Sebring bank shooting: Doctor tells jurors gunman has a brain tumor during sentencing trial

SEBRING, Fla. - The defense rested its case in the Sebring bank shooter’s sentencing trial on Thursday evening. 

Zephen Xaver walked into a SunTrust Bank in Sebring on Jan. 23, 2019, and shot four employees and one customer inside. Now, a jury will decide if he will be sentenced to death or spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole. 

Xaver's brother testified on Thursday and said his brother was his best friend growing up. 

He added that as his brother entered his teenage years they didn't hang out as much, because he became more anti-social and spent a lot of time in his room playing video games. 

Zackery Xaver added that he thought things were getting better for his brother after he moved to Sebring from Indiana. He said his brother showed him where he worked, cooked dinner and described a baby shower he attended for a co-worker. 

Zackery Xaver went on to say that he communicates with his brother almost every day and Zephen asks about his niece and hopes to meet her one day. 

Earlier in the day, jurors heard testimony from a neurologist who said he believes Xaver has a brain tumor. 

Dr. Mark Rubino said he scanned Xaver’s brain three times in 2023 as part of the trial, not for medical reasons. He told jurors he found a small tumor in the auditory association part of his brain, which could be why Xaver claimed to hear voices. 

On cross-examination, Dr. Rubino admitted that Xaver also has depression and psychosis, which may also be why he said he heard voices. 

Dr. James Garbarino, a developmental psychologist who never met Xaver, took the stand as an educational witness. 

He spoke about how a person’s brain develops and matures through the years. 

Dr. Garbarino told the jurors that video games can have a negative impact on teens and may break down an inhibition to shoot and kill human beings.

He went on to talk about the Adverse Childhood Experience test and said people who faced adversity in their childhood are less mature at age 21 than their peers. 

However, on cross-examination, Garbarino stated that most people know right from wrong. 

Jurors also heard from Pastor Robert Hines on Thursday morning. He told the jury he is a chaplain at the Highlands County Jail and baptized Xaver. 

On Wednesday, Xaver’s public defender made a motion for a mistrial over alleged juror misconduct regarding text messages between a juror and a friend.

The judge denied the mistrial and said the juror did not share her thoughts and feelings about the case. However, she did remind the juror not to discuss the case with anyone. 

When proceedings began, jurors heard from Xaver’s family physician, school nurse, guidance counselor, and mental health counselor. 

They all discussed an incident in which Xaver woke up from a nap at school and said he had a dream that he barricaded people inside the school and killed them. 

The school contacted law enforcement and his mother. Xaver was given a police escort to a behavioral health center and did not return to school. 

The witnesses told the jurors they felt Xaver should be in a residential facility, but his mother said he never qualified. 

On Tuesday, Xaver's mother, Misti Hendricks, took the stand for the second time this week. 

She explained to the jury that her son, who former teachers described as quiet and well-mannered, changed when he became a teenager. 

Hendricks told jurors that her son had attempted suicide and had been hospitalized in psychiatric facilities several times, but never for more than a week or so. She said she tried to get him placed in a residential facility, but he never qualified. 

READ: Sebring bank shooting: Gunman’s mother tells jurors he had a dream about a school shooting

Xaver's mother went on to tell the jury about her own struggles with mental health and explained that she was misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia after giving birth to her second son. 

She said she was put on medication that made her hear and see things that weren't real. Hendricks said those side effects went away once she stopped taking the medicine, and she began to feel better once she was diagnosed with post-partum depression and was placed on medication to treat it. 

During the defense's opening statement, Xaver's lawyer said that the evidence they will present this week is not an excuse or a justification for him shooting and killing five women at the SunTrust Bank, because there is no excuse.

However, the defense is arguing that Xaver’s life should be spared, and jurors should sentence him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

While on the stand on Tuesday, Hendricks shared that she e-mails her son at the jail every day and does a video chat with him once a week. She said she loves her son and will continue to have contact with him if he is sentenced to life in prison. 

Last week, the jury heard from a slew of witnesses called by the prosecution.

Xaver's ex-girlfriend, Imani Davis, told jurors that after months of not communicating, Xaver reached out to her on Jan. 23, 2019, and seemed uncharacteristically happy and excited. 

READ: Sebring bank shooting: Jurors hear 911 call as gunman's sentencing trial gets underway

She said Xaver sent her a message at 12:14 p.m. on Jan. 23, 2019, which read, "The fun part, the [expletive] cliché clincher, is that I’m not going out alone. I’m taking a few people out with me because I’ve always wanted to kill people, so I’m going to try it and see how it goes. Watch out for me on the news – Sebring, Florida."

She said she wrote back, "There’s something wrong with you. Seriously."

Then she told her teacher about the messages and school officials contacted law enforcement. 

Another friend of Xaver’s took the stand Thursday and testified that she contacted her local law enforcement in Michigan after Xaver sent her a message stating that he wanted to hold up a bank. He wanted the police to shoot him, so they would look like heroes. 

READ: Sebring bank shooting trial: Gunman tells police ‘I deserve to die for this’ in video played for jurors

Police said they contacted Xaver’s mother at the time and said they saw no reason to follow up. 

Jurors also heard from a bank teller who escaped the massacre, law enforcement officers and witnesses who arrived at the bank that afternoon to find the doors locked and people lying on the floor.

