Keys judge sentences brother in 'unimaginable nightmare' murder case to therapy, probation
By Jenny Staletovich
April 24, 2025 at 3:43 PM EDT
A Florida Keys judge threw a surprising lifeline to a mentally ill man facing life in prison for killing his younger brother as he slept in his bed nearly five years ago.
Instead, Monroe County Judge Mark Jones sentenced Daniel Weisberger, now 22, this week to a minimum of two years in a Miami-Dade residential mental health facility, 40 years probation and time served for the years he spent awaiting trial after the gruesome 2020 killing committed when he was 17. Weisberger also received a concurrent sentence for trying to kill his father.
”This must have been an unimaginable nightmare,” Jones told the family gathered in court. “You have a teenage son, your oldest son, murder your younger son in the home. Tried to murder his dad. How do you come to terms with that?”
READ MORE: Emotional trial in Keys ends with young man guilty of killing brother, attacking father
For the father, Ariel Poholek, the decision ended years of relentless struggle to get his older son help.
“ I don't think any of us felt confident about the outcome. So we're just beyond overjoyed and grateful and still in shock, really.” he said Monday outside the courthouse. ”Daniel's got a long journey. This seems like the end, but it's only the beginning.”
Weisberger’s defense attorneys, former Judge Diane Ward and longtime criminal defense attorney Ed O’Donnell, called Jones courageous.
“ He listened to the evidence and he wasn't influenced by concerns of, oh, what are people gonna think about this?” Ward said. “It was the fair and right thing to do, but sometimes doing the fair and right thing isn't easy.”
A spokesman for the Monroe County state attorney’s office said there were no plans to appeal the sentence.
Judge Mark Jones served as judge and jury during a January bench trial on murder charges for Daniel Weisberger. (4200x2800, AR: 1.5)
During a two-week trial in January, therapists and mental health experts who treated Weisberger over the years painted a grim picture of two brothers diagnosed with disorders including ADHD, PTSD and autism and caught in a bitter custody battle that dragged on for most of their lives.
Attorneys and Weisberger opted for a bench trial, meaning Jones acted as both judge and jury.
Defense attorneys argued Weisberger, who started taking medication for ADHD when he was six, suffered from schizophrenia and was in the throes of psychosis when he repeatedly stabbed his brother Pascal, 14, in the neck in the middle of night in the room they shared. In a suicide note, Weisberger said he believed he was freeing his little brother. Weisberger then attacked his sleeping father, Ariel Poholek, in his room down the hall in their Islamorada townhouse.
Gravely injured and bleeding heavily from neck wounds, Poholek escaped to the townhouse next door, where neighbors struggled to stop the bleeding before he was airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital.
Weisberger, meanwhile, hid for hours as police searched for him. When he finally emerged from mangroves near the townhouse, he ran into traffic on the Overseas Highway and was hit by a truck. He, too, was hospitalized and lay in a coma for weeks as he recovered from a head injury. After Poholek healed, he began rallying support for his older son as the family planned his younger son’s funeral and struggled to memorialize a boy beloved for his work at a local animal shelter and as a boy scout.
Ariel Poholek, left, with his sons Pascal, center, and Daniel Weisberger. (4032x3024, AR: 1.3333333333333333)
At trial, Ward and O’Donnell said Weisberger should be found not guilty by reason of insanity, a difficult defense with strict guidelines that rarely succeeds. While he was awaiting trial, state doctors found Weisberger was so sick he was incompetent to stand trial. It took 15 months of treatment with heavy antipsychotic medication to nurse him back to competency.
Prosecutors detailed years of mental health records and arrests depicting an adolescent becoming more aggressive as he became a teenager. They had their own experts evaluate Weisberger. They concluded he suffered from a less severe conduct disorder, which meant he was still able to understand what he was doing when he killed his brother.
Jones sided with prosecutors and found Weisberger guilty of both second-degree murder and attempted first degree murder. Under sentencing guidelines, he faced between 26 years and life in prison.
But after the two-day sentencing trial, Jones said he agreed Weisberger was so troubled it made it difficult for Daniel to fully understand what he was doing. That mental health plus his continued need for treatment and success over the last several years called for ongoing therapy over prison, he said. He was swayed in part by the family’s unwavering support, in addition to dozens of friends and neighbors from the Upper Keys, where Weisberger grew up, who testified and wrote letters.
“ This has indeed been one of the most unique, tragic, complicated cases that I have ever presided over in my 28-plus year career as a judge trying to find justice,” Jones told the court.
Thankfully, he said, the law allows for a sentence to be tailored. Weisberger will remain at the Monroe County Jail until a bed becomes available at the Passageway facility in Miami. Once there, he will be monitored with electronic ankle bracelet and not be allowed to leave the facility without staff as he undergoes treatment.
While Jones has twice sentenced defendant’s to die in murder cases - two years ago he sent a Marathon man to death row for raping and murdering a homeless woman - he said this decision might anger some.
