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Donald Smith’s Appeal Rejected In Murder Of 8-Year-Old Cherish Perrywinkle

Cherish Perrywinkle (left) and Donald Smith (right)
News4Jax
Cherish Perrywinkle (left) and Donald Smith (right)

The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously upheld the conviction and death sentence of Donald James Smith, who raped and murdered 8-year-old Cherish Perrywinklle after kidnapping the girl from a Jacksonville Walmart in 2013.

The June 2013 murder of Cherish drew huge amounts of news coverage and public attention in Jacksonville, with a jury in 2018 finding Smith guilty and a judge sending him to Death Row.

In the appeal to the Supreme Court, Smith’s attorneys raised a series of issues, including that the trial should have been moved out of Duval County because of the heavy pretrial publicity.

Read the full story at News4Jax.com.