Headline Surfer file photos /
TOP: Jean Robert Macean, now 35, an illegal immigrant from Haiti and living in Orlando before taking a bus to Daytona Beach for Bike Week in 2022, slashed the throats of 48-year-old Terry Aultman and 55-year-old Brenda Aultman, residents of Daytona Beach during the motorcycle rally, was sentenced on Wednesday, May 7, 2025, to life in prison in a plea agreement that spared him a possible death sentence, in Daytona Beach, Florida.
LEFT: The scenes from the 2022 Bike Week motorcycle rally were marred by the throat-slashing murders of the local married couple.
By HENRY FREDERICK / Headline Surfer
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- The Orlando Man who fatally slashed the throats of two locals during the 2022 Daytona Beach Bike Week will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole.
In exchange for pleading no contest to two counts of first-degree murder, Jean Robert Macean, now 35, receives a life sentence for the rest of his life.
Macean is an illegal alien from Haiti. However, prosecutors say he will serve his life sentence in a Florida prison because his crimes were committed here.
In a statement read by one of his attorneys, Macean said he was “very sorry for killing the Aultmans,” in a statement read in open court. The Autmans were murder victims, Terry Aultman and Brenda Aultman.
“I have suffered from mental illness for a long time,” Macean’s statement added. “I offer this information not as an excuse, but as a reason.”
Macean acknowledged in the statement that he “did a bad thing, but that is not who I normally am,” adding, “I know that your family will be hurting forever – I’m truly sorry. They did nothing that night to deserve to die.”
The office of State Attorney RJ Larizza had been pushing for a death sentence until a plea agreement was reached in court and accepted by Circuit Judge Elizabeth A. Blackburn. The death penalty was dropped due to a ruling on June 20, 2002, by the U.S. Supreme Court decided in Atkins v. Virginia that executing individuals with intellectual disabilities violates the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment, citing a national consensus and their reduced moral culpability.
Larizza's office did not issue a press release with a statement from him, a departure from his standard procedure with the media. Pressed further on the issue by Headline Surfer, who could not attend the hearing and wanted to ensure it had the correct information, his press liaison, Hailey Harrison, tersely responded that he was "sentenced to life in prison."
Throast-slash murders: When & where they happened
Photos for Headline Surfer /
TOP RIGHT: The Daytona Beach Police Command Center vehicle was moved from Main Street to the crime scene at nearby North Wild Olive and Riverview to deal with the grisly double homicide just after 12:15 a.m.
BOTTOM RIGHT: Daytonaa Beach cops worked the crime scene.
OTHER PICS: The 2022 Bike Week scene was in full swing.
The Aultmans were a local husband and wife on bicycles checking out the Bike Week scene on Main Street, who were found brutally murdered on a side street on Sunday, March 6, 2022 - both stabbed multiple times and their throats slashed, Daytona Beach cops said.
At first, police said they thought the man and woman might have been the victims of a hit-and-run until they made a disturbing discovery in the 700 block of North Wild Olive Avenue that proved otherwise:
The man was found face down and the woman face up -- their throats slashed. They were murdered in cold blood, literally. Large pools of blood covered the bodies and ran along the pavement.
Daytona Beach cops said the victims were riding their bikes home from Main Street when they were attacked early Sunday morning. What they have yet to determine is a motive for the double murder.
DBPD was first notified at 1:57 a.m. Sunday when a 9-1-1 call was made by a man described as a witness, prompting dispatchers to send officers to that location.
First responders found the bodies of 48-year-old Terry Aultman and 55-year-old Brenda Aultman, residents of Daytona Beach, covered in blood from multiple stab wounds and their throats slashed.
Paramedics declared both victims deceased at the scene within minutes of the initial 9-1-1 call.
Other neighbors called the police as well after they saw two people lying on the side of the road. The blood trail showed their bodies were dragged out from the road and onto the grass before the suspect ran off.
What was surreal yet oh so real was the grisly double homicide a block away from Main Street in the middle of the night, the husband-and-wife victims having left the festivities for their return home, but not making it.
Additional information was released in an email media alert to Headline Surfer by Daytona Beach Police PIO Messod Bendayan, who stated, "DBPD’s Criminal Investigation Division (CID) has spoken to the man who made the 9-1-1 call as well as a woman who was also on scene. Both claim they found the man lying face-down on his chest and the woman lying face-up on her back in a grassy area next to the sidewalk at the southeast corner of Wild Olive and Riverview."
