@ActionNewsJax, Detective explains a confidential informant said #DonaldSmith was speaking to another inmate using air vents at the jail @ActionNewsJax, DNA expert says the DNA found on Cherish matches #DonaldSmith @ActionNewsJax, Lee is explaining to the jury #DonaldSmith DNA profile. @ActionNewsJax, Defense is not presenting any witnesses. The swift guilty. This article contains information regarding the autopsy of the victim and manner of her death. Rayne is heard saying in the call. Nelson said that the childs last five hours alive were torturous. He gagged her, raped her, he sodomized her, then he strangled her. The man, later identified as Smith, first offered to buy the moma dress. That day was not a normal day for Cherish Perrywinkle in the sense that she was due to fly to California the next morning to spend the summer with her father. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. @ActionNewsJax, Bruton getting emotional when he begins talking about the stroller. For the DNA that was collected from Cherishs neck, Lee says it was a match to Smith. @ActionNewsJax pic.twitter.com/JtVFWHPQPu, Dr. Walerie Rao is the chief medical examiner in Duval County. When Rayne and her three girls were inside the van, Don drove to Walmart which was a ten minute drive away to meet his wife. Rayne Perrywinkle, the victim's mother, also testified in court today. There was blunt force trauma to her head and ligature marks around her neck. Post-mortem reports found severe injuries and contusions all over her body, and concluded that the eight-year-old had been strangled with a piece of clothing after being tortured and raped. Smith had prior arrests for sex crimes in 1977, 1992, and 2009. . Cherish Perrywinkle: What You Need to Know As CrimeOnline previously reported , On June 21, 2013, a man approached a single, struggling mother, Reyne Perrywinkle, at the Dollar General store on Edgewood Avenue West in Jacksonville. Last year, video was released by the State's Attorney Office in Florida, US, showing horrifying CCTV footage where Cherish is approached, along with her mother and sisters, by Smith at a Walmart in Jacksonville, northeastern Florida. LIVE STREAM: Click the video feed below for live video updates from court: NOTE: At certain times, the audio will be muted to protect the identity of undercover police officers. #DonaldSmith has not turned around to look Cherish's autopsy photos, he is not looking at photos of himself either. Medical Examiner and forensic pathologist Valerie Rao took the witness stand in Cherish's murder trial on Tuesday and talked clinically about the extensive list of injuries she sustained. There was nosign of Don or Cherish. Dress that Cherish Perrywinkle was last see in is shown to the jury @FCN2go #DonaldSmith pic.twitter.com/cI1MGK48n0. [Photo: Florida Department of Law Enforcement]. A recording was played for the jury. Sign up forOxygen Insiderfor all the best true crime content. The mother said she hoped very much that his intentions were genuine and that he just wanted to help. It was something the entire city of Jacksonville was concerned about given that it was a child., Jurors are understandably becoming agitated and silently upset while looking at the injuries sustained to Cherish's body. #DonaldSmith @FCN2go pic.twitter.com/IqHaXOp8UO. On Monday, State Attorney Melissa Nelson described the horrible manner in which 8-year-old. He has pleaded not guilty. He has pleaded not guilty. Smith, the man accused. 2023 Chilling Crimes. When Cherishs body was brought to the Medical Examiners Office, Rao says the conducted a sexual assault kit, where a lot of evidence was collected. It's all part of thesecond day of the trial of Donald Smith, the man who's accused oftaking the girl from her family at a Northside Walmart,raping her, and leaving her dead in water near a church. Check out never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! Police were familiar with Don. She spent around 20 minutessearching Walmart, McDonalds and the car park. The blunt reasons some potential jurors are not being selected in the trial for the man accused of raping, killing 8yr-old Cherish Perrywinkle.. @ 5p @wjxt4 https://t.co/qSdMRzwH4b pic.twitter.com/A8SlpT0X4w, Joy Purdy (@WJXTJoyPurdy) February 7, 2018. Shed been badly beaten, raped, and murdered. Rayne said Smith told her that his wife would meet them at Walmart. Death row inmate . Oxygen Insider is your all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more. Rao could not determine what exactly was used, but she determined the bruise pattern was wide, and generally consistent with an article of clothing, like