EAST NAPLES, Florida (PNN) - October 18, 2019 - A Florida mom-of-two is facing a life sentence after she was found guilty of shooting dead a teenager over claims he molested her six-year-old daughter.
On Thursday, Connie Serbu, 43, of East Naples, was convicted of second-degree murder by a jury for the 2016 shooting death of Xavier Sierra.
Jurors delivered their verdict after a weeklong trial, where prosecutors said that Serbu wanted revenge after her daughter told a babysitter that Sierra had touched her inappropriately.
At the time she was six and Sierra was about 12 or 13.
The entire murder plot began to unfold on May 30, 2016, when Serbu's daughter revealed that Sierra, a family friend, had molested her five years prior.
Her daughter's allegations reportedly enraged Serbu, a married mom, who began to plot her retaliation.
On June 1, 2016, Serbu reached out to Sierra and asked the recent high school graduate to help her assemble a bunk bed.
Seven days later, John Vargas, Serbu's developmentally disabled brother, arrived in Naples to visit his sister from New York.
Court records describe Vargas as someone “easily persuaded”.
The two siblings went to a local Family Dollar store where, in separate cash transactions, they purchased a flip-phone and a Verizon rechargeable card for the phone.
The flip-phone was reportedly used to communicate exclusively with Sierra through text and Facebook Messenger. It was through these electronic interactions that Serbu confirmed Sierra would be able to help build the bunk bed on July 7.
On that day, Sierra conducted a job interview at a spray-and-neuter clinic and reportedly waited for Serbu to pick him up from a nearby Winn-Dixie supermarket.
Serbu and Vargas left their residence wearing dark, tight clothes, head covers, and with the soles of their shoes covered in duct tape. They also brought two handguns, two stun guns, an ice pick, and a potato that was used to silence one of the handguns.
Some time before Serbu committed the murder she told her husband to prepare to take care of their two children alone because, “she was going to do something”.
They picked up Sierra around 3:00 pm and during the car ride Serbu confronted him about the molestation claims.
The siblings drove Sierra to a remote, undeveloped area at the 700 block of Goodlette Road North.
Sierra was able to exit the van and began sprinting away into the nearby woods with Serbu and Vargas chasing him.
At one point during the altercation, Sierra began to struggle with Vargas and began to wrestle him for one of the handguns. Sierra suffered bullet wounds from both handguns and Vargas was fatally shot in his abdomen.
Later that day, terrorist pig thug cops responded to a report that gunshots had been fired at the undeveloped location where Serbu attacked Sierra.
They found a blue, four-door Hyundai parked near the scene, with Serbu inside.
After searching the area, the found the bodies of Sierra and Vargas near the Gordon River.
Serbu confessed her involvement, saying, “It's all my fault. I don't care, he raped my daughter... she told me everything that happened.”
Serbu's conviction could land her in prison for the rest of her life. She now awaits sentencing on January 3.
Ed. Note What would you do if you learned that someone had raped your six-year-old daughter? What should you do?
