ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Florida prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for a man facing first-degree murder charges for the death of a woman and their 2-year-old son.
In a notice, State Attorney Bruce Bartlett officially filed with the intent to seek the death penalty for 21-year-old Thomas Mosley.
Mosley has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder. The 2-year-old's body was found inside the jaws of an alligator in Lake Maggiore — 13 miles away from where his 20-year-old mother's body was found, the St. Petersburg Police Department said in a previous news release.
"The State of Florida intends to prove, and has reason to believe it can prove beyond a reasonable doubt... aggravating circumstances," the notice read, in part.
The specific aggravating circumstances include:
- The defendant was previously convicted of another capital felony or of a felony involving the use or threat of violence to the person.
- The capital felony was especially heinous, atrocious or cruel
- The victim of the capital felony was a person less than 12 years of age.
- The victim of the capital felony was particularly vulnerable due to advanced age or disability, or because the defendant stood in a position of familial or custodial authority over the victim.
The murder investigation began Thursday, March 30, when officers responded to Lincoln Shores Apartments, off of 4th Street North, after Jeffery's family voiced their concerns about the 20-year-old and said they saw blood on the sidewalk in a path leading away from her apartment, the affidavit reads.
The family reportedly called management at the apartment complex who entered the home and found Jeffery dead.
Authorities say they found "in excess of 100 wounds" on the 20-year-old's body.
At the apartment, police say they found a bloody fingerprint on a cleaning bottle that was intentionally placed under a bed and a bloody shoe print with a Gucci emblem on the bathroom floor where Jeffery was found.
According to the affidavit, the fingerprint from the cleaning bottle was identified as belonging to Mosley.
Documents say around 8:42 p.m. Thursday, Mosley went to the Lake Maggiore area in St. Pete before continuing on to his mother's which is about 10 blocks away from the lakes.
Holloway said the 2-year-old's body was intact when found, however, officers killed the alligator.
In charging Mosley with first-degree murder, authorities say he "did throw or place" the child into the lake, "thereby inflicting...mortal wounds."
Taylen Mosley, the 2-year-old boy whose body was found inside an alligator's mouth following an exhaustive search, died of drowning, according to a county medical examiner.
The St. Petersburg Police Department confirmed the Pinellas County medical examiner's finding Monday morning in a news release.
10 Tampa Bay's BriShon Mitchell, Leo Santos and Andrew Krietz contributed to this report.