Kriti Mehrotra
When Jill Halliburton Su suddenly lost her life inside her gated Westridge community home in early September 2014, it shocked not just the state of Florida but the entire nation to its very core. After all, as profiled in NBC’s ‘Dateline: The Figure in the House,’ the member of the Halliburton oil dynasty and wife of an entomology professor was found stabbed and bound in her bathtub. Her perpetrator was actually soon identified as Dayonte Omar Resiles, yet it still took over seven years for matters to come to a close for good — so now, let’s find out more about him, shall we?
Who is Dayonte Resiles?
Dayonte (or Moochie, as most of his friends and family refer to him) can only be described as a career criminal with a rap sheet dating back to around the mid-2000s when he was merely 12. His first arrest was reportedly for larceny (personal theft), but in the six years that followed, he racked up at least eight more counts relating to burglary, possession of tools, and home invasion. In fact, he’d been deemed a habitual juvie offender by the time he was 14, and it all seemingly stemmed from his desire to have more than what the financial limitations of his family could offer.
According to records, Dayonte’s modus operandi was renting expensive vehicles and wearing disguises to either blend into or explain his presence in the wealthy neighborhoods he often targeted. He was even caught red-handed at the age of 19 in early 2014, yet it didn’t waver his drive to continue committing such offenses as Jill was found dead inside her luxe Davie home on September 8. It is believed that she walked into him rummaging through the family residence, leading him to bind her hands as well as legs, force her down a filled bathtub, and stab her around 25 times.
The fact that Dayonte was a known local offender despite his young age meant his prints, DNA, and other information were already in the system, which is precisely what became his ultimate downfall. In other words, forensic analysis of the evidence recovered resulted in gene matches that connected him to the crime scene — his DNA was on a bloodied knife tossed near the home’s doormat and a green belt in the foyer. Therefore, even though his DNA was not conclusively present on the murder weapon, he was arrested on first-degree homicide-related counts on September 18, 2014.
Dayonte Resiles is Currently in Jail
Although Dayonte remained behind bars while awaiting trial, things did take a drastic turn when the then-21-year-old arrived at the Broward County Courthouse for a hearing on July 15, 2016. That’s because, thanks to extensive help from every angle, he managed to shed his shackles, escape the court, change into civilian clothing, and jump into a waiting getaway vehicle. An extensive manhunt thus ensued, with there being a $50,000 reward for any information leading to his apprehension, only for him to be found at a Days Inn in West Palm Beach around 5 ½ days later — July 20.
Eight individuals were eventually charged with helping Dayonte flee, and he was subsequently not just held without bond but also hit with new counts related to conspiracy, escape, and tampering. His first trial in December 2021 actually ended in a mistrial, reportedly owing to a majority of the jury wanting to convict him on the lesser charge of manslaughter because of his skin color and a juror refusing. Then, his retrial in March 2022 resulted in him being found guilty of first-degree murder, meaning he faced the death penalty, that is until Jill’s family/the prosecutors took it off the table.
Dayonte was hence sentenced to mandatory life in prison without the possibility of parole in May 2022, but he still maintained his innocence. He said in court, “They can hook me up to a polygraph test at any given time, ask me any question you wish, and my answer will remain the same ‘I did not kill Mrs. Su’ and that’s all I have to say. To my family, I love you all. I don’t want you all; don’t cry for me; no matter what I got to go through, I’ll get through it.” So, today, at the age of 28, he’s incarcerated at the Martin Correctional Institution in Indiantown, Florida, where he is expected to remain for the rest of his natural life.
We should mention that Dayonte has since been convicted of several other charges as well, including grand theft, escape, conspiracy to escape, several counts of solicitation in a conspiracy to escape, bribery, witness tampering, perjury, obstruction of justice, unlawful use of a communication device, amongst many others.
Read More: Where is Jill Halliburton’s Husband Nan Yao Su Now?
