Convicted child rapist and killer Donald Smith should be executed for his crimes, a jury decided Thursday.
The jurors, who took only 12 minutes last week to find Smith guilty of kidnapping, raping and killing 8-year-old Cherish Perrywinkle, unanimously agreed to recommend the death penalty in the case, according to our News4Jax partner.
They came to that decision after two days of testimony and hearing closing arguments from the prosecution and defense. After a review process, Circuit Judge Mallory Cooper will officially pronounce her sentence for Smith, though she is likely to follow the jury's recommendation.
In his final argument, prosecutor Mark Caliel recapped the horrific rape Cherish endured and her gruesome murder, again showing the jurors graphic autopsy photos that were displayed during last week's trial.
“The death penalty is appropriate. The death penalty is just. The death penalty is what he deserves for what he did to that little girl,” Caliel said.
The jury agreed, saying the one mitigating factor they found, Smith's age at the time of the crime, did not outweigh the six aggravating factors in the case:
- Smith was engaged in kidnapping and sexual battery when he killed Cherish
- Cherish was younger than 12 years old
- Cherish was killed so Smith could avoid arrest by eliminating a witness
- Cherish's murder was cold, calculated and premeditated
- Cherish's murder was especially heinous, atrocious and cruel
- Smith had a prior violent felony conviction
Smith, 61, took Cherish from a Jacksonville Walmart in June 2013, after he befriended her mother, Rayne Perrywinkle, and offered to buy clothes for Cherish and her sisters.
He brutally raped and tortured her, then wrapped something around her neck and choked the life out of her, making sure he left no witnesses, Caliel said.
During a three-day sentencing phase that ended Thursday, experts testified that Smith is a psychopath who lacks control over his impulses. Doctors also described Smith as callous, uncaring, manipulative and lacking empathy.