'Burn in hell': Man, 62, is sentenced to death for rape and murder of girl, eight, who he abducted from a Walmart after promising to buy her impoverished family food and clothes
Donald Smith sat emotionless as he was sentenced to death in Jacksonville, Florida, on Wednesday. In 2013, he abducted eight-year-old Cherish Perrywinkle from a Walmart where he had taken her with her sisters and mother under the pretense of buying them clothes. Cherish's mother had met him hours earlier at a different store where he approached them and asked if they needed new outfits. He lied that he had a $100 gift card for Walmart and convinced them to go with him there, claiming his 'wife' would meet them at the store.
Jury hands down DEATH sentence for ‘Walmart monster’ Donald Smith, who raped, kidnapped Cherish Perrywinkle
A Duvall County, Florida, jury unanimously decided on Wednesday afternoon that convicted child killer, Donald Smith, will face death.
On the third day of the penalty phase for 61-year-old Donald Smith, both the prosecution and defense made closing arguments before the jury left the courtroom for deliberations. The jury decided that the prosecution provided enough evidence to warrant the death sentence for Smith.
Under Florida law, the entire jury has to agree to the sentence. All 12 jurors agreed on the sentence. The suspect said emotionless as the verdict was read by Judge Mallory D. Cooper.
What You Need to Know
As CrimeOnline previously reported, on June 21, 2013, Smith, then 57, approached single, struggling mother, Rayne Perrywinkle, at the Dollar General store on Edgewood Avenue West in Jacksonville. Smith offered to buy the mom a dress, then offered to buy her a $150 gift card, to which she agreed, according to court documents. When he found out Perrywinkle didn’t have a car of her own, he somehow convinced her to ride with him to pick up the gift card at a nearby Walmart after talking with her for a few hours about his own past financial struggles.
Smith drove Perrywinkle and her daughter, 8-year-old Cherish, along with her two other little girls to the Walmart off of Lem Turner Road, claiming that his wife would meet them there and help them shop for clothing. The family loaded into Smith’s white van, lined with dark curtains on the inside.
At around 11 p.m., while they shopped inside Walmart, Smith’s wife still hadn’t arrived. It’s still unclear whether she ever existed, as Perrywinkle never once saw her. Smith then suggested getting food at the McDonald’s inside the store while waiting for his wife, and asked Cherish to accompany him and pick out the food she wanted. Perrywinkle, assuming that her daughter was safe inside a store with surveillance cameras an numerous employees, allowed Cherish to accompany him.
After 30 minutes passed and her daughter hadn’t returned, Perrywinkle became frantic and called the police after an employee allowed her to use their phone.
http://www.crimeonline.com/
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