Jury: Teen's pro-wrestling defense doesn't cover murder

Under Florida law, the jurors did not have to conclude Lionel meant the girl's July 1999 death to convict him, only that his actions were intentional and abusive.

Tate faces life without parole, although that could be commuted by the governor after hearing from the prosecutor. The teen does not face the death penalty because he is younger than 16. Prosecutor Ken Padowitz declined to say earlier Thursday what he would tell the governor.

Lionel, one of the youngest adult murder defendants in state history, showed no emotion when the verdict was announced, while his mother, Florida Highway Patrol trooper Kathleen Grossett-Tate, lowered her eyes. Later, Lionel had tears on his face as deputies led him out of the courtroom.

No one disputed that the 170-pound Lionel, then 12, beat Tiffany to death on July 28, 1999, in the Pembroke Park home he shared with his mother, who was baby-sitting for the 48-pound girl. Grossett-Tate was asleep at the time.

An autopsy showed Tiffany suffered a fractured skull, lacerated liver, broken rib, internal hemorrhaging and cuts and bruises.

A few days after her death, Lionel told police that he picked Tiffany up and accidentally hit her head against a table. He later made a videotape with a court-appointed psychologist where he claimed to have accidentally thrown Tiffany into a stair handrail and a wall while trying to throw her onto a sofa.

The defense's own experts conceded that Lionel's story would not have accounted for all of Tiffany's injuries, which one prosecution expert said were comparable to falling from a three-story building.

Before trial, prosecutors offered Lionel a three-year sentence plus 10 years' probation if he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.

In closing arguments Wednesday, Padowitz stressed intent to kill was not required for a guilty verdict.

"He didn't have to wake up that morning and say 'I'm going to kill Tiffany Eunick,"' Padowitz said. "All that is required is that he intended to act, not that he intended the result."

But Jim Lewis, Lionel's attorney, said professional wrestling was the central issue in Tiffany's death. He said Lionel is immature and didn't understand that pro wrestlers are trained to look like they beat each other without hurting each other.

"He wanted to emulate them," Lewis said. "Like Batman and Superman, they were his heroes. He loved to play."

Lewis asked that the judge allow the teen remain home, with an ankle monitor, until sentencing. But Circuit Judge Joel T. Lazarus rejected the request, noting that Lionel was a felon. He put the boy in the custody of the sheriff and suggested he should be held at a juvenile detention center and not with the adult population at the county jail.<