On a May morning in 2020, as the country sank deeper into the gloom of the Covid pandemic, Daniel Weisberger murdered his beloved little brother as he slept in the bedroom they shared.
Using a knife favored by hunters, the former Boy Scout cut his younger brother’s neck nearly in half. A medical examiner later testified that Pascal Weisberger’s death would not have been immediate, as almost half his blood drained from the 14-year-old’s body. Daniel, 17, then turned his rage on his father, a fisheries biologist. After sneaking into the room down the hall of the Upper Keys townhouse, Daniel also stabbed him in the neck.
The father narrowly escaped dying after begging for his life, fleeing to a neighbor’s house, then was airlifted to a Miami hospital.
Nearly five years later, the brothers’ family gathered in a Key West courtroom to plead for mercy for Daniel.
Daniel’s fury, they argued, was fueled by years of misdiagnosed mental illness that led him to spiral out of control. His attorneys described his childhood as a “pressure cooker,” stoked by his parents’ bitter divorce and custody fight. Backed by thousands of pages of records – from doctor visits, therapists, treatment facilities and court-ordered evaluations – and a roster of experts, they argued Weisberger should be found not guilty by reason of insanity.
Prosecutors countered with their own records and experts, arguing Daniel’s simmering conduct disorder finally boiled over after years of violence.
In the new limited podcast series Keeper and Killer, WLRN dives into the family’s story to examine how the brother’s murder tests the criminal justice system, based on interviews with family, friends, lawyers, judges and mental health experts; more than a decade of court records and mental health evaluations; and court testimony during Daniel Weisberger’s murder trial.
Below is a timeline of the family's history.
This story started as a cautionary tale. But its end is far from expected.
The beginning:
In the late 1990s, Ariel Poholek, 49, and Joceline Avomo Nguema, 48, meet in Gabon, Central Africa, where both worked for the Peace Corps in their early twenties. Poholek joined as a volunteer to help build fish farms and Nguema worked as a facilitator, coaching volunteers on her country’s laws and customs. They fall in love, marry and move back to the U.S. to live with Poholek’s mom in Tampa in November 2002. By now, Nguema is pregnant with Daniel. Poholek begins working odd jobs – as a water softener telemarketer and brick builder’s assistant – to support the family while he applies for fisheries jobs with the state wildlife agency. Tension in the small house between Poholek’s mom and Neguema develops, so they move out and soon after Daniel is born on Feb. 25, 2003. The couple decide to give Daniel the surname of Poholek’s biological father. Three years later, Poholek finally lands a job with the state wildlife agency on the Treasure Coast and the young family moves across the state to Tequesta for what seems like a fresh start. Nguema begins working at a daycare center, where they enroll Daniel, joins a local church and quickly makes friends. Three weeks before Daniel’s third birthday, Nguema gives birth to Pascal on Feb. 2, 2006.
A bitter divorce:
By September that year, cracks in the marriage are starting to strain the family. While they’re still living together in a small apartment in Hobe Sound, Poholek files for divorce. He later says Ngeuma was abusive, forcing him to join a support group. But at the time he asked for a divorce, in his handwritten filing, Poholek makes no mention of abuse and says both boys “have a strong bond [and] relationship with each parent and therefore should not be subjected to extended periods away from either party.” He wants a simple split: he asks for shared custody, no alimony and claims the couple have no belongings to divide. Nguema, who is still breast-feeding Pascal and working at the daycare center earning about $9 an hour, hires an attorney and in her answer and counter-petition, asks for primary custody, alimony and child support. Poholek then hires an attorney and amends his divorce filing in February 2007, now claiming that Ngeuma was “verbally abusive, and sometimes violent against” him and is raising the boys in “an atmosphere of conflict and negativity.” He wants primary custody and child support, and Ngeuma ordered to undergo a psychological examination.
The judge initially awards nearly $800 in child support to Ngeuma. As the divorce turns contentious, accusations of abuse, mainly aimed at Nguema, are filed with the Florida Department of Children and Families
In the years to come, DCF investigators will confirm Ngeuma twice spanked Daniel after complaints are filed, and once had him perform jumping jacks that left his feet blistered. Ngeuma, who had been spanked by her own father, says she stopped using physical discipline after undergoing parenting classes. She also enrolls in classes on autism and joins a support group to deal with the boys’ disorders.
”They started going to court and things just got bitter, you know. Really, really frustrating and bitter,” Ngeuma’s friend, Gloria Patterson, said years later. “They just needed to get on one page while they're going through the divorce. But it never did happen because the picture was already painted, about her being a bad mom. And she really wasn't.”
