Judge Mark Wilson Announces Bid to Succeed Retiring Circuit Judge Mark H. Jones, Whose Murder Cases Captivated the Keys — and the World
Wilson will seek to replace retiring Circuit Judge Jones, whose three-decade career included the notorious Stock Island “Treehouse Murder” and the death sentence of Marathon killer Steven Wolf.
Monroe County Judge Mark Wilson announced Monday he will run for Sixteenth Judicial Circuit Judge, Group 1, seeking to succeed Judge Mark H. Jones, who earlier this year formally announced he will retire at the end of December 2026 after three decades on the bench.
“Judge Jones has been a pillar of our judicial system for many years, and a stalwart example of professionalism and steady leadership,” Wilson said in his campaign announcement. “His service as a circuit judge has strengthened our courts and deepened public confidence in the justice system. I intend to continue my judicial service to the citizens of Monroe County by succeeding him in that role.”
Jones, who joined the circuit bench in the mid-1990s, presided over some of the Florida Keys’ most notorious and emotionally charged trials — including the Stock Island “Treehouse Murder” and the capital trial of Steven Matthew Wolf, the Marathon man sentenced to death for the 2018 sexual battery and murder of Michelle Osborne near the Vaca Cut Bridge.
The Treehouse Murder drew worldwide media attention and exposed the darker side of Stock Island’s homelessness and drug crisis. The killing occurred inside a ramshackle structure known locally as “The Treehouse,” a two-story shelter near the current CVS Pharmacy on Laurel Avenue that had long served as a hangout for addicts and the unhoused.
The victim, Matthew Bonnett, 59, was stabbed to death during what prosecutors described as an armed robbery gone wrong. Another victim, Paula Belmonte, survived her injuries. Authorities charged Franklin Tyrone Tucker — a local man known to frequent the property — and another suspect, Rory Wilson, with the crimes.
Tucker’s first trial, overseen by Judge Jones, ended in a hung jury and mistrial in 2024, following conflicting testimony from a jailhouse witness. Jones pressed both sides to retry the case quickly, citing the victims’ families’ need for closure and the community’s right to resolution. Ultimately, Tucker pleaded no contest to robbery with a deadly weapon while masked, and prosecutors agreed to drop the homicide charges. He was sentenced to time served and released after 910 days in custody.
Even amid that controversy, Jones was praised for his steady management of the high-profile case — balancing compassion, public pressure, and strict adherence to courtroom procedure.
Jones’s later work in the Steven Matthew Wolf capital-murder trial reaffirmed his reputation for moral clarity and judicial precision. Wolf was convicted of raping and murdering Michelle Osborne near Marathon’s Vaca Cut in 2018. After a unanimous jury recommendation for death, Jones issued a detailed 18-page sentencing order on June 29, 2023, calling the crime “among the worst of the worst.”
“You have forfeited your right to live among us, and under Florida law, you have forfeited your right to live at all,” Jones wrote.
The Florida Supreme Court upheld Wolf’s conviction and death sentence on July 10, 2025, calling Jones’s ruling “a model of clarity and judicial restraint applied to the gravest of crimes.”
Jones’s announced retirement will mark the end of an era for Monroe County’s justice system — three decades defined by calm leadership, rigorous attention to detail, and sentences that balanced gravity with humanity.
Wilson — appointed to the Monroe County Court in 2017 by then-Governor Rick Scott and later elected without opposition — has served eight years on the bench, handling thousands of criminal and civil cases. Before his judicial appointment, he spent 12 years as an Assistant State Attorney, prosecuting public-corruption and major-felony cases, served as legal advisor to the Monroe County Grand Jury, and worked four years as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of Florida. He ultimately rose to Chief Assistant State Attorney.
Qualified by the Florida Supreme Court to preside over death-penalty cases, Wilson said he hopes to honor the standards set by Judge Jones.
“I’ve always believed that justice should be firm when it needs to be and compassionate when it ought to be,” Wilson said. “My duty as a judge is to ensure the rights of all parties are respected, the laws are faithfully applied, and that our decisions are grounded in justice and reason.”
Wilson’s 30-year public-service career also includes teaching law at Penn State and Widener University, serving as a Wyoming state trooper, and as a U.S. Army paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division in Panama and at Fort Bragg, N.C.
He earned his bachelor’s degree with highest honors from Rutgers University, a law degree magna cum laude from Penn State, and a postgraduate law degree from Yeshiva University.
Wilson’s campaign has already received endorsements from Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay, State Attorney Dennis Ward, and the South Florida Police Benevolent Association.
The election for Sixteenth Circuit Judge, Group 1, is scheduled for August 2026.