Michael Shane Bargo

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Michael Shane Bargo (born April 29, 1992) is an American convicted murderer who was found guilty of first-degree murder of 15-year-old Seath Jackson in 2011. In 2013, Bargo then aged 21, was sentenced the death penalty and was the youngest person on Florida's death row. His accomplices to Jackson's murder was Amber Wright, Kyle Hooper, Charlie Kay Ely, and Justin Soto, they were all sentenced to life in prison.

Bargo was convicted in 2013, a jury voted 10-2 to recommend the death penalty. A circuit judge sentenced him to death, but the Supreme Court later ordered a new sentencing hearing because the jury recommendation was not unanimous. During a resentencing in 2019, a jury unanimously recommended a death sentence. In the appeal, Bargo’s attorney raised a series of issues, including that the circuit judge had not appropriately considered “mitigating” factors involving Bargo having mental conditions.

Seath Jackson Murder

Seath Jackson, 15, of Belleview, Florida, was dating Amber Wright, also 15, of nearby Summerfield, until she broke up with Jackson and later became involved with Bargo, 18. In March and April, 2011, Jackson took to his Facebook page to accuse Wright of cheating, and that Bargo will not fight him saying "yeah that pussy lol he wouldn't fight me". Wright defended herself by saying "And how the fuck did I cheat on you the whole time? When I pretty much lived with you when we were together. I was with you 24 fucking 7."

On April 17, 2011, Wright lured Jackson by text to Ely's home in Summerfield, Florida, where he was led to believe she wanted to rekindle their relationship. When Jackson entered the house and sat down, Bargo, Hooper and Soto began to beat Jackson with wooden objects, while Wright and Ely went to Ely's bedroom. Bargo then shot Jackson multiple times. Jackson managed to escape but Bargo and Soto dragged him back into the house and threw him into a bathtub where Bargo fatally shot him twice in the face. The group then put Jackson's body into a sleeping bag and burned the body in a fire pit at the back of the property. After the murder, the house was cleaned with bleach, and Jackson's ashes were shovelled into paint buckets and they dumped them in a nearby water-filled quarry.

Jackson's parents reported him missing. Hooper told his mother, Tracey Wright, about the murder and she informed the police. Wright, Soto, Ely, and Hooper were arrested.

Bargo was later caught in Starke, Floria, a town an hour and a half away. He had hitched a ride with 37-year-old James Haven, who had helped to dispose of the ashes and was charged as an accessory to murder. Haven is also Wright and Hooper's stepfather.

Bargo's four co-defendants were each convicted and sentenced to life in prison. However, Charlie Kay Ely was released from custody in 2020 after serving 9 years at the Lowell Correctional Institution because a federal judge agreed that Ely’s counsel at trial had been ineffective.

Bargo was convicted and sentenced a death penalty in 2013, and again in 2019 after a resentencing due to a 2016 Supreme Court ruling. Bargo, now 30, is an inmate at Union Correctional Institution awaiting his execution.

References

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