At this point, Daniel was not yet five and already starting to show behavioral problems, with his father complaining about his inattentiveness and impulsive behavior. A doctor examines him to rule out “oppositional defiant disorder.”
In September 2008, the judge awards primary custody of the boys to Poholek, finding that Nguema is disruptive and that Poholek is more likely to encourage “a meaningful, healthy and continuing relationship between the minor children and their mother.” Ngeuma will see the boys just three weekends a month and once during the week. When Poholek has the boys during the week, she later said, she pumped her breast milk for Pascal. The judge also orders Ngeuma to pay $100 a month in child support.
The pressure cooker
Rather than ease tension, the conflict between the parents intensifies as they fight over how to deal with the boys’ mental health. Daniel begins taking Ritalin and Vyvanse after he’s diagnosed with ADHD in kindergarten. Ngeuma wanted to address his behavior with discipline, prompting Poholek to complain to the judge. With the parents unable to agree on treatment or a therapist, the divorce judge appoints an independent therapist. The therapist eventually quits the case, saying the parents refuse to cooperate
More DCF complaints are filed: In a June 2009 report, DCF investigators note that Daniel is “exhibiting behavior which may be the result of constant conflict in the home and between divorced parents.”
Then in November 2009, Poholek takes Pascal to a Hobe Sound clinical psychologist who diagnoses him with autism spectrum disorder. A week later, the divorce judge gives Poholek sole authority over the boys’ medical care after Poholek says Ngeuma is ignoring doctor orders. Poholek also notifies DCF after Daniel came home from seeing his mom with blistered feet. Daniel said Ngeuma made him do jumping jacks barefoot on hot pavement. Ngeuma denies ordering him to take off his shoes. DCF investigators confirm that a therapist had recommended Ngeuma use exercise to treat Daniel’s ADHD. They characterize it as “bizarre punishment" and order Nguema to again enroll in parenting classes. According to the report, Poholek tells investigators he plans on asking the divorce judge to limit Ngeuma’s visits with Daniel.
The family gets another shake up in September 2011, when Poholek asks the divorce judge for permission to move the boys to the Upper Keys, about 180 miles south, after he’s taken a job with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Ngeuma’s visits with the boys, now eight and five, are reduced to two weekends a month, with weekend handoffs occurring at a commuter train station halfway between the two parents.
The bitter divide
In the Keys, the brothers and their dad settle into a duplex in Tavernier, a couple blocks from the ocean. Poholek takes Daniel to a free mental health clinic to be evaluated and begin therapy with a licensed mental health counselor. According to the therapist’s notes, a doctor had previously prescribed Abilify for Daniel after finding he made “statements of grandiose delusions” when he was eight. Abilify can be used to treat psychosis but some doctors also use it to deal with aggressive behavior in kids with ADHD. (Meanwhile, a judge has denied Ngeuma’s attempts to be involved in medical decisions along with her request to prevent her ex-husband’s from moving the boys to the Keys.)
Two years later, when he’s ten, Daniel is seen by a neuropsychologist to rule out bipolar disorder. Poholek tells her Daniel’s behavior worsens after “traumatic interactions with his mother.” The psychologist rules out bipolar and says Daniel’s behavior is more consistent with ADHD.
Then just before Halloween in 2013, the family dynamic undergoes another seismic shift. Daniel refuses to go with his mother and tries to run from a train platform. Ngeuma says she grabbed her son to stop him from running into the parking lot. Poholek and Daniel say she threw Daniel to the ground. Police are called and interview the family and a witness. They leave without making any arrests and file no charges. On Oct. 31, 2013, Poholek asks a judge in the Keys for a domestic violence injunction to prevent Ngeuma from seeing the boys. The judge grants the injunction after Poholek has a different witness testify, who was not questioned by police. (That witness did not respond to email requests for comment.) Four months later, the judge allows Ngeuma to resume visits with Pascal but not Daniel. Daniel tells therapists repeatedly that his mother is abusive. For the next six years, between 2013 and 2019, Ngeuma’s visits with Daniel will remain restricted and she will not be allowed to be alone with him.
The judge then assigns a therapist at the Keys free mental health clinic to work with the boys and try to repair the family.
During this time, Ngeuma struggles to maintain a relationship, fighting her ex-husband in court and sometimes making the 360-mile round trip drive to the Keys to sit with Pascal at lunch, then head home in time for work. Meanwhile, the therapist documents complaints from Daniel and Pascal, alleging that their mom makes them anxious. Pascal says his mom belittles him. Ngeuma has consistently denied the claims, saying Poholek used the court system to bully her. Poholek insists her treatment was overly harsh, amounting to emotional, and sometimes physical, abuse.
Ngeuma’s mental health remains a frequent point of contention, with Poholek repeatedly asking judges to order her to be examined. Ngeuma underwent her first required psychological evaluation in April 2014 to comply with court orders. Over the years, she would be evaluated four times, with therapists finding no indications for treatment, according to court documents. The boys continued to complain to their therapist and in May 2015, after Pascal said Ngeuma was emotionally abusive and that he feared she would hurt him, Poholek again files for a domestic violence injunction in the Keys to prevent Ngeuma from seeing her youngest son. Poholek also asks to have the custody case transferred to the Keys from Martin County, where the divorce had been finalized. The judge approves the transfer a month later, forcing Ngeuma to now drive about 375 miles round-trip for court proceedings.
The downward spiral
Daniel’s mental health continues to grow more complicated as he enters his teens. The therapist at the free clinic wants him again evaluated by a psychiatrist, so just before he turned 13, in January 2017, Poholek takes him to a psychiatrist at Miami Children’s Hospital. After meeting with Daniel and Poholek, the doctor concludes Daniel is suffering from PTSD. He wants to determine if Daniel is also bi-polar, something his therapist also suspects, so prescribes Risperdal, and lowers the dosage for his ADHD meds, which increase dopamine that may worsen psychosis. He asks to see Daniel again in two weeks. But Daniel refuses to take the Risperdal, according to Poholek, and they never return for the follow-up visit. Court testimony and records indicate Daniel saw at least three other psychiatrists during this time. One psychiatrist who had started seeing Daniel in 2015 refused to continue treating him in 2016 because he was smoking marijuana.
Daniel’s mental health treatment also remains a point of contention between the parents. In March 2016, Ngeuma files a lengthy motion with the Keys’ judge now overseeing the case, claiming Poholek is manipulating the boys and using the therapist to prevent her from seeing them. Before the hearing, in a 10-page report, Daniel’s therapist reports that Daniel remains angry with his mother. “Daniel has indicated that he has been in the system for nine years and that it hasn’t resolved the situation,” the therapist wrote. According to her report, Daniel, who is now 13, tells her: “The Department of Children and Families is one of the prominent agencies designed to help kids and they did not help.”
Poholek says Daniel wants to testify at the hearing on the matter. Instead, the judge speaks privately with Daniel, according to hearing notes, and then makes a surprising decision. He rules that Daniel is now old enough to decide for himself if he wants to see his mother. The judge also orders Ngeuma to have another psychological evaluation and maintain contact with the therapist at the free mental health clinic working with the family.
A hurricane hits
In September 2017, Hurricane Irma slams the Florida Keys. While the eye of the sprawling storm made landfall with 130 mph winds in the Lower Keys, a trail of damage spread up and down the islands. Poholek and the boys are forced to move from the neighborhood duplex. Eventually they settle into a townhouse at the Executive Bay Club facing the Overseas Highway.
In court, Poholek continues to insist Ngeuma, who has not resumed visits with Daniel, is having a detrimental effect on Pascal. In May 2018, he files a motion himself, asking for the judge to cut Ngeuma’s visits from two weekends to one. The sessions with the therapists are also not going well for Ngeuma. “The mother openly expressed her fear,” the therapist wrote, saying she worried that the therapist would keep her from seeing Pascal.
Ahead of the hearing on visitation, Poholek sends the therapist a long email in July 2018, urging her to push to limit Ngeuma’s contact with Pascal.
“Tomorrow is my one best shot to accomplish this and unfortunately the vast majority of the relevant details needs to come from you as the judge clearly has little interest in hearing my thoughts about the situation if they aren't backed up by your testimony,” he writes.
Because of the therapist's conflicts with Ngeuma, the therapist asks the judge to assign a different counselor.
That same month, Poholek asks the Florida Department of Revenue to have Ngeuma’s $100 a month child support payments increased.
Arrests and Baker Acts
In August 2018, Daniel is arrested for battery on his father and placed on probation in a juvenile diversion program for less serious offenders. That same month, Poholek and a therapist ask that he be placed at the Key West Children’s Shelter, where he can receive treatment and drug counseling. During one fight, according to the report, Daniel broke his father’s toe. Police had been called twice after fights. Poholek said Daniel also broke into his bedroom and stole money. Poholek also files an emergency motion that month asking a judge to restrict Ngeuma’s visit with Pascal after Pascal says his mother took him to a pediatrician and different therapist during a visit. Pascal, according to Poholek, also reported that his mother badgered him not to talk to his Keys therapist. On Sept. 12, 2018, the judge orders new terms for visitation between Pascal and Ngeuma, under a therapist’s guidance.
