Florida Supreme Court upholds murder conviction and sentence of Mark Sievers

FORT MYERS, Fla. — The Supreme Court of Florida upheld the conviction and sentence for Mark Sievers.

Mark Sievers was found guilty of hiring two men to kill well-known doctor Teresa Sievers, in their Bonita Springs home in 2015. Presiding Judge Bruce Kyle sentenced Sievers to the death penalty following the guilty verdict.

Sievers’ attorneys requested a new trial on Dec. 22, 2021.

Today Supreme Court of Florida filed a 38-page order on the case this morning, following an appeal by the defendant.

Documents filed with the court show attorneys claim “newly discovered material evidence” of Sievers’ innocence.

The motion makes mention of a letter and a sworn statement from Jimmy Rodgers, one of the two men said to have been hired by Sievers, written Dec. 20. In that letter, Rodgers states that Curtis Wright killed Teresa Sievers with a hammer after she refused to give him room to stay at her house, and “that there was no agreement or conspiracy to commit murder.”

A reply from Assistant State Attorney Cynthia Ross and Hamid Hunter was filed on Jan. 3. They argue the motion is “untimely”, due to Sievers’ previous appeal of his 2019 conviction which was pending in the Florida Supreme Court.

A previous request for a new trial was denied in 2020.