Prosecutors played an interview between Xaver and police shortly after his arrest in which he said, "I deserve to die for this."

Jurors also listened to the 911 call Xaver made from inside the bank moments after he shot five women inside. 

Twice, Xaver's defense team called for a mistrial. The first time was over an audience member who had an audible reaction to testimony and the presence of a therapy dog in the courtroom, and the second time was when an employee at the gun store where Xaver purchased his firearm gave him a dirty look when he entered the courtroom to testify. 

Both times, the judge denied the mistrial. 

Who is Zephen Xaver? 

The man police say shot and killed five people in a Sebring, Florida, SunTrust bank was described by a woman who knew him as "normal" and "well-mannered."

Sharon Spillane, a friend of Xaver’s parents, told FOX 13 in 2019 that she never in a million years saw this coming. 

"We’ve cooked together, I’ve been in their house, we’ve watched movies. They’re a very normal family," Spillane said. "He had a job, and he was very quiet and very well-mannered. Anytime that I saw him, he was very well-mannered, always good posture and well-spoken."

However, Xaver’s ex-girlfriend paints a different picture. In a previous interview with FOX 13, Alex Gerlach said Xaver was obsessed with guns and knives.

"The only thing I can remember is him talking about guns and wanting guns," Gerlach said in a 2019 interview. "He wants to hurt people physically."

According to Gerlach, she met Xaver in a psychiatric hospital in 2013. She said they dated off and on for about two years.

"At one point, my mother was terrified because she thought he was going to physically harm me," explained Gerlach, who described Xaver as a troubled teen. "For some reason, he always hated people and wanted everybody to die."

Gerlach said Xaver continued to make chilling comments over the years and said one week before the shooting he sent her a picture of him holding a gun.

"I've been scared for years and every single person I've told has not taken it seriously, and it's very unfortunate it had to come to this," she said in 2019.

Documents provided by the Bremen Police Department in Indiana state officers went to Xaver's high school in 2014, after school officials said he was having disturbing thoughts.

The documents state Xaver told school officials he had dreams of hurting his classmates. According to the police report, Xaver's mother agreed to take her son to a behavioral health center.

In recorded conversations played for the jury, Xaver states that medication did not help him and neither did his time at a behavioral treatment center. He claimed that voices in his head told him to kill people. However, a psychologist who took the stand on Thursday said he did not believe Xaver was really hearing voices because he appeared to be very calm and methodical in video that shows him carrying out the murders. 

The Florida Department of Corrections confirmed Xaver was a correctional officer trainee with Avon Park Correctional Institution for about two months. He resigned two weeks before the shooting. 

Who were the victims?

Marisol Lopez, Jessica Montague, Debra Cook, Ana Pinon Wiliams and Cynthia Watson were killed on Jan. 23, 2019, when Xaver, who was 21 at the time, walked into the SunTrust Bank on Highway 27, wearing a bullet-proof vest and armed with a gun he recently purchased, forced the women to lie on the floor and shot them to death. 

Last Friday, friends and family of the five women who were killed told the jury how their lives were destroyed by the murders. Several jurors wiped tears from their eyes as Xaver sat stone-faced with his head propped in his hand. 

Ana Piñon Williams came to America from Mexico when she was 12 years old and picked fruits and vegetables to support her family. 

She is remembered as a loving daughter, mother, sister, and friend who was the glue that kept their family together. 

"She lives in and through us," Anna’s sister Blanca told the jury. "We continue her legacy with humbleness, compassion, empathy, and a strong faith in God. She was a ray of sunshine and a breath of fresh air."

Debra Cook was a cancer survivor who had been married to her husband, Michael Cook, one month shy of 35 years. 

He said they didn't have to work, but she wanted to work, so she could help out her children and travel. 

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"No one expects to say goodbye to a loved one in the morning and never see them, hold them, or talk to them again," Michael Cook stated. "Everyone expects to say goodbye to the ones they love."

Friends and family describe Marisol Lopez as an exceptional human being who was a daughter, sister, wife, mother and friend. 

Her daughter said her world stopped on January 23, 2019, when Lopez was killed. 

"I lost the one person I trusted entirely, and now I am very alone, and I feel so isolated. I may have been 21 when she died, but I was still a girl who needed her mom."

Family members described Cynthia Watson as having the heart of an angel and described her as empathetic, compassionate, adventurous, and strong. She was a wife, mother, grandmother, sister and daughter.

Her daughter says she has been sentenced to a lifetime of grief since the passing of her mother

Jessica Montague is described as a loving, caring, and kind person. 

Her mother, Tina Warner, said, "I never knew what a true heartbreak was until Jessie was taken from us. She always lit up a room with her outstanding personality."

Warner added, "I miss my Jessie every day. The hole in my heart will never heal. My love for my daughter will never be replaced by anyone or anything."

Police said they haven't found any connection between suspect Xaver and the victims. It also did not appear that there had been any attempt to rob the bank.

Will Zephen Xaver get the death penalty? 

Xaver’s trial will be one of the first high-profile cases in Florida where the death penalty sentence no longer hinges on a unanimous jury verdict.

Florida lawmakers made the change in 2023, shortly after jurors spared the life of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas school shooter in a 9-3 decision.

Florida law now states that a defendant may be sentenced to death if at least 8 of the 12 jurors recommend execution. 

State Attorney Brian Haas says all five of the victims‘ families support seeking the death penalty in this case. 

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