Ryan Costello: When is a Lee County/Fort Myers Death Penalty Case Not a Death Penalty Case?

Recently, the state charged Ryan Costello with second degree murder and misdemeanor child neglect for the beating death of his four month old child. Apparently, Mr. Costello was out partying and became enraged at his girlfriend when he came back to his home, an alleged drug den, and took it out on the baby. He was allegedly recorded saying that he's "a murderer" and that he "killed his kid", and it appears that the state has an overwhelming case against him. Since the child died as a result of blunt force trauma caused by the horrific beating, the state could easily charge aggravated child abuse, an enumerated felony and aggravator for first degree felony murder, and could easily allege that the child was (1) under 12, (2) killed by someone in parental authority, (3) by acts especially heinous, atrocious and cruel. These four aggravators have been repeatedly used in this circuit to seek the death penalty, or at least to charge with first degree murder. However, he has not been so charged, and the child abuse is a mere misdemeanor.
Consider Justin Grodin, who the state could not even prove intended to kill the child, and the nine years of litigation the state went through in order to try to end his life. Consider the countless other baby killing cases where the state seeks the death penalty, and there is a question as to which parent actually did the deed.
This case just reinforces my repeated claim that the death peanalty is arbitrary and capricious, and that arbitrariness begins with the initial charging decision by whoever is calling the shots on the particular case.