”Maybe they'll react, gee whiz, that judge is soft on crime,” he said. ”What I would suggest is that they should look at this sentence as a strength of our system as opposed to a weakness.”
Instead, Monroe County Judge Mark Jones sentenced Daniel Weisberger, now 22, this week to a minimum of two years in a Miami-Dade residential mental health facility, 40 years probation and time served for the years he spent awaiting trial after the gruesome 2020 killing committed when he was 17. Weisberger also received a concurrent sentence for trying to kill his father.
”This must have been an unimaginable nightmare,” Jones told the family gathered in court. “You have a teenage son, your oldest son, murder your younger son in the home. Tried to murder his dad. How do you come to terms with that?”
READ MORE: Emotional trial in Keys ends with young man guilty of killing brother, attacking father
For the father, Ariel Poholek, the decision ended years of relentless struggle to get his older son help.
“ I don't think any of us felt confident about the outcome. So we're just beyond overjoyed and grateful and still in shock, really.” he said Monday outside the courthouse. ”Daniel's got a long journey. This seems like the end, but it's only the beginning.”
Weisberger’s defense attorneys, former Judge Diane Ward and longtime criminal defense attorney Ed O’Donnell, called Jones courageous.
“ He listened to the evidence and he wasn't influenced by concerns of, oh, what are people gonna think about this?” Ward said. “It was the fair and right thing to do, but sometimes doing the fair and right thing isn't easy.”
A spokesman for the Monroe County state attorney’s office said there were no plans to appeal the sentence.
Judge Mark Jones served as judge and jury during a January bench trial on murder charges for Daniel Weisberger. (4200x2800, AR: 1.5)
During a two-week trial in January, therapists and mental health experts who treated Weisberger over the years painted a grim picture of two brothers diagnosed with disorders including ADHD, PTSD and autism and caught in a bitter custody battle that dragged on for most of their lives.
Attorneys and Weisberger opted for a bench trial, meaning Jones acted as both judge and jury.
Defense attorneys argued Weisberger, who started taking medication for ADHD when he was six, suffered from schizophrenia and was in the throes of psychosis when he repeatedly stabbed his brother Pascal, 14, in the neck in the middle of night in the room they shared. In a suicide note, Weisberger said he believed he was freeing his little brother. Weisberger then attacked his sleeping father, Ariel Poholek, in his room down the hall in their Islamorada townhouse.
Gravely injured and bleeding heavily from neck wounds, Poholek escaped to the townhouse next door, where neighbors struggled to stop the bleeding before he was airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital.
Weisberger, meanwhile, hid for hours as police searched for him. When he finally emerged from mangroves near the townhouse, he ran into traffic on the Overseas Highway and was hit by a truck. He, too, was hospitalized and lay in a coma for weeks as he recovered from a head injury. After Poholek healed, he began rallying support for his older son as the family planned his younger son’s funeral and struggled to memorialize a boy beloved for his work at a local animal shelter and as a boy scout.
Ariel Poholek, left, with his sons Pascal, center, and Daniel Weisberger. (4032x3024, AR: 1.3333333333333333)
At trial, Ward and O’Donnell said Weisberger should be found not guilty by reason of insanity, a difficult defense with strict guidelines that rarely succeeds. While he was awaiting trial, state doctors found Weisberger was so sick he was incompetent to stand trial. It took 15 months of treatment with heavy antipsychotic medication to nurse him back to competency.
Prosecutors detailed years of mental health records and arrests depicting an adolescent becoming more aggressive as he became a teenager. They had their own experts evaluate Weisberger. They concluded he suffered from a less severe conduct disorder, which meant he was still able to understand what he was doing when he killed his brother.
Jones sided with prosecutors and found Weisberger guilty of both second-degree murder and attempted first degree murder. Under sentencing guidelines, he faced between 26 years and life in prison.
But after the two-day sentencing trial, Jones said he agreed Weisberger was so troubled it made it difficult for Daniel to fully understand what he was doing. That mental health plus his continued need for treatment and success over the last several years called for ongoing therapy over prison, he said. He was swayed in part by the family’s unwavering support, in addition to dozens of friends and neighbors from the Upper Keys, where Weisberger grew up, who testified and wrote letters.
“ This has indeed been one of the most unique, tragic, complicated cases that I have ever presided over in my 28-plus year career as a judge trying to find justice,” Jones told the court.
Thankfully, he said, the law allows for a sentence to be tailored. Weisberger will remain at the Monroe County Jail until a bed becomes available at the Passageway facility in Miami. Once there, he will be monitored with electronic ankle bracelet and not be allowed to leave the facility without staff as he undergoes treatment.
While Jones has twice sentenced defendant’s to die in murder cases - two years ago he sent a Marathon man to death row for raping and murdering a homeless woman - he said this decision might anger some.
”Maybe they'll react, gee whiz, that judge is soft on crime,” he said. ”What I would suggest is that they should look at this sentence as a strength of our system as opposed to a weakness.”