High court upholds death sentences in Panhandle quadruple murder

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - The state Supreme Court rejected the first appeal by a Gulf War veteran sent to death row after fatally shooting his girlfriend and her three young children in their Panhandle home.

In another capital case Thursday, Florida's high court upheld the death sentence given to a man for the murder of a teenager in Land O'Lakes.

Jeffrey Hutchinson, 41, was condemned for the murders of three children ranging in age from 4 to 9 and sentenced to life for the murder of their 32-year-old mother, Renee Flaherty.

Hutchinson and Flaherty lived with the children near Crestview. On Sept. 11, 1998, Hutchinson called 911 after the shootings and told the operator "I just shot my family."

He quickly changed his story and claimed two men wearing ski masks broke into the house and committed the killings.

Hutchinson was diagnosed as suffering from Gulf War Syndrome but the trial judge had rejected defense arguments that he was mentally ill and suffered from alcohol intoxication.

In Thursday's unsigned opinion, the Supreme Court rejected Hutchinson's argument that there were many "mitigating" factors to justify a death sentence and that they outweighed the few "aggravating" factors.

"Hutchinson argues that because he has no history of violence and the multiple murders were domestic in nature, the numerous mitigating factors outweigh the limited aggravation," the Supreme Court wrote.

The court disagreed, adding it has rejected arguments in other cases that fatal domestic disputes are a special category that don't warrant capital punishment.

"This case involves the murders of three defenseless children, all age 9 and under, as well as the murder of their mother," the court wrote.

The factors that support the death sentences carry more weight than the mitigating factors, the justices added.

Justices Charles Wells, R. Fred Lewis and Peggy Quince fully concurred in the majority opinion. Chief Justice Barbara Pariente and Justices Harry Lee Anstead and Raoul Cantero agreed in upholding Hutchinson's convictions and sentences but disagreed on some of the details in the ruling. Justice