USA - Florida. Circuit Judge Donald Jacobsen sentenced Roy Phillip Ballard to death.

Circuit Judge Donald Jacobsen sentenced Roy Phillip Ballard to death. The judge upheld the July 24 9-3 jury recommendation that Ballard should die for the murder of his stepdaughter, Autumn Marie Traub, whose body has never been found. In July, a jury found Ballard, 67, white, guilty of the 1st-degree murder of Traub. The same jury recommended by a 9-3 vote that Ballard be executed. Traub was 33 when she disappeared Sept. 13, 2006, after meeting with Ballard. At trial, prosecutors argued that Ballard was motivated by a sexual obsession for a 14-year-old female relative. Traub was preventing Ballard from regaining custody of the girl.