JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Jacksonville triple murderer is set to be resentenced for his death penalty phase Thursday.
In 2002, Pinkney Carter killed his ex-girlfriend, 36-year-old Elizabeth Reed, her boyfriend Glenn Pafford, 49, and Courtney Smith, 16, Reed's daughter.
Authorities found Reed and Pafford shot to death at 7029 Barkwood Drive in Arlington on July 24, 2002. Smith later died at a local hospital.
Carter, 69, had been seen prior to the murders climbing Reed's backyard fence, the arrest report said. He fled the state after the shooting.
Carter's pick-up truck was discovered along the Rio Grande River in Escobares, Texas on Aug. 5, 2002 by Border Patrol Agents. Mexican authorities alerted agents that Carter and a Mexican national had previously fled the pick-up truck and crossed the river into Mexico, the report said.
He was later apprehended by the Mexican authorities, who learned Carter disposed of a rifle in the Rio Grande River as he was crossing into Mexico. The firearm, "used in the murders and had been previously purchased by the listed suspect," was recovered, the report stated.
But Mexican authorities had released Carter. He reentered the country and worked as a roofer in Kentucky. He was finally apprehended in Paducah, Kentucky using an alias.
He was returned to Jacksonville on Jan. 8, 2004.
Carter was found guilty in September 2005, with the jury recommending the death penalty for Pafford's murder and Reed's murder, by votes of 9-3 and 8-4, respectively. A judge upheld their recommendation, but Pinkney has to be resentenced due to a since-changed law that requires a unanimous jury vote to sentence someone to death. In 2023, Gov. Ron DeSantis lowered the threshold back to a 8-4 vote.
Carter's appeal was denied in 2015.