Convicted killer Marcelle Waldon faces death penalty in deaths of former Lakeland commissioner and her husband

LAKELAND, Fla. - The trial is over for the man accused of stabbing and killing a former Lakeland city commissioner and her husband in 2020, and on Monday a jury will consider whether or not Marcelle Waldon will face the death penalty.

On January 31, a jury found Waldon guilty of ten felony counts, including two counts of first-degree murder, kidnapping, armed robbery, and arson among others. 

Over the course of the trial, which started on January 16, prosecutors laid out their case describing how Waldon terrorized and murdered former Lakeland Commissioner Edith Yates-Henderson and her husband David Henderson in their Lake Morton home.

Murder suspect Marcell Waldon in court. 

Mark Levine, the assistant state attorney on this case, painted the picture of a normal morning for Edith and David Henderson on November 10, 2020, that turned violent and gruesome at the hands of Waldon.

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"He would shatter and take their lives, leaving them butchered in their own house lying in pools of blood after he was done slicing and dicing and stabbing them over 23 times," said Levine.

Edith Yates Henderson and her husband David Henderson. Image is courtesy of the Ledger. 

Police say on a November morning in 2020, while David Henderson was away picking up food for the couple, Waldon entered the home through an unlocked door. Once inside the home, police say he held Edith Yates Henderson at gunpoint and forced her to write two $5,000 checks to him before stabbing the couple to death.

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Waldon's attorneys tried to convince the jury that their defendant was a homeless man, caught in desperate times, and committed a crime of opportunity.

After considering the evidence, the jury sided with the prosecution.