Though receiving Social Security disability payments due to an allegedly serious back injury, he also worked for cash as a painter and handyman.
He was suspected of having committed insurance fraud by setting three fires at his homes in the 1980s and faking burglaries and falsely reporting stolen items.
[5] In the 1970s he briefly worked as an independent Christian preacher, espousing a highly unorthodox doctrine emphasizing sex and apocalyptic predictions that he would later use to indoctrinate and intimidate his children.
All the children were sexually abused by both parents and beaten and locked in their rooms for minor infractions, and they routinely suffered other indignities.
[10] The Sexton household was long suspected of being abusive and neglectful towards their children; county officials maintained a file on the family from 1979 but lacked enough evidence for any further action.
[11] To plead his case, Eddie mailed copies of the video directly to both President Bill Clinton and Attorney General Janet Reno.
They first lived in Oklahoma with Eddie's relatives for several months before relocating to campsites at Little Manatee River State Park on Florida’s western coast.
Pixie later claimed that her father ordered her to silence the crying child to avoid drawing attention at the campsite, where they were living in violation of both the occupancy and time-limit rules.
On November 30, 1993, Joel and Pixie visited the University of Tampa’s library, where librarian Gail Novak helped him find information about SIDS.
At Little Manatee State Park, the Sextons made the acquaintance of Ray Hesser, who had recently retired after selling his business and was traveling cross-country by himself in a luxurious motor home.
Eddie and his children began a scheme to use Pixie to seduce Hesser, hoping to eventually kill the man, drain his bank accounts, and steal his vehicle.
[12] Initially friendly towards the Sextons, Hesser gradually grew suspicious and parted ways with them by lying about his travel plans specifically to avoid them.
Eventually, the FBI issued a national arrest warrant for Eddie and Estella Sexton for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.
All of the Sextons initially insisted that Joel had departed for Ohio, but eventually Willie confessed to killing him at Eddie's command.
Sexton's children were difficult to interview, giving evasive and contradictory answers and all displaying major psychiatric problems like psychotic breaks, PTSD, and vivid nightmares about their father.
Defense attorneys noted the many contradictions and inconsistencies in the Sexton children’s testimony and depositions and attempted to cast Willie and Pixie as the murderers, asserting that Eddie wasn’t involved and did not approve of the crime.
[19] While the Sextons came across as mentally disturbed and their stories were often inconsistent, contradictory, and incomplete, Novak's account provided jurors with critical independent corroboration of the most salient details of the prosecution’s case.
Willie pled guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 25 years, with his low intelligence and overbearing father taken as mitigating factors.
The appellate judges agreed with defense attorneys that some of the prior bad acts evidence regarding the child abuse and other lurid details of the family history were prejudicial and inflammatory.
During the sentencing phase, a psychologist testified for the defense that Eddie "had a diminished level of self-control due to dysfunction in his prefrontal cortex".
[22] The court rejected this line of reasoning, noting that Eddie's crimes showed considerable planning and concealment over many years, thus demonstrating he possessed self-control.
Moreover, Dr. Barbara Stein, a board-certified psychiatrist retained by the State before the second trial, testified at the evidentiary hearing that Sexton had antisocial personality disorder with histrionic features.
[4] Pixie Sexton's murder of her young child has been described as an extreme example of post-partum depression, with research showing that victims of abuse have much higher than average rates of killing their own children.