THE DARK SIDE OF FLORIDA
Howard Ault
#664697
photo courtesy FDC
Full Name: Howard Steven Ault
Date of birth: July 26, 1966
Conviction: 1st-degree murder
County: Broward
City: Fort Lauderdale
Current Location: Union Correctional Institution
Date of Crime: November 4, 1996
Tentative discharge date: Death sentence
Victim(s): DeAnn Emerald Mu'min & Alicia Sybilla Jones
Date of birth: July 26, 1966
Conviction: 1st-degree murder
County: Broward
City: Fort Lauderdale
Current Location: Union Correctional Institution
Date of Crime: November 4, 1996
Tentative discharge date: Death sentence
Victim(s): DeAnn Emerald Mu'min & Alicia Sybilla Jones
Police officers brought pink roses. Classmates brought teddy bears. The 400 mourners who filled the Blessed Sacrament Roman Catholic Church brought the outrage of a community stunned by society’s failure to protect its children. The mourners were there to grieve over the murders of DeAnn Emerald Mu’min, 11, and Alicia Sybilla Jones, 7, two sisters who were killed in Fort Lauderdale by a long-time sex offender who was under house arrest for an unrelated sex crime involving another child.
The police say Howard Steven Ault, 30, confessed to the killings. He had recently befriended the girls and their mother. The family, which included another younger sister, lived one step short of homelessness in a car and camper.
The police said Howard had abducted the two girls on their way home from school and sexually assaulted DeAnn before strangling her and her sister on November 4, 1996. The bodies of the girls were found in the attic of the building where Howard lived. Howard had led police to the bodies after he confessed.
Howard’s probation officer visited his home just hours after he is said to have abducted the sisters, and the officer noticed nothing amiss. Under the terms of Howard’s house arrest – called “community control” status – he had to have six contacts a week with his probation officer, through visits and telephone calls, and he could leave the house only for specific purposes like work, shopping and therapy. His movements, however, were not electronically monitored.
Howard’s criminal record dates to 1986, when he was arrested and charged in connection with a violent attack on a couple on a beach. He was given three years’ probation. Two years later, he pleaded guilty to attempted burglary and attempted sexual battery on a 12-year-old girl and was sent to prison for seven years. But because of prison crowding, he was released after serving only three years and nine months of his sentence.
In 1994, Howard pleaded guilty to false imprisonment and sexual activity with a child, a six-year-old who lived in his neighborhood. That is when he was sentenced to three years of house arrest and eight years’ probation. Then, New Year’s Eve 1995, an 11-year-old neighbor accused Howard of trying to rape her. She and her family gave sworn statements to deputies, but he was not arrested until the sisters were killed.
In late 1996, after the murders, Howard’s home was damaged in an arson fire. A memorial to the girls sprung up in his yard. Even though the girls lived in a camper, officials at their school said they were good, disciplined students who had been well cared for by their mother. DeAnn was a member of her school’s safety patrol, and at the memorial Mass, a classmate placed DeAnn’s safety patrol belt on her coffin.
The police say Howard Steven Ault, 30, confessed to the killings. He had recently befriended the girls and their mother. The family, which included another younger sister, lived one step short of homelessness in a car and camper.
The police said Howard had abducted the two girls on their way home from school and sexually assaulted DeAnn before strangling her and her sister on November 4, 1996. The bodies of the girls were found in the attic of the building where Howard lived. Howard had led police to the bodies after he confessed.
Howard’s probation officer visited his home just hours after he is said to have abducted the sisters, and the officer noticed nothing amiss. Under the terms of Howard’s house arrest – called “community control” status – he had to have six contacts a week with his probation officer, through visits and telephone calls, and he could leave the house only for specific purposes like work, shopping and therapy. His movements, however, were not electronically monitored.
Howard’s criminal record dates to 1986, when he was arrested and charged in connection with a violent attack on a couple on a beach. He was given three years’ probation. Two years later, he pleaded guilty to attempted burglary and attempted sexual battery on a 12-year-old girl and was sent to prison for seven years. But because of prison crowding, he was released after serving only three years and nine months of his sentence.
In 1994, Howard pleaded guilty to false imprisonment and sexual activity with a child, a six-year-old who lived in his neighborhood. That is when he was sentenced to three years of house arrest and eight years’ probation. Then, New Year’s Eve 1995, an 11-year-old neighbor accused Howard of trying to rape her. She and her family gave sworn statements to deputies, but he was not arrested until the sisters were killed.
In late 1996, after the murders, Howard’s home was damaged in an arson fire. A memorial to the girls sprung up in his yard. Even though the girls lived in a camper, officials at their school said they were good, disciplined students who had been well cared for by their mother. DeAnn was a member of her school’s safety patrol, and at the memorial Mass, a classmate placed DeAnn’s safety patrol belt on her coffin.
Source: NY Times
