Michael Bargo, who in 2013 became the youngest person on Florida’s death row for a brutal murder, will likely stay on death row after a jury unanimously recommended execution for a 2011 slaying.
The panel made its recommendation Tuesday for now-26-year-old Michael Bargo, Marion County court records show. A judge will make the final decision.
Bargo was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death with a 10-2 jury recommendation. The Florida Supreme Court ordered new sentencing for Bargo in 2017 as Florida law now requires a unanimous death penalty recommendation.
Bargo was 18 when he was charged with beating and shooting 15-year-old Seath Jackson to death and burning his body in a fire pit.
Jackson’s remains – ashes and bone fragments – were then dumped in 5-gallon paint buckets and hidden, according to Marion County Sheriff’s Office records.
The killing was a brutal one. Jackson was lured by his girlfriend to a home in the Marion County community of Summerfield, where Bargo and two other attackers began hitting him with pieces of wood. Bargo shot him several times with a .22-caliber revolver, but Jackson managed to make an escape attempt, and he was tackled and shot again.
The killers placed his body in a bathtub, intending to break his knees so he would better fit into a bag only to discover that he was still alive, so Bargo shot him again.
Jackson’s body was then burned in a backyard fire pit, and the killers used a shovel to scoop up his remains and place them into paint buckets.
A jury found Bargo guilty of first-degree murder in August 2013 and recommended the death penalty.
Bargo argued that he was mentally ill.
Four other people are serving life sentences, and another is serving 30 years.
He later admitted that he, his sister and friends had planned the crime and lured Seath to his death, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies say Hooper told them the plans for the crime began to come together as he, Amber, Bargo, Ely and Soto were at Ely’s house on Southeast 53rd Avenue in Summerfield on Sunday.
After Bargo said how much he hated Seath, the group hatched its plot to lure Seath to the house, according to arrest affidavits filed in the case.
It’s unclear why Bargo so disliked the boy. Seath indicated on his Facebook page that he thought Amber and an older boy he called “Mike” were in a romantic relationship.
He posted on Facebook earlier this year that he loved Amber. But weeks later, they had broken up.
Friends gathered in front of the home Wednesday evening for a candlelight vigil in Seath’s honor, saying he didn’t deserve what happened to him.
Seath’s remains were put into paint buckets and discarded. Some buckets were found in an Ocala lime pit. Authorities were still searching for more remains Thursday.
