Inset: Domenico Gigante (Brevard County Sheriff’s Office). Background: The site of the tragic incident where Gigante took the lives of his daughter and three others (Google Maps)
In a heartbreaking case from Florida, a man has confessed to a quadruple homicide, which included his teenage daughter among the victims. Fueled by anger over a strained relationship, the 40-year-old broke into the house where she resided with her mother and new family, leading to the fatal confrontation.
Facing serious charges, Domenico C. Gigante took on the role of his own defense attorney and admitted guilt on Thursday. He pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree premeditated murder, as well as one count of armed burglary of a dwelling with a firearm inflicting death, all of which are capital felony charges, according to official reports.
A statement from the 18th Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office confirmed that prosecutors are continuing their efforts to secure the death penalty for Gigante. Having waived his right to a jury trial, the decision on his possible execution rests with Circuit Judge Laura Moody.
The horrific crime claimed the lives of his daughter, Kiarra Terwilliger; her mother, 35-year-old Constance Terwilliger; the maternal grandmother, 63-year-old Glenda Terwilliger; and Michael Watson, who was Constance Terwilliger’s boyfriend, aged 36.
“My end goal today is to take full accountability,” Gigante, a former emergency medical technician, said during the plea hearing. “I know what I did was evil and wrong. I’m here to get on my knees … and for justice to be served for those affected by what I’ve done.”
Authorities said Gigante had been growing increasingly “angered by a strained relationship with his daughter and her refusal to have a relationship with him.” On the night before the killings, he told his roommate that he was fed up with his daughter and “her family,” declaring, “I guess I’m going to go over them and kill them all.”
At 12:57 a.m. on March 1, 2023, surveillance footage showed Gigante leaving his Rockledge home in his Dodge pickup with a black object that appeared to be a firearm.
About 20 minutes later, a surveillance camera at a neighboring residence captured a vehicle matching Gigante’s truck entering the driveway of the home on Alan Shepard Avenue. At approximately 1:21 a.m., the recording captured several gunshots and a woman screaming. About two minutes later, the camera captured the truck’s lights leaving the driveway.
Inside the home, deputies found a man and woman dead on the living room floor surrounded by a “large pool of blood.” Nearby, authorities recovered a shell casing and discovered bloody footprints. Deputies found the body of an older woman in another bedroom with a gunshot wound to the head, while the teen lay dead in a second bedroom.
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Two children, ages 6 and 9, survived the massacre and called a relative for help after Gigante fled.
Investigators soon identified Gigante as a suspect. When his roommate learned that Gigante’s daughter had been killed, he immediately asked Gigante, “Did you do this?”
Gigante said that “he had” and told the roommate that “he shot [his daughter] three times,” according to the affidavit. The roommate also noted that Gigante had previously vented about “his frustrations regarding his situation” with his daughter.
Investigators located Gigante in Spanish Fort, Alabama, inside Constance Terwilliger’s vehicle and took him into custody. Inside the vehicle, they recovered a Taurus handgun that investigators later confirmed as the weapon used in the killings.
In announcing its intent to seek the death penalty, the State Attorney’s Office cited the four murders, the killing of Gigante’s daughter while she was under his familial authority, the allegation that the killings were committed in a “cold, calculated and premeditated manner,” and the fact that the murders occurred while Gigante was committing armed burglary.
Gigante, who was initially represented by a public defender, chose in July to represent himself. He later waived his right to a jury trial and a jury penalty proceeding before pleading guilty Thursday.
“The state doesn’t need to prove anything beyond a reasonable doubt. I’m guilty, and I meet the aggravating factors. I have no interest in appealing,” Gigante told Circuit Judge Laura Moody.
Moody is expected to determine whether Gigante will be sentenced to death at a hearing scheduled for late October or early November.
The post Dad frustrated with teen daughter and ‘her family’ massacred her and 3 others after threatening to ‘kill them all’ first appeared on Law & Crime.