a t-shirt. ", by Chilling Crimes On June 21, 2013, eight-year-old Cherish Perrywinkle of Jacksonville, Florida, was abducted from her neighborhood Walmart while shopping with her mother and a stranger who offered to buy them clothes. The Supreme Court will hear arguments Wednesday in an appeal by Smith, whose attorney contends, in part, that the trial should have been . ", by Chilling Crimes The next day, the full autopsy was performed. Rao says she also examined Smith at the Police Memorial Building, and he had injuries to his penis which related to trauma and were consistent with the timing of Cherishs death. Wu said that the characteristics of Smith's brain, post-injuries, show a tendency to become fixated on something. @ActionNewsJax. Around three hundred potential jurors filed into the Jacksonville courtroom this week, where they were shown an up-close photo of a little girl with big brown eyes. This week kicked off the trial for the Florida man accused of kidnapping, raping and murdering Perrywinkle. Even Rao had to ask the court for a brief recess during her testimony. In secret jailhouse videos, Donald Smith blames 8-year-old Cherish Perrywinkle for her murder, schemes with his mother to fake a mental illness and gloats about his rank among the world's most. Around the same time, officers received a tip that a suspicious van was seen aroundBroward Road. #DonaldSmith can be heard saying this to another inmate about a girl at the jail @ActionNewsJax, #DonaldSmith can be heard saying they're about 12, 13. Jury selection for the case that shocked the Jacksonville community and the nation is schedule to begin on February 12. January 25, 2022, "The effects of abuse are devastating and far reaching. There were extensive swabs taken in an effort to match DNA to a suspect, and Nicole Lee, with the Florida Department of Law Enforcements Regional Crime Lab in Jacksonville, says many of those samples did- in fact- point to Smith. Lee is now explaining the analysis she did of #DonaldSmith's DNA. Cherish sustained a hemorrhage to her head, indicative of blunt force trauma, but not enough to end her young life. The state and defense have rested in the case against Donald Smith on Day 2 of his murder trial. It is clear from the 911 call that she didn't trust Donald, she had a strange feeling about him and her instant fear when she couldn't find Cherish was that she would be raped and murdered. Cherish Perrywinkle Case: D by Leigh Egan As CrimeOnline previously reported, a jury unanimously decided in 2018 that Smith would receive death for the kidnapping, rape, and murder of Cherish.. Donald Smith is led from the courtroom after being found guilty of all charges in the abduction, rape and murder of Cherish Perrywinkle, in the Duval County courtroom of Judge Mallory Cooper . This is the dress that was worn by 8-year-old Cherish Perrywinkle when she was killed. The June 2013 murder of Cherish Perrywinkle drew huge amounts of news coverage and public attention in Jacksonville, with a jury in 2018 finding Donald James Smith guilty and a judge sending him . Fugitive in $18 million COVID fraud scheme extradited to U.S. U.S. requests extradition of drug kingpin's son, Mexico says, 8-year-old Florida girl who was abducted, raped and murdered. The evidence in this case was overwhelming. It takes a person anywhere from three to five minutes to die from being asphyxiated to death. Don told Rayne he would getcheeseburgers in McDonalds. I need just 5 minutes @FCN2go #donaldSmith. It is up to the rest of us to take an even harder look at who is minding our children. Defense attorney holds up picture of Cherish Perrywinkle, reminds that this trial will be "emotional, gut-wrenching" @wjxt4 pic.twitter.com/0rXEVvyDG6, Chris Parenteau (@WJXTChris) February 9, 2018. February 13, 2018 / 12:38 PM At times she fought back tears while speaking about the last hours of her daughters life in 2013. His DNA was found on and inside Cherish's body and Cherish's DNA was found on his penis. @ActionNewsJax, DNA expert identifies slides she prepared from the rape kit taken in Cherish's case. As CrimeOnline previously reported,OnJune 21, 2013,a man approached a single, struggling mother,Reyne Perrywinkle, at the Dollar General store onEdgewood Avenue West in Jacksonville. @ActionNewsJax, Lee has worked with FDLE for 20 years. Cherish was just eight years old andlived with her mother Rayne, Rayne's boyfriend and Cherish's two younger sisters in Jacksonville in Florida. To follow live onTwitter, please follow Bridgette Matter at @BridgetteANjax, LATEST: Graphic testimony details moments before Cherish Perrywinkle's