Daytona Beach was the scene of one of the most bizarre crimes in recent memory. In July 2023, Nichole Maks killed 79-year-old Michael Cerasoli before setting fire to their home.
The disturbing case is made all the more strange by Maks’ attempt to avoid being found out via DNA evidence. According to the police, once they informed the 37-year-old Maks that they would be collecting her DNA she asked for a drink. Officers gave her a can of Diet Mountain Dew which she immediately poured over her head in an attempt to wash away any and all evidence.
Cerasoli’s body was found inside the Clark Street home on July 12, 2023. He had suffered multiple stab wounds. A knife recovered near him carried Maks’ DNA, investigators said. The second floor of the house had also been set on fire. Detectives later learned that Maks lived with Cerasoli. She was arrested weeks later, found walking barefoot, bleeding, and with inconsistent explanations of what had happened.
Police say that Maks spent much of her questioning changing her story, and even claiming that she knew Cerasoli. After agitation set in, she asked for an attorney, and resisted arrest when the police tried to get her into their squad car. Prosecutors charged her with first-degree murder, which could have carried a mandatory life sentence if a jury had convicted her.
Instead, Maks entered a plea deal on Nov. 21, 2024, agreeing to plead no contest to reduced charges: second-degree murder, arson of a dwelling, tampering with physical evidence, and resisting an officer with violence. Circuit Judge Leah Case accepted the plea, and on Thursday handed down a sentence that ensures Maks will spend at least 35 years in state prison. She could serve as many as 75.
Police accounts later described the investigation as unusually complicated, with Maks’ erratic behavior drawing as much attention as the evidence itself.
Cerasoli, remembered by friends and neighbors as a quiet man, was nearly twice Maks’ age. The relationship between the two has never been fully explained in court, leaving questions that may never be answered. What is clear now is that Maks will spend much of her life behind bars, convicted not only of a brutal killing but also of trying — and failing — to erase the evidence.
