Is it life or death for Johnathan Quiles? Convicted of killing pregnant niece Iyana Sawyer

Jurors opted against recommending the death penalty for 38-year-old Johnathan Quiles who was described repeatedly during his sentencing phase as a caring man of good character, although he showed no remorse himself for planning and orchestrating his pregnant niece's fate.

Quiles, found guilty last week on two counts of first-degree murder and sexual battery of 16-year-old Iyana Sawyer in 2018, now will be sentenced to life in prison without parole. He displayed almost no immediate reaction.

His two-week Jacksonville trial detailed her sexual relations with her uncle and how she wanted to have his baby. But he had other plans and instead admitted shooting her in the chest and dumping her in a trash bin at the salvage yard he worked at where she was eventually hauled away to a landfill, according to prosecutors. Although some of her items were discovered in a lengthy search, her body was never found.

The jury took less than an hour and a half in their deliberations to decide the life sentence despite some tearful testimony from Iyana's sister and an aunt, but neither of whom specifically called for Quiles to be put to death.

"The disappearance of my sister has caused me a great deal of mental instability," her sister said in her victim's impact statement. "I just can’t understand how someone who was loved and caring like herself can be thrown away like trash."

The Times-Union is not naming her for privacy. She said her family's lives have been a struggle. She said school became a place of torment for her, with students asking if that dead girl was her sister. Sometimes she would stay in her car outside and just cry. But she had to compose herself so her younger brother wouldn’t see her in that emotional state.

She also defended her mother, saying people were unfairly questioning her parenting. It was difficult as a teenager to see and hear, she said noting that her mother is exceptional.

"I remember seeing her crying on her closet floor blaming herself for Iyana’s devastating loss," she said. "There’s nothing I can do ever to lift that burden from my mother but assure her it was not her hands that caused Iyana to no longer walk this Earth with us."

She said she and Iyana planned on going to college together, to become pediatricians and live across from each other.

"Our lives were so intertwined, everywhere we went we were asked if we were twins.," her sister said. "In fact, you would rarely see one Sawyer sister without the other. However, now you will never see me or my sister together."

The prosecution only called one other family member to provide a victim's impact statement, Paula Dixson, who described herself as Iyana’s favorite aunt.

“She was the definition of if I can believe it, I can achieve it," Dixson said. "She never let a challenge stop her because she knew she could do or be anything she put her mind to. ... She was truly her mom’s little mini-me.”

After Iyana went missing that December, Dixson expressed the family's daily anguish.

“My poor sister had to keep herself together because she had three other kids looking to her for comfort," she said. "Their sister was gone. I can only imagine how my niece felt having to look at an empty bed day in and day out. My poor nephew struggled to cope with the fact that she was never coming back. I watched my sister stand still for almost five years. Her baby and grandbaby were gone without a trace. All the sleepless nights, the tears, the pain of not being able to give her a proper homegoing. The family was in dysfunction. This tore our family apart. I had to sit back and watch my sister try to make it from one second to the next.”

Dixson said they can never truly heal.

"There are so many things we will never be able to do," she read to the court. "We will never be able to meet [Iyana's unborn baby] Hazel. Never get to see our princess as a mother. We will never see her go off to college. We will never see her get married … Now we are left with memories, a bunch of what-ifs. We must live the remainder of our lives with a bunch of regrets. … We must live with the guilt of knowing that even though we were our sister’s keeper, she is no longer with us. That is a burden I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.”

The defense emphasized that Quiles had five children and was a good father.

The first witness for Quiles, Dr. Jennifer Rohrer, is a clinical psychologist who met with him and reviewed his records. She noted that his father had largely been absent, he suffered some childhood physical abuse from one of his mother’s boyfriends and he had some substance abuse.

Quiles withdrew from the seventh grade following the birth of his first child. But he maintained employment, Rohrer said. While in jail awaiting trial, numerous officers described him as a model inmate, she said, even making him a trusty to help there.

She also performed an PAI or personality assessment inventory evaluation on him that show he has anti-social disorder. That can entail violating the rights of others, manipulation, deceitfulness, feelings of entitlement, narcissism and conflicts with interpersonal relationships.

The defense then brought in several family members and friends to account for Quiles' character. They described him similarly as religious, happy and positive, like a big brother or son and a good handyman willing to help people.

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The final in-person witness was Paulette Viruet, who described Quiles as her "nephew slash son." She is his late mother’s youngest sister. She said his mother was an amazing woman to him and it was very hard on him when she died about 13 years ago of cancer.

Viruet called his relationship with his father as "rocky" and his brother's as "distant" but that they had mended their differences over time.

She said she did all she could to be a mother figure for him and that "He's my everything." She said he self-educated himself, preached the importance of education to people and said "he can do anything he put his mind to."

Viruet's final thoughts: "I just wish everybody knew John like I know John. John is just such a warm, loving person. Everybody that comes across John has a special bond with him. He just has a natural love for people, and I just wish everybody was able to see that in him, because he’s an amazing young man."

Although she said he's always been a great father to his children, they were not called to testify on his behalf.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville jury rejects death penalty for Johnathan Quiles