Bendayan added that two bicycles near the bodies were collected and were being processed for evidence as part of this ongoing
Daytona Beach Police Chief Jakari Young said the crime scene was among the most disturbing he's dealt with as a cop.
"This is probably one of the most vicious and gruesome incidents that I’ve witnessed in my 20 years," Daytona Beach Police Chief Jakari Young said. "We can’t rule out that this may be totally random, but if it is totally random, the person responsible has to be deranged."
Young later added in a statement released by the DBPD: "We will spare no expense and leave no stone unturned in order to solve this case. “I assure you that our detectives are doing all they can to bring justice to the loved ones of these victims.”
Cops investigating do not think it was a robbery. The only information they have about the knife-wielding killer is that it is a man who was possibly wearing light-colored pants and had a backpack.
Neighbors were shaken by the horrific killings, saying they perhaps need to get more involved, be more proactive in keeping a watchful eye on the goings-on in the area.
“We live here - We can do something," Bradford Gonzalez said. "Get a good Neighborhood Watch program going. Get people walking the streets."
Bradford continued, "The police do a great job. They patrol this area. They’re doing what they’re supposed to be doing, but it’s we, the community, people that live here -- if we don’t band together and come up with a plan, it’s not going to change.”
Another neighbor, who identified herself only as Sue, said cops asked to view video recorded by cameras at her home, and she readily complied.
“They knocked on my door at 2:15 in the morning, the detectives, because they wanted to get the videos off of my cameras,” she explained. “(These deaths are) disturbing, certainly, and (the cops) were really upset. They said it was horrendous.”
Who is the Orlando man arrested in shocking throat-slash murders?
Photo for Headline Surfer / Mugshot of Jean Robert Macean in 2022 arrest for the double murder of a Daytona Beach married couple whose throats he slashed during Bike Week.
Jean Robert Macean, now 35, is a Haitian immigrant who was first arrested in 2019 on drug charges, which were later dropped under former State Attorney Aramis Ayala’s supervision in circuit court in Orlando.
Macean, then 32, was apprehended at 5316 Point Vista Circle in Orlando around 11 a.m. Thursday, March 10, 2022, and was subsequently arrested on two counts of first-degree murder with a weapon in the slayings of a married couple who were found dead four days ago as they were heading home from Bike Week festivities on Main Street.
Macean's apprehension was by a task force comprised of United States Marshals Service members, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, and the Orlando Police Department. He is being held without bond at the Orange County Jail in Orlando, pending extradition to Volusia County to stand trial on the murder charges.
The victims had both been stabbed repeatedly, and their throats were slashed in one of the most gruesome crime scenes Daytona Beach Police Chief Jakari Young said he has seen.
“This was one of the most brutal murders I’ve ever seen in my 20-plus years as a police officer in Daytona Beach,” Daytona Beach Police Chief Jakari Young said in a written statement released after Macean's arrest. “We want to thank the entire Daytona Beach community and the communities around us for providing our detectives with over 100 tips. We appreciate that level of cooperation in such a serious matter.”
The victims had both been stabbed repeatedly, and their throats were slashed in one of the most gruesome crime scenes Daytona Beach Police Chief Jakari Young said he has seen.
“This was one of the most brutal murders I’ve ever seen in my 20-plus years as a police officer in Daytona Beach,” Daytona Beach Police Chief Jakari Young said in a written statement released after Macean's arrest. “We want to thank the entire Daytona Beach community and the communities around us for providing our detectives with over 100 tips. We appreciate that level of cooperation in such a serious matter.”
Terry Aultman, 48, and his wife, 55-year-old Brenda Aultman, were discovered dead just before 2 a.m., Sunday, March 6, 2022, near the intersection of North Wild Olive Avenue and Riverview Boulevard.
The Aultmans were on their way home on bicycles from Bike Week festivities on Main Street -- the epicenter of the massive annual motorcycle rally that draws upwards of half a million revelers from all over the US and Canada -- but they never made it to their residence just a mile away.
“I thank our law enforcement partners for working with us to bring this man into custody,” Chief Young added. “I have full confidence that the justice system will do its job. I hope that this will help all of Terry’s and Brenda’s family, friends, and loved ones cope with their senseless loss.”
Editor's Note: Henry Frederick won three awards in the 2022 Florida Press Club statewide Journalism competition, including a 2nd place award in Breaking News for these three stories:
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