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Jul 28, 11:10 PM

Jury upholds Hoskins death penalty

BY J.D. GALLOP
FLORIDA TODAY

VIERA-- A Brevard jury for the third time in 10 years has recommended Johnny Hoskins be executed for raping, kidnapping and fatally beating his 80-year-old neighbor.

Johnny Hoskins, left, who is on trial for the rape and murder of 80-year-old Dorothy Berger from Melbourne, enters the court room. Image © 2004, Craig Rubadoux, FLORIDA TODAY

Hoskins stared straight ahead Wednesday as Circuit Judge Jere Lober read the jury's recommendation. The verdict came after 21/2 hours of deliberation.

"He's been through this before," said Ernie Chang, Hoskins' defense attorney. "We completely respect the jurors' decision."

Hoskins, 40, was convicted in 1994, but had two death sentences set aside. Both challenges to the death sentence were based on Hoskins' mental state. Including Wednesday's verdict, 35 of 36 jurors have voted to put Hoskins to death, prosecutors said.

Investigators said Hoskins confessed to assaulting Dorothy Berger in her Melbourne home in 1992. He said he drove her body to Georgia, burying it in a shallow grave.

Attorneys meet again Sept. 24 to discuss any other evidence in the case before setting a sentencing date.

Linda Peacock, Berger's niece, was in the courtroom when the verdict was read. She leaned forward and cried before putting her head on the shoulder of a victim's assistant.

"I think he deserves to die for what he did. This is like going through the whole thing over and over again," Peacock, a Fort Lauderdale resident, said after the jury's verdict.

The latest trial highlighted defense claims that Hoskins has a low IQ and brain defects that hinder behavioral control. The 12 jurors only considered whether the murder warranted the death penalty and sorted through eight days of testimony offered in the Moore Justice Center courtroom.

Assistant State Attorney Tom Brown, who argued for the death penalty, said Wednesday's verdict reaffirmed of previous jury recommendations.

"The public has spoken three times now," said Brown, who showed graphic photos of Berger's body to jurors during his closing statement.

"There's no question that the only justice in this case would be the death penalty."

Contact Gallop at 242-3668 or jdgallop@flatoday.net