Update (August 8, 2021) : Ronnie Oneal III, a father who killed both his girlfriend and daughter and stabbed his son in 2018, has been sentenced to three life terms plus 60 years in prison, WFLA reported. The family of the late victims, 22-year-old Kenyatta Barron and 9-year-old Ron'Niveya, attended the July 23 sentencing and addressed the convicted killer.

“He done what a coward would do,” Carrie Lloyd, Barron’s mother said after the sentencing. 

As jurors revealed the 911 calls from the tragic incident in Riverview, Florida, Barron was heard begging for her life before she was shot and beat to death. The father was also accused of using a hatchet to kill his daughter, who was on the autism spectrum while living with cerebral palsy. Eight-year-old Ronnie, however, survived after he was stabbed by his father. He was later adopted by Mike Blair, one of the officers who responded to the crime scene as Blavity previously reported. 

Lloyd was devastated when she learned that Oneal wouldn’t be receiving the death penalty.

“I’m not pleased with what the verdict was and I wish you could overturn it and give him what he’s rightfully due,” she said.

Barron’s sister, Dessada, told Oneal she doesn’t have any sympathy for him.

“When you sit in that cell for the rest of your life, remember you don’t leave out until you’re in a box,” she said.

Oneal showed no remorse when he had a chance to respond to the family.

“I am not sorry for something I didn’t do and I am not sorry for the things I did do,” he said.

Judge Michele Sisco warned Oneal following his statement, telling him that he would be thrown out of the courtroom if he didn’t alter his tone. As the family lamented their tragic losses, the veteran judge said she was also overwhelmed with emotion. 

“It took every ounce I had not to start sobbing too because there is no way any person with any feeling could have witnessed or seen the photos of what occurred that night and not be haunted for the rest of your life,” Sisco said. “For the rest of my life I’ll be haunted by what I saw as far as the evidence.”

Original (June 17, 2021): The internet has an interesting way of finding humor in anything.

Twitter was in full force on Wednesday, cracking jokes about the defense of a man accused of killing his girlfriend and their daughter before setting their house on fire in Riverview, Florida.

Ronnie Oneal III is facing two counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder for the gruesome killing of his girlfriend Kenyatta Barron, 22, their disabled daughter Ron’Niveya Oneal, 9, and his son Ronnie IV, 11, who was stabbed but survived the ordeal, Newsweek reported.

“Two statements stuck in my mind. I believe he said, ‘my dad killed my mom’ or ‘my dad shot my mom.’ It’s one of the two statements that he made,” a paramedic said of her encounter with the surviving child according to WFLA. “These are the two statements that have remained with me throughout the years.”

The boy is believed to have been disemboweled. 

The father, who has no experience with the law, decided to represent himself in the case and was seen yelling at jurors. 

“And the evidence is going to show, that law enforcement tampered with evidence to meet their such high burden of proof. Because originally it wasn’t enough, so we had to tamper with evidence, since it was such evident already, but we still had to tamper with evidence,” Oneal said.

But the disturbing nature of the crime didn't stop folks from getting a laugh out of the ordeal.