A week after his wife was found beaten to death, a seemingly distraught Mark Sievers shuffled down a church aisle clasping hands with his daughters at their mother's funeral.
Eight months later, a defiant Sievers — dressed in a red jumpsuit and handcuffed — shuffled out the entrance of the Lee County Sheriff's Office flanked by investigators to an awaiting patrol car.
The media he'd avoided for months lined his path shouting questions. There were no answers.
"We were after Mark Sievers. We got our man and we're very happy for that," said Lee County Sheriff Mike Scott, after marching Sievers past the media.
Sievers was taken into custody Friday on a second-degree murder charge for the June 28 killing of Dr. Teresa Sievers. His arrest came shortly after his best friend Curtis Wayne Wright Jr. of Missouri accepted a 25-year plea deal in exchange for providing information to prosecutors.
"Curtis Wright must provide substantial assistance to the state attorney's office" as part of the plea deal, said Samantha Syoen, spokeswoman for the state attorney's office.
Jimmy Rodgers, the other Missouri man accused in the killing, was brought to Fort Myers on Tuesday after serving a six-month sentence in an Illinois federal prison on an unrelated gun charge.
Robert Wideman, Wright's brother-in-law, said the big break in the case for him was the moment he found out that Wright lied to his wife, Angela Wright, about going to Florida. He said his family has been dealing with all kinds of problems as a result of this case.
"It's not like it's a shocker to me that (Wright) admitted to it and took a plea before Jimmy," Wideman said. "There was never a moment in time I didn't think he did it."
Scott wouldn't comment if Mark Sievers has given a confession, but said: "He doesn't have a lot to say. ... "I am not even sure he has blood in his veins. I think it might be ice"
Mark Sievers showed a different side at the funeral.
After his eldest daughter shared words that moved mourners to tears, he quipped about how his pre-teen daughter was stronger than him.
He took a minute to gather himself that July 6 afternoon among hundreds of family and friends filling the Unity Church in Naples.
Then he said: "I was, and still am, the luckiest man in the world."
Sievers' two young daughters are now in Florida Department of Children and Families custody, said Jessica Simms, communications director with DCF. According to Sievers' attorney Lee Hollander, a shelter hearing for the children is expected to happen Saturday morning.
The last time the girls saw their mother alive was the morning of June 28 when she left them and Mark Sievers at a family gathering in Connecticut to return to Fort Myers to work. She was found the next morning bludgeoned to death next to a bloodied hammer inside their Jarvis Road home.
Hours after the funeral, investigators said they watched Mark Sievers throw computer equipment into a Dumpster behind the couple's Estero medical office.
After talking to deputies at first and handing over his cellphone, Sievers eventually refused to cooperate with the investigation. Detectives received a major break when Rodgers' girlfriend, Taylor Shomaker, told investigators that Mark Sievers had hired Wright, who then hired Rodgers, to carry out the killing for money.
The public's suspicions became confirmed when the state attorney's office released documents Dec. 1 implicating Mark Sievers by showing that he spoke with Wright leading up to the killing.
Investigators found that Teresa Sievers had multiple life insurance policies totaling nearly $5 million and the family was living "paycheck to paycheck."
Legal logistics
"Obviously this guy (Wright) is going to rat out his partner in exchange for a lesser offense or time off," said Mark Bonner, law professor at Ave Marie University and former federal prosecutor.
Bargaining with suspects or people of interest comes into play almost every day, Bonner said. Police must have presented Wright with a set of options, and he realized he was facing heavy punishment. The "substantial assistance" plea will help police fill in the gaps and will require Wright to testify before a jury, he said.
But this kind of bargaining could also help the defense, because it damages Wright's credibility as a witness.
"Then (the defense) will argue to the jury, ‘This guy's testimony has been bought,'" Bonner said.
Elizabeth Parker, partner at Kaplan, Sconzo & Parker — the Palm Beach County law firm representing Wright — released this statement after the court hearing: "The decision of Curtis Wayne Wright to accept responsibility and plead guilty to second-degree murder will hopefully begin to answer many questions and bring closure to the family of Teresa Sievers. Mr. Wright is deeply sorry for the pain and lifetime of suffering that he has caused those who are affected by his actions in this case, including his family and most importantly Teresa Sievers' daughters."
Syoen said the state attorney's office asked the judge to seal the plea deal. Wright's sentencing hearing will be May 31.
Hollander, Sievers' attorney, said he will be present for Sievers' first-appearance bond hearing Saturday morning at the Lee County Courthouse. He said he learned of the arrest around 4 p.m.
"A friend of mine called me after seeing news reports," Hollander said.
The attorney said he'll request that his client be released on bond because he isn't a flight risk.
"He's lived here for years. His kids are here. He owns his own property here, I believe," Hollander said.
Commenting on the rather unusual step taken by sheriff's officials in making Wright undergo a "perp walk" in front of news reporters and photographers, Hollander said that "they wanted to get their 15 minutes of fame. Whatever floats their boat."
The maximum penalty for second-degree murder is life in prison, the attorney said. It takes a grand jury to indict someone for first-degree murder, which comes with possible penalties of life in prison or the death penalty upon conviction.
Regarding Wright's plea deal, Hollander said: "It sounds like they bought and paid for Wright's testimony."
'Going to throw a block party'
Sievers' next-door neighbor and her mother expressed relief and even "joy" at the news of Sievers' arrest.
"The whole neighborhood is going to throw a block party, I'm dead serious," Donetta Contreras said. "He terrorized the whole neighborhood."
Contreras' daughter, Kimberly Torres, said Sievers was "weird from day one," despite Torres having purchased her home from the Sieverses.
"We had to change our locks three times in the seven years we've lived here and each time was because of him," Torres said. "He'd show up in our yard, near our pool or on our porch out of nowhere."
After Contreras was blocked from reaching her daughter's home by multiple police units along Jarvis Road on Friday afternoon, she felt anxious and then relief.
"Each time I hear ‘Mark Sievers is arrested,' my hair stands up on end but just from joy," Contreras said.
The News-Press staff reporters Michael Braun, Cody Dulaney, Frank Bumb and Denes Husty contributed to this report.
Timeline
June 28: Dr. Teresa Sievers bludgeoned to death in her Bonita Springs home after flying back from a family gathering in Connecticut.
June 29: Teresa Sievers' body is found in her home after she didn't show up for work.
July 6: Hundreds of friends, family and former patients pack United Church in Naples to celebrate her life.
July 9: Lee detectives get a tip when a person in Illinois said she might have some information about the crime.
July 10: The investigators fly to Missouri to interview the witness. Her information leads them to Curtis Wayne Wright and Jimmy Rodgers as suspects.
Sept. 2: A Missouri judge rules that Rodgers was guilty of breaking the terms of his 2011 guilty plea to unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon when he came to Florida to kill Sievers.
Aug. 25: Rodgers arrested on a warrant by Washington County (Missouri) Sheriff's Office.
Aug. 27: Wright arrested in Hillsboro, Missouri.
Oct. 15: Wright booked into Lee County Jail.
Nov. 16: Wright charged with the murder of Teresa Sievers.
Dec. 1: The state attorney's office releases documents that implicate Mark Sievers in the slaying of his wife.
Dec. 7: A judge denies a Department of Children and Families emergency sheltering petition and ruled Mark Sievers retain custody of his two daughters despite documents linking him to his wife's killing being public.