The next day, Daniel is taken to the Children’s Shelter but is kicked out before the 30-day program ends after he slaps someone and is again charged with battery.
Around this time, according to later testimony from Daniel’s probation officer, Daniel is also Baker Acted, the Florida law that allows people to be involuntarily committed for a mental health evaluation. He’s sent to a mental health and rehabilitation center in Miami. According to court testimony, Daniel is Baker Acted again when he threatens to stab Poholek with a bannister nail and shows “homicidal ideation toward his father,” a report noted. After evaluating him for 72 hours, a doctor found no indication of psychosis, according to court testimony.
Daniel ‘pulls a gun’
In January 2019, Daniel’s probation officer calls DCF after Daniel says his father hit him. Daniel later changes his story and says he fell off his bike. A month later, during a curfew check with his probation officer, Daniel makes an ominous statement, according to court testimony. He tells the officer Pascal triggers him “and that he forgave him for what he did but he did not forget.” Even though Daniel hadn’t been alone with his mother for six years, he still blames Pascal for her treatment, saying his younger brother played a part.
By June, things worsen. Daniel is sent to Concept House, a drug treatment center, and then a month later is arrested again after he tries to strangle Poholek, according to court testimony. On an arrest form, he checks a box saying he hears voices. He’s then sent to a treatment center in Jupiter, where he stays for three months after doctors diagnose him with a conduct disorder. At this point, according to court testimony, Daniel is still abusing benzodiazepine and marijuana.
Within two months of being released from the Jupiter clinic, Daniel is arrested again after Poholek and Pascal say Daniel pulled a gun on his younger brother in January 2020. Charges, however, are dropped after Poholek says Daniel may not have had a real gun. According to court testimony, his therapist, DCF workers and the probation officer now agree Daniel has become too much of a threat to Pascal and can no longer live in the same house. So on Jan. 17, 2020, when juvenile authorities are ready to release Daniel, Ngeuma picks him up and brings him home to her house in Port St. Lucie.
In Port St. Lucie, Ngeuma enrolls Daniel in high school. He’s assigned a new probation officer and starts attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, Ngeuma said. But the relationship is rocky. Poholek had told Ngeuma Daniel had nearly overdosed trying to get high smoking lantana leaves, so she won’t leave him alone at her house. She asks him to come to work with her cleaning houses. When he gets bored with that, her boss offers to let him do clerical jobs. When he refuses to do that, she tells him to stay with friends, who he’d known since he was a toddler, until she gets home. But since Ngeuma works late into the evening, Daniel is often left to his own. He complains to his Keys probation officer, who he remained in touch with, that his mother is locking him out of the house and not feeding him. The probation officer calls DCF to file a report. DCF later determines that Daniel is now old enough to fend for himself and does not recommend charges.
Tension in the house increases. Police are called at least twice after Daniel, who is now six feet tall and about 190 pounds, fights with his petite mom. Once, after Daniel locked the door to his room, Nguema used a small knife to pry open the lock. They both accuse the other of using the knife in a threatening way. They fight again after Daniel refuses to get ready for church on a Sunday morning. Daniel tells police he tried to push his mother out of his room. Ngeuma says he grabbed her, leaving her wrist red and swollen. Police arrest Daniel
This time, Daniel’s father makes the long drive north to bail out his son. Despite warnings from his therapists and others about Pascal’s safety, Poholek takes Daniel back to the Keys, where he will stay in the room he shares with his little brother. Poholek contacts the counselor at the free clinic and asks her to again begin treating Daniel.
Fin
The day before the murder, on May 6, 2020, Poholek and Pascal wake before sunrise to watch the Eta Aquarid meteor shower, splash across the night sky. Then later that day, Daniel and Poholek again fight after Daniel gets noisy making food while his father is on Zoom session for work.
Poholek has been in touch with Daniel’s counselor at the free mental health clinic, who previously was ordered by the court to supervise visits with his mother, and tells her Daniel is hiding knives around the house. Poholek said he punched Pascal. When she arrives for a previously scheduled session that afternoon, the therapist finds the two fighting so loudly that they can’t hear her knock at the door. So she texts them. After talking for two hours, the therapist later testified, she left feeling confident that Daniel had calmed down. Poholek has also been in touch with Daniel’s probation officer.
