 1962 child molestation that Floyd said he did not commit.

He was so mad that when Martin asked him another question, Floyd said, "I don't have anything else to say to you. Not after the way you just treated me."

Floyd relented after the judge let him explain, outside the presence of jurors, why he was innocent of the 1962 crime.

"It was hard to sit through all his tirades," said John Commesso. "I'm glad the jurors saw right through him."

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