JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The video above is from a prior related story.
The mother of a Jacksonville girl who was kidnapped from a Northside Walmart, raped and murdered was incredulous to learn her killer wants a new trial.
Donald Smith, 66, was convicted in 2018 of killing of 8-year-old Cherish Perrywinkle in 2013 and sentenced to death. He chose to not to call a single witness to refute the charges against him, and a jury found him guilty after just 12 minutes of deliberation.
But attorneys for Smith filed an appeal of his conviction. A recent filing in the case lists 12 reasons he deserves a new trial, including an allegedly biased juror and inappropriate arguments by prosecutors.
"Donald Smith knew Florida to be a death penalty state and still carried out his darkest fantasies, slipping through the cracks too many times, laughing in the eyes of the law," Cherish's mom, Rayne, said in a statement to First Coast News.
"I applaud all of the jurors and what they had to endure while contemplating the fate of Donald Smith. There was nothing biased in the finality of their decision to see that Donald Smith be put to death. Let the punishment fit the crime."
Smith is due back in court in June.
Rayne Perrywinkle's full statement to First Coast News is below:
It's unbelievable to imagine once someone has been convicted of a crime so heinous and DNA proven beyond all reasonable doubt, there is no possibility of another trial.
But it happens, unfortunately.
Donald Smith is ranked as one of the most dangerous sexual offenders, a predator who should never have seen the light of day again.
Exactly twenty-one days after his release from jail, he made it a primary goal to find a child to inflict upon unimaginable suffering. That child being my eight year old daughter Cherish.
On the night of Friday June 21, 2013, while shopping in Walmart, Donald Smith waited until I was distracted by my two younger children, before luring Cherish out of the store with the promise of cheeseburgers.
She was never seen alive again. JSO knew who this man was. They were said to have visited him that morning at his mother's house. The public has a right to be informed of the whereabouts of sexual offenders should they be released into society.
Donald Smith knew Florida to be a death penalty state and still carried out his darkest fantasies, slipping through the cracks too many times, laughing in the eyes of the law.
I applaud all of the jurors and what they had to endure while contemplating the fate of Donald Smith. There was nothing biased in the finality of their decision to see that Donald Smith be put to death.
Let the punishment fit the crime.
