In April 2011, a 15-year-old Florida teenager went to a house in Summerfield believing he was meeting someone he knew.

He never came home.

His name was Seath Jackson.

More than a decade later, the case remains one of the most disturbing murder cases in Marion County — and the man convicted of killing him has faced the death penalty not once, but twice.

Michael Bargo was convicted of first-degree murder in 2013 for Jackson’s death. Prosecutors said Bargo planned the attack after asking Amber Wright, Jackson’s former girlfriend, to lure the teenager to a home where several others were waiting.

Bargo was initially sentenced to death. But years later, Florida’s courts ordered a new penalty phase because the original jury’s recommendation was not unanimous.

Then came the second sentencing.

In April 2019, a new jury unanimously recommended death. A judge later formally imposed the sentence again.

The case did not end there.

Bargo appealed the renewed death sentence, but in June 2021, the Florida Supreme Court upheld the sentence, rejecting his claims and leaving the death penalty in place.

The evidence described in court records painted a chilling picture of what happened on the night of April 17, 2011. According to the Florida Supreme Court, Bargo was 18 at the time and Jackson was only 15.

Jackson was lured to the house, where an attack began. Court records say Bargo shot Jackson multiple times before the group attempted to conceal what had happened by burning his body and disposing of the remains.

Four other defendants were also convicted in connection with Jackson’s death. They received life sentences rather than death.

For Jackson’s family, the story is not simply about a courtroom sentence.

It is about a teenager who left home one night — and never returned.

And for Bargo, the legal timeline is unusual: a death sentence in 2013, a new sentencing proceeding years later, another death sentence in 2019, and a Florida Supreme Court decision upholding it in 2021.

The case has remained a haunting reminder of how quickly teenage relationships, anger and revenge can spiral into irreversible consequences.

More than 15 years after Seath Jackson’s death, one question still lingers: how does a case this devastating ever truly reach its final chapter?

Sources:

ClickOrlando – Michael Bargo sentenced to death again
Florida Supreme Court – Bargo v. State (2021)
Florida Courts – Official 2021 opinion
ClickOrlando – Original 2013 death sentence