A Florida judge has sentenced Aaron Glee to life in prison for the 2020 murders of 19-year-old Black Lives Matter (BLM) activist, Oluwatoyin Salau and 75-year-old Victoria Sims.
Glee was supposed to plead guilty in January 2023 but decided to have a trial instead. In June, the 52-year-old Glee pleaded guilty to a first-degree murder and kidnapping charge. He opted to spend the rest of his life in jail rather than face the death penalty.
Salau, who attended Tallahassee Community College and participated in Black Lives Matter protests, went missing in 2020, a few days before Sims.
Before going missing, on June 6, 2020, Salau tweeted about a series of events, including a sexual assault that had recently happened to her (read here). She also had been trying to escape abuse at the hands of her family.
Glee tied Salau up and imprisoned her for several days. He admitted to sexually assaulting her numerous times before deciding to kill her. Later, Glee raided Sims’ home and kidnapped her too.
Police found the women’s bodies after tracking the phone belonging to Sims, who was also kidnapped by Glee after he raided her home. Sims’ body was found in one of Glee’s bedrooms underneath a sheet stained with blood.
Salau’s body was found underneath a pile of leaves in a wooded area behind Glee’s rented house in Tallahassee.
Glee fled from the police on a Greyhound bus, but he was caught in Orlando.
Salau’s murder made the hashtag #JusticeForToyin to trend on Twitter. Abike Dabiri-Erewa also lent her voice to call for justice.
In court, Rebecca Figueroa, a friend of Salau, expressed regret and guilt for not picking up a call from her friend on the night she was killed.
Figueroa told the court, “Part of us is still enraged toward this disgusting excuse for a human being. We’re not the same, just glued pieces of something Aaron Glee has torn apart.”
Later, Figueroa also called for Glee to receive the death penalty, saying that “consecutive life sentences are a far more precious gift than he deserves.”
Salau’s mother, Victoria Salau, who moved to Tallahassee from Chicago thinking it would be a safer town, said her daughter was a smart and kind girl who would’ve had the ability to impact many people if her life wasn’t cut short, her mother said.
“She prayed for the salvation of your soul while you held her captive,” Victoria Salau said to Glee.
Sims, volunteer for AARP Florida, was remembered as a kind woman who greeted everyone she met with a smile.
“She was probably one of the most kind and gentlest souls I knew,” Leslie Spencer, associate state director for AARP Florida, told the Tallahassee Democrat. “She always had a wise and thoughtful word to add to the conversation, but she wasn’t afraid to ask hard questions of lawmakers. She was an amazing human being, and absolutely—the void that she will leave, I don’t know that we can fill it.”
Sims’ daughter, June Campos, told the court in a victim impact statement: “An angel lived and walked among us. On June 13, 2020, the angel’s earthly light was extinguished, and the heavens called her home . . . She was an advocate for all humans and all human rights, even for monsters such as you.”
Glee was sentenced to life in prison on September 22, 2023.
(Tallahassee Democrat, LIB. Photos: LIB)