In PUTNAM COUNTY, Fla., the State Attorney’s Office revealed on Thursday its plans to pursue the death penalty against the individual accused of a fatal stabbing in the area.

The accused, 54-year-old Lemar Beasley, faced a Grand Jury indictment at the start of December for the first-degree murder of 36-year-old Cheyenne Kastens.

On Friday, November 14, Beasley allegedly assaulted Kastens near her vehicle in the parking lot of a Dollar General in Fruitland. The State Attorney’s Office reports that Kastens suffered over 40 stab wounds and later died from her injuries at a local hospital. According to Putnam County deputies, Beasley fled the scene on foot and was eventually discovered hiding in a camper before being apprehended.

In their legal filing, the State intends to demonstrate the presence of four specific factors concerning Beasley:

1. The defendant was previously convicted of another capital felony or of a felony involving the use or threat of violence to the person.
2. The capital felony was committed while the defendant was engaged, or was an accomplice, in the commission of, or an attempt to commit, or flight after committing or attempting to commit, any: robbery; sexual battery; aggravated child abuse; abuse of an elderly person or disabled adult resulting in great bodily harm, permanent disability, or permanent disfigurement; arson; burglary; kidnapping; aircraft piracy; or unlawful throwing, placing, or discharging of a destructive device or bomb.
3. The capital felony was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel.
4. The capital felony was a homicide and was committed in a cold, calculated, and premeditated manner without any pretense of moral or legal justification.

“The defendant murdered our victim five months after his release from prison,” State Attorney R.J. Larizza said. “He is a convicted sex offender. He is a violent career criminal. The brutal and merciless nature of this killing demands a death sentence.”