death. At this stage , it had started to rain so Rayne had two choices - she could walk home in the rain or take a lift with Don to Walmart to buy some clothes for the girls. Cherish's half-naked body, still wearing the same orange dress she is seen wearing at Walmart, was found in front of a church the next day. In a desperate call to police, the girl's mother revealed how she fears the worst has happened to her daughter. The cashier later confirmed he saw themtalking in the car park for around 15-20 minutes. Lee says semen was found in Cherishs mouth, vagina, and rectum, and other DNA was recovered from around her neck. He strangled her with such force her eyeballs bled, Nelson said. It would have seemed like a natural thingto do as she had already travelled in that van to Walmart. They obtained surveillance footage from Walmart and watched Smith exiting the store with Cherish following closely behind. A verdict could come as early as tomorrow in the case against the man charged with kidnapping, raping, and killing a local 8-year-old girl. Your browser does not support HTML5 audio. He then offered to buy the mother a $100 gift card andsomehow convinced her to ride with him to pick up the card at a nearby Walmart. The force used to smother her was enough to make her nose and gums bleed. People at Walmart would not have been concerned either. Cherish had been strangled with such force that her eyeballs bled-the blood vessels burst in her throat, face and eyes. It was a child that was abducted, it was something that the entire City of Jacksonville was concerned about, she says. She had a gutfeeling from the very moment she met Donald that something wasn't right but she pushed it to one side and tried to convince herself that a trip to Walmart would be worth it. At around 7.30pm thatevening, Rayne took Cherish and her two sisters to the DollarGeneralStore on Edgewood Avenue. Todays testimony was clearly difficult for some of the jurors, with many openly shedding tears as the autopsy photos were put in front of them. It did not present any witnesses before resting its case shortly after the state. However, they never returned. The state and defense have rested in thecase against Donald Smith on Day 2 of his murder trial. At that point, Rayne had no idea that there was a man watching her every move. @ActionNewsJax, #DonaldSmith says he wishes NOT to testify. He had just been released from prison some three weeks earlier. A Florida man who was convicted of kidnapping, raping and killing 8-year-old Cherish Perrywinkle has been sentenced to death for first degree murder and sexual battery convictions. The force used during the strangulation was so strong that Cherish suffered skin abrasions as well. I already know hes going to rape her.. Create your free profile and get access to exclusive content. "In fact, hers was a brutal and tortured death.". The injuries that poor kid suffered was absolutely horrific and as you said, don't go googling details of . Doctor Valerie Rao performed the autopsy of 8-year-old Cherish Perrywinkle back in 2013, and today, she walked jurors through photos and details of her findings regarding the child's death. The defense called for a mistrial over the interruption in testimony, but the judge denied the motion,Matter tweeted. Live feed will be back after he is done. I dont want him to kill her. @ActionNewsJax, Perrywinkle was the 1,034 case that arrived at the medical examiners office. @ActionNewsJax, In openings Melissa Nelson told jurors that Smith made comments about a group of girls in the jail. The man struck up a conversation with Rayne outside the store. It took a Jacksonville jury less than 15 minutes to find Donald James Smith, 61, guilty of kidnapping, raping and murdering 8-year-old Cherish Perrywinkle in Florida in 2013. There was just one problem with that though. DNA other than Cherishs could not be detected in the oral swab. Photos of injuries police say Smith suffered the night of the kidnapping and surveillance video that shows Smith walking out of a Walmart on Lem Turner Road with Cherish will also be allowed to be shown as evidence, Judge Mallory Cooper ruled. Example video title will go here for this video. Sentencing will occur during thetrials penalty phase, should Smith be found guilty. Police went to the area and looked for water. Smith had been released from prison just 21 days before he abducted and murdered the little girl and had been on the sex offenders register since 1993. Learn about careers at Cox Media Group. Prior Arrest . Her intuition was warning her about Donald. . 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