JACKSONVILLE, Fla — Next week, convicted sex offender Donald Smith will be back in a Duval County courtroom to argue that he had ineffective counsel when he was found guilty five years ago of abducting, raping and murdering 8-year-old Cherish Perrywinkle.
67-year-old Smith is on death row, but was granted an evidentiary hearing. He claims his legal team didn’t adequately defend him during his 2018 trial.
If a judge decides Smith’s counsel was in fact ineffective, he could get a whole new trial.
“I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy. I wouldn’t,” said Cherish’s mother, Rayne Perrywinkle.
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Surveillance video from June 21, 2013 shows smith following Rayne and her children into the Walmart on Lem Turner Road.
He had befriended them and promised to get them food.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said surveillance video showed Smith leaving the store with Cherish.
“I quickened my pace and I looked through every isle and every register in there.” The next day, she was found dead behind Highlands Baptist Church.
JSO said Smith raped and killed Cherish. His DNA profile matched the DNA found on Cherish’s body.
Smith’s trial finally took place in February 2018. It took the jury only 14 minutes to find him guilty in the child’s kidnapping, murder and sexual battery.
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State Attorney Melissa Nelson stated that, “there was no gray as to whether or not this was appropriate for the death penalty. Donald Smith is a dangerous, pedophic psychopath.”
Three months later, he was sentenced to death.
“Donald smith you have not only forfeited your right to live among us, but under the laws of the state of Florida you have forfeited your right to live at all,” Judge Mallory Cooper stated during his sentencing.
But now if a judge agrees with Smith, he could get a new trial.
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Juror Paul Hinson stated, " I wouldn’t want 14 other people to go through this again,” and risk delaying closure for Cherish’s family.
“I could say burn in hell. That’s what I want to say, I want him to burn in hell. I hope he’s watching,” Rayne said.
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