Daniel Zirkle was executed by the State of Virginia for a double murder
According to court documents Daniel Zirkle was upset with his ex girlfriend and after getting out of jail would head over to her home. The woman was not home however her fourteen year old daughter Jessica Shifflett was babysitting Zirkle daughter four year old Christina Zirkle.
Daniel Zirkle attempted to take Christina from the home however Jessica would stop him and Zirkle would stab the teen in the neck before fleeing with Christina. David would call Christina mother to tell her to “Live in hell, bitch.” before fatally stabbing the four year old and attempting to kill himself. Jessica would die from her injuries
Daniel Zirkle would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Daniel Zirkle would be executed by lethal injection on April 2 2002
Daniel Zirkle Photos
Daniel Zirkle FAQ
When Was Daniel Zirkle Executed
Daniel Zirkle was executed on April 2 2002
Daniel Zirkle Case
Daniel Lee Zirkle apologized for killing his 4-year-old daughter and her 14-year-old half-sister before he was executed for his crimes. Sitting stiffly inside the witness box and fighting back tears Tuesday night, the best friend of the girls’ mother clutched pins with the children’s pictures and watched their killer die. The woman, who asked to be identified only as Lisa, said she volunteered to witness on behalf of Barbara Jo Shifflett, the victims’ mother.
Zirkle, 33, died by injection at the Greensville Correctional Center at 9:07 p.m. after apologizing to “everyone who’s been hurt in this tragedy that I’ve had.” Accompanied by a spiritual adviser, Zirkle walked into the death chamber shortly before 9 p.m. looking pale and shaking slightly but otherwise calm. He was strapped to a gurney and thanked his family, his lawyers and his preacher for their support. “I want my soulmate Gracie to know that I love her with all of my heart and soul and I will always be with her,” he added before receiving his first dose of the lethal drugs. “Thank you, Jesus,” he said before exhaling deeply and then going still.
Zirkle killed his daughter, Christina, in Page County on Aug. 2, 1999. Earlier that day, he stabbed to death Jessica L. Shifflett, 14, in neighboring Rockingham County. Zirkle and Barbara Jo Shifflett, the mother of both girls, had lived together in Rockingham for about six years, until April 1999. On Aug. 2, 1999, Zirkle had just been released from jail for violating a protective order by assaulting Shifflett. A Rockingham jail inmate testified that Zirkle said he was “going to take care of all three of them when he got out of there. If he couldn’t have them, nobody else would. He said he was going to kill them, all three.”
While Shifflett was at work, Zirkle went to her house, stabbed Jessica and took Christina to an overlook on Storybook Trail in Page County, where he stabbed the child to death and cut his own throat. Zirkle admitted killing both girls and asked for the death sentence at both trials. He also refused to let his lawyers present mitigating evidence. He was sentenced to death for the capital murders of both girls, and he received a third death sentence for killing within three years of committing another murder–his daughter. Zirkle did not appeal his sentence.
He was the second person executed this year in Virginia and the 85th since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed states to resume capital punishment in 1976.
