Judge sentences Singleton to death for killing prostitute in Tampa

Tuesday, April 14, 1998 | 2:27 a.m.

Singleton, 70, showed no reaction as he stood before the judge.

"This was an unprovoked, senseless killing of a human being," said state Judge Bob Mitcham. "We are living in times worse than Sodom and Gomorrah."

Jurors convicted Singleton of first-degree murder for stabbing to death Roxanne Hayes, a 31-year-old prostitute and mother of three.

"Roxanne Hayes fought for her life," Mitcham said. "She literally clawed for her life. She was acutely aware of her impending death."

Singleton's lawyers had argued that jurors recommended the death penalty because Singleton had won parole in 1987 in California after serving only eight years for raping a 15-year-old hitchhiker in 1978.

That woman testified during Singleton's penalty hearing. "I was raped and I had my hands cut off," Mary Vincent, now 35, told jurors. "He used a hatchet. He left me to die."

Ms. Hayes' longtime boyfriend, Clifford Tyson, the father of two of her young children, told the judge last month he has forgiven Singleton and does not want to see him executed.

"I'm against the death penalty," Tyson said as he left court Tuesday with Ms. Hayes' three children. "It is a recognition that her life was important. She was a human being. But as long as he was in prison for life, that would have been enough for me."

Singleton, a retired merchant marine, apologized before Mitcham last month.

"I'm sorry about the death in this case. I'll have to carry it on my conscience the rest of my life," he said when urged to make a statement.

Ms. Vincent survived by walking naked for almost two miles, holding the remains of her arms up to slow the flow of blood. In Tampa, she identified her attacker by pointing her shiny, prosthetic arm across the courtroom at Singleton.

California communities refused to accept Singleton when he was released, so he finished his parole for the Vincent attack in a home on prison grounds. He then returned to Tampa, where he had spent his childhood before beginning the career in the merchant marines.

Singleton was arrested here in February 1997 after a house painter walked into his home and saw him attacking Ms. Hayes, who was dead when police arrived.

When he was arrested, he denied raping and mutilating Ms. Vincent, but admitted stabbing Ms. Hayes. "I was framed the first time. But this time I did it," he told reporters.

During his trial, he testified that Ms. Hayes had attacked him with a knife during an argument over money, and he was trying to grab the weapon when the blade plunged seven times into her body.