Florida Prosecutors To Seek Death Penalty For Man Accused of Daytona Beach Double Murder

Florida prosecutors have announced their intention to seek the death penalty against a man accused of a vicious double murder in Daytona Beach this spring.

The office of the State Attorney General for Florida's 7th Circuit posted its Monday brief informing the court that it intends to seek the death penalty against Jean Macean, 32. Macean was indicted in Volusia County on March 29 on two counts of first-degree murder with a weapon in the March 6 deaths of Brenda Aultman, 55, and Terry Aultman, 48. He was arraigned on April 5.

According to the filing, the state intends to seek the death penalty based on three aggravating factors in the case: the fact that the murder was "especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel"; the fact that it was "committed in a cold, calculated, and premeditated manner"; and the fact that, if Macean is convicted in the case and they go to sentencing, he will have been convicted of another violent felony.

According to the Daytona Beach News-Journal, prosecutors usually cite the third factor in multiple murder cases, meaning that it's not inherently indicative of a current criminal record involving acts of violence. Macean had, prior to his arrest in the Aultman murders, only been arrested on minor drug charges, they added. West Palm Beach CBS affiliate WPEC previously reported that Macean had been arrested in the Orlando area in 2019 on "multiple drug-related charges," but that the charges were subsequently dropped.

State Attorney R.J. Larizza had said after Macean's indictment that he would seek input from the Aultmans' family before deciding whether to pursue the death penalty.

Brenda Aultman’s daughter, Sara Turner, told the News-Journal that he'd done so.

“I think that it's justified,” she told the paper. “But I think it's going to be a hard and long, difficult process for me and my family regardless of what they seek."

According to the indictment and previous press statements by Larizza, Macean had taken a bus from Orlando to Daytona Beach — a trip of about 55 miles — on March 5 in order to attend the city's motorcycle festival, Bike Week. The Aultmans, who lived locally, also attended on the night they died, using their bicycles to get back and forth from downtown. 

Around 1:00 a.m. on March 6, a surveillance camera on a residential block of North Wild Olive Road review first captured a man authorities have identified as Macean meandering southbound, and then captured the Aultmans walking their bicycles northbound, according to charging documents reviewed by Oxygen.com. The security camera then captured Macean quickly moving northbound, seemingly following the Aultmans.

The same camera allegedly showed Macean, 15 minutes later, walking southbound again; police allege he was additionally captured on a security camera in a nearby alleyway just three minutes after that, with one leg of his white pants seemingly saturated in a dark fluid.

The Aultmans' bodies — their throats slashed — were discovered by passersby in pools of blood shortly before 2:00 a.m. half a block north of where the surveillance camera captured them alive. Police say that Brenda Aultman's shirt and bra were pulled up to her neck and one leg of her pants had been pulled down over her foot. Terry Aultman's hat, glasses and a chunk of his hair were found under the couple's bicycles.

Police released several photos of a person of interest in the case in the days following the murder, and a local restaurant server reportedly helped identify Macean, possibly because he'd stiffed her on the tip after she served him lunch at a fast casual chain restaurant.

His credit card receipt with the miserly tip, as well as security footage for the restaurant, allowed police to positively identify and then arrest Macean.