Richard Henyard was executed by the State of Florida for the murders of two young children
According to court documents Richard Henyard and his fourteen year old accomplice Alfonza Smalls would carjack a vehicle with a mother and two small children inside. The vehicle was driven to a remote location where the mother was sexually assaulted in front of her daughters. The mother would be shot multiple times however she would survive
Richard Henyard and Alfonza Smalls would drive off with the two small children, 7-year-old Jamilya Lewis and her 3-year-old sister, Jasmine, still in the vehicle. The children would be dragged outside of the home and executed
Richard Henyard and Alonzo Smalls would be arrested and convicted
Alfonza Smalls because of his age was sentenced to seven life sentences
Richard Henyard would be sentenced to death. Henyard was executed on September 23 2008
Richard Henyard Photos
Alfonza Smalls Photos
Richard Henyard FAQ
When Was Richard Henyard Executed
Richard Henyard was executed on September 23 2008
Where Is Alfonza Smalls Now
Alfonza Smalls is incarcerated at Hardee Correctional Institute
Richard Henyard Case
Lake County child killer Richard Henyard lived two hours and six minutes longer than scheduled. But in the end Tuesday he died a more peaceful death than his victims, 7-year-old Jamilya Lewis and her 3-year-old sister, Jasmine. Terrified after their mother, Dorothy Lewis, was shot, raped and left for dead Jan. 30, 1993, the girls died after being shot in the head at close range.
Gov. Charlie Crist held up the execution by lethal injection while awaiting a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court on a last-ditch appeal. After word came that the appeal had been denied, Henyard, 34, of Eustis was asked if he had any last words. “No, sir,” he said. He was pronounced dead at 8:16 p.m.
“Taking the life of Mr. Henyard is not going to revive my daughters,” Dorothy Lewis, who did not attend the execution at Florida State Prison, said in a statement read by her husband, Hugh Brockington. “I do not consider this event as a joyous occasion, and I am sorry that this execution had to take place. But Romans 6:23 clearly states, ‘The wages of sin is death . . . I pray that Mr. Henyard had enough sense to ask God to forgive him of his sins.”
Henyard’s lips moved for two minutes after the lethal mixture of chemicals was administered. Gretl Plessinger, spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections, said she assumed Henyard was praying because his spiritual adviser, a Muslim cleric from Jacksonville, had inquired about the procedure earlier in the day. Henyard had become a Muslim while in prison, Plessinger said.
He was 18 when he and a 14-year-old accomplice, Alfonza Smalls, carjacked and kidnapped Lewis and her daughters from the parking lot of the Winn-Dixie in Eustis. Lewis and her girls had gone to shop for ingredients to make a strawberry-pretzel salad for a church picnic.
Henyard, who had stolen the gun that Smalls carried in his waistband, wanted a car to drive to a dance club in Orlando and then to visit his father in Pahokee. He and Smalls drove the mother, now 51, and her frightened children to Hicks Ditch Road, where the two teens took turns raping Lewis on the trunk of the car in view of her daughters. Henyard then suddenly shot the mother. She was shot four times — once in the middle of the forehead. Lewis quietly prayed to Jesus, but Henyard said: “This ain’t Jesus; this is Satan.”
As Circuit Judge Mark Hill wrote in an order denying Henyard a new hearing, “Miraculously, for there is no better word to describe it, Ms. Lewis survived and when she gained consciousness several hours later, [she] dragged herself to a house for help . . . Meanwhile, Henyard and Smalls continued on their nightmarish joy ride with the children in the back seat. The little girls were crying and calling out for their mommy.”
Both children were shot in the head by someone who stood less than four feet away and faced them. Jasmine’s eyes were wide open when she was shot, a forensic examination showed. Henyard has denied shooting them. Smalls, ineligible for the death penalty because of his age at the time of the murders, is serving eight consecutive life sentences in prison. Henyard’s appellate lawyers argued that Smalls has boasted he was the killer. But prosecutors contend Henyard shot the girls.
In his failed, final-day appeal — a hand-written, civil-rights complaint filed in federal court in Jacksonville — Henyard assailed the state’s lethal-injection protocol, arguing that the lack of training and absence of medical personnel in the execution “will likely cause me to suffer cruel and unusual punishment.” The delay in carrying out the sentence was believed to be the longest at the last minute without a stay being granted. During the wait, he was taken back to his death-watch cell and told that the Supreme Court was considering his case. “He was praying, he was deep in thought,” Plessinger said.
When the time finally came, he lay on a gurney, arms spread apart, with only his head and left arm visible to 28 witnesses including 10 media members, Brockington — who serves as co-pastor with his wife at a Marion County church — and Eustis Deputy Police Chief R.A. Robinson. Brockington thanked law enforcement and the Eustis Police Department in particular, noting that the agency has remained close to Lewis’ family through the long ordeal.
The execution attracted 70 death-penalty protesters, said Mark Elliott, executive director of the Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. Henyard’s godmother, Jacquelyn Turner of Mount Dora, who visited him Friday, broke down when told Henyard was dead. “He’s out of his misery,” she said through tears.
Henyard’s final meal consisted of two fried-chicken breasts, turkey sausage, fried rice, prison-made chocolate-chip cookies and Coca-Cola. He ate most of it, Plessinger said.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/lake/orl-henyard2408sep24,0,2304263.story
