JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – After hearing both sides Monday during a status conference from the state in the defense for and against an evidentiary hearing for Donald Smith — the judge agreed that one should be granted.
Donald Smith’s new defense team argued in court that there were many errors made in his trial that led to the penalty phase where he was sentenced to death.
However, the state argued that even if those errors were made, the evidence was overwhelming that Donald Smith had murdered 8-year-old Cherish Perrywinkle and it would not have impacted the outcome of him getting the death penalty.
A new status hearing was set for Oct.17 and the evidentiary hearing is scheduled for December.
Back in May, the State Attorney’s Office filed a response to the motion for a new trial for the man convicted of killing 8-year-old Cherish Perrywinkle, arguing it should be “summarily denied.”
Investigators found that Donald Smith abducted Perrywinkle by luring her into his van at a Northside Walmart in 2013. Smith was later arrested on Interstate 95 shortly before her body was found in a creek.
Smith has been in prison since 2018 and his new attorneys argued that he should have a new trial because his previous attorneys for the trial didn’t remove a juror who was biased.
A 78-page appeal was filed in April by lawyers for Smith, who was sentenced to death after the case took five years to go to trial. The appeal cited multiple things in his trial that he argues invalidate his original conviction, including:
- Claims his lawyer “was ineffective for failing to identify, interrogate and strike a biased juror.”
- Also claims that his lawyer didn’t do a good enough job over things like “failure to object to the 911 call” and “failure to object to digitally altered photographs”
- Critical of mental health expert who testified that Smith was “the most dangerous pedophile she had ever met”
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A status conference hearing is scheduled for Oct. 17 and the evidentiary hearing will be Dec. 4.