TAMPA, Fla. — Life or death is hanging in the balance as the sentencing phase for convicted murderer Matthew Terry is underway in a Hillsborough courtroom.
A jury on Tuesday convicted the 47-year-old of first-degree murder in the stabbing death of his girlfriend – Lithia school teacher Kay Baker.
Now prosecutors are trying to convince that same jury to sentence Terry to death.
Terry’s defense lawyers are asking the panel to consider life in prison without parole.
“What he did to Kay Baker on the night or the early morning of May 28, 2022, was especially heinous, atrocious, and cruel,” said prosecutor Justin Diaz.
“All it takes is for you, anyone of you – any one of you - to have a belief, a conviction that life is superior to death,” said Terry’s defense lawyer Jaime Kane.
On day one of the sentencing phase the jury heard again from Michelle Rogers, another woman Terry was convicted of viciously stabbing.
There was also emotional testimony from Kay Baker’s friends and relatives as well as Terry’s father who hoped the jury would spare his son’s life.
The jury is expected to make its recommendation of life in prison or death by the end of the week.