FORT MYERS, Fla. — A Lee County circuit court judge has been asked by state attorneys to deny a motion for a new trial made by Mark Sievers, the man convicted of murder in the death of his wife.
Mark Sievers was found guilty of hiring two men to kill well-known doctor Teresa Sievers, in their Bonita Springs home in 2015. Presiding Judge Bruce Kyle sentenced Sievers to the death penalty following the guilty verdict.
Sievers' attorneys requested the new trial on Dec. 22, 2021. Documents filed with the court show attorneys claim "newly discovered material evidence" of Sievers' innocence.
PDF: Sievers' motion for new trial
The motion makes mention of a letter and sworn statement from Jimmy Rodgers, one of the two men said to have been hired by Sievers, written Dec. 20. In that letter, Rodgers states that Curtis Wright killed Teresa Sievers with a hammer after she refused to give him room to stay at her house, and "that there was no agreement or conspiracy to commit murder."
Per the motion:
Rodgers [sic] letter sets out facts, which, had they been presented to a jury would likely produce an acquittal on retrial. Rodgers’ version of the events on the night of the murder are equally, if not more plausible than Wright’s uncorroborated murder-for-hire yarn which saved him from the death penalty or life in prison.
A reply from Assistant State Attorney's Cynthia Ross and Hamid Hunter was filed on Jan. 3. They argue the motion is "untimely", due to Sievers' previous appeal of his 2019 conviction which is still pending in the Florida Supreme Court.
PDF: State's response to request for new trial
A previous request for a new trial was denied in 2020. A decision on this most recent request remains pending.