That evening, after more fighting, Poholek contacts both again for help. Poholek tells them Daniel shoved him hard enough to cave in an upstairs wall. The probation officer contacts the clinic, according to court testimony, and recommends Daniel be Baker Acted again. But by the time Poholek talks to the clinic hotline, he says Daniel has calmed down and after talking for about an hour, they agree not to send a team to assess him.
The Murder
The next morning, Poholek awakes before daylight to find Daniel straddling him in bed, stabbing him with a knife. Daniel has already murdered Pascal. When Daniel briefly leaves the room, Poholek escapes to a neighbor’s, who calls 911. Daniel flees the townhouse out a back sliding glass door. He remains in hiding for about 12 hours before emerging from mangroves near the townhouse, then runs onto the Overseas Highway, is hit by a truck and critically injured. In her follow-up notes on the case, the counselor says Daniel was likely trying to kill himself.
Later that day, the Keys judge orders deputies to allow Ngeuma to enter Monroe County, which is under Covid lockdown rules. When Poholek’s attorney learns Nguema is on her way to the Keys, she files a motion asking the judge to prevent Ngeuma from interfering with the police investigation, entering the townhouse or making funeral arrangements. A week later, the judge issues another order pleading with the parents to cooperate during “this time of immeasurable pain,” and offers condolences.
As Daniel awaits trial in the Key West jail, the custody battle continues in court. In October 2020, Poholek asks for a two-hour hearing to be scheduled for his motion to increase Ngeuma’s child support payments. He eventually asks for more than $9,000 in retroactive payments. In 2022, a judge orders her to pay $6,900 over the next five years.
The Insanity Defense
After Daniel recovers from his injuries, he’s taken to the Monroe County jail on Stock Island, near Key West and overlooking Cow Key Channel. He makes his first appearance in court in early June 2020. In jail, he’s often held in a lockdown unit or placed on suicide watch and unable to have visits with his family. His mental health deteriorates.
The family vows not to abandon Daniel. “Regardless of this one thing, which is not insignificant, but it can't take away a whole life,” Poholek later said.
Ngeuma hires an attorney using money from her savings, to take the place of a public defender. The attorney hires a forensic psychologist and investigator to look into Daniel’s history. Five months later, after Poholek begins an online fundraiser claiming Daniel’s mental illness is the result of his mother’s abuse, he hires Miami attorneys Diane Ward and Ed O’Donnell to replace the attorney hired by Ngeuma. They quickly find a psychiatrist to evaluate Daniel. In July, the psychiatrist determines Daneil is "actively psychotic.” Ward and O’Donell ask a judge to find him incompetent to stand trial.
Seven months later, in February 2022, Daniel is found to be incompetent to stand trial, suffering from either bi-polar disorder or schizoaffective disorder. He’s sent to a state-run mental health treatment center in Florida City.
After more than a year in treatment, a hospital psychiatrist finds Daniel competent to stand trial in July 2023, concluding that he suffers from hallucinations and other symptoms of schizophrenia, but that he does not meet the full criteria for the disorder. He also notes in a report that Daniel sometimes fakes his symptoms to exaggerate his impairment. In October 2023, after 15 months of treatment, the judge orders Daniel competent to stand trial.
In the meantime, Poholek has formed an organization called Pascal’s Way to memorialize Pascal and help raise money for Daniel’s legal defense. He holds runs and beach clean-ups and sells t-shirts. As the murder case progressed, he also mounts a campaign and petition calling for the state attorney’s office to drop the charges or move the case to juvenile court. In October 2024, prosecutors ask the judge to issue a gag order to ensure a fair trial, which the judge does at a hearing, although it was never enforced. Judge Luis Garcia had also overseen the custody fight and had known Daniel since he was about 10 years old. But before the trial begins, the judge retires. In November, the case is assigned to Judge Mark Jones in Key West.
Following a 10-day bench trial, Jones finds Daniel guilty on Jan. 23 of second-degree murder in the death of his younger brother and first degree attempted murder for attacking his father. Both charges carry life sentences and a minimum of about 26 years. Daniel’s attorneys hope to persuade Judge Jones to instead issue a sentence that provides treatment by including a long term for probation and treatment at a residential facility in Miami. The facility, according to court testimony, typically only takes defendants found not guilty by reason of insanity, but Ward persuades them to interview Daniel and they agree to take him.
Four months later, Jones stunned attorneys and Daniel’s family when he spares him from prison and sentences Daniel to treatment.
Through his treatment team at the facility, Daniel declined to be interviewed for this story. In October, the case was back in court after the facility reported to Judge Jones that Daniel had violated the terms of probation twice. A probation officer and a staffer from the facility both told Jones at a hearing that despite the violations, he was doing well and should remain at the facility.
