Florida executed Andrew Richard Lukehart by lethal injection Tuesday at Florida State Prison in Raiford. File photo by Ulises Rodriguez
Authorities in Florida executed a Jacksonville, Fla., man Tuesday for the 1996 murder of his girlfriend’s 5-month-old daughter.
Andrew Richard Lukehart, 53, died by lethal injection Tuesday evening at Florida State Prison in Raiford after the state Supreme Court rejected his final appeal for a stay of execution, First Coast News reported.
Het was the eighth person in Florida to be executed this year.
Lukehart was on Florida’s death row for nearly 30 years. In 1996, he struck 5-month-old Gabrielle Hanshaw in the head at least five times, fracturing her skull and killing her before dumping her body in a nearby body of water, but told investigators someone had abducted her from his car. He later led police to her body after a widespread search, USA Today reported.
At the time of the murder, Lukehart was on probation after pleading guilty to the 1994 beating of a different girlfriend’s 8-month-old daughter. That child suffered injuries that included a fractured skull and a broken arm, leg and ribs. Lukehart served 10 months in jail for the crime.
In his trial for Gabrielle Hanshaw’s murder, Lukehart said he didn’t intend to kill the baby and that her death was an accident.
A jury found him guilty of first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse and voted 9-3 to sentence him to death, First Coast News reported. Florida law changes later required a unanimous vote for death sentences, but that was revised again in 2023, putting Lukehart back on death row.
Lukehart had challenged the sentence, saying that death by lethal injection would be “cruel and unusual” punishment for him because of his kidney disease, USA Today reported. He was the 15th inmate to be executed in the United States this year.
