Donald Smith, 67, is currently serving a death sentence after being convicted in 2018 of kidnapping, raping and killing 8-year-old Cherish Perrywinkle in June 2013.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The man convicted in 2018 for the murder of an 8-year old girl, is appearing in a Duval County courtroom Wednesday morning on day two of an evidentiary hearing.
Eight-year-old Cherish Perrywinkle went missing from the Walmart on Lem Turner Road in June 2013. Donald Smith is currently serving a death sentence after he was convicted of kidnapping, raping and killing Cherish. However, Smith was granted a hearing on claims that his original trial attorneys mishandled the case.
Rayne Perrywinkle watched as her daughter’s killer Donald Smith entered the courtroom Tuesday morning.
One of Smith’s former lawyers, Julie Schlax, spent the most time on the stand during the first day of the hearing Tuesday, taking questions on jury selection and why she didn’t advise Smith to take a plea deal instead of going to trial.
“We certainly knew, as Mr. Smith did, that we were not going to be successful in the guilt phase,” Schlax said.
“But rather than expressing remorse and trying to take responsibility, his decision was go to trial?” Smith’s defense asked.
Smith’s defense argued that the original jury members weren’t thoroughly vetted. This is because during jury selection, one candidate in a questionnaire had answered ‘yes’ when asked if she formed her own opinion about Smith’s guilt, but then she crossed the answer and put no.
“It looked like a simple mistake,” said Charles Fletcher, another original defense attorney. “We never did ask.”
During the initial trial, Schlax and Flether did not cross examine Cherish Perrywinkle’s mother, which Smith’s defense argued was a missed opportunity to challenge her credibility. However, Schlax claims it was Smith who made that request.
“This was definitely a case that if we were going to be successful, we were going to have to get hopefully one or more jurors to believe in Mr. Smith,” Schlax said. “Me fighting with Mrs. Perrywinkle was not going to move in that direction at all.”
Another argument is whether a forensic psychologist should have been called upon during the original trial by the defense, because she made damaging statements that hurt the defense’s case. That forensic psychologist is being called upon Wednesday, as Smith returns to court.
***Watch day two of Smith’s evidentiary hearing in the above video player at 10 a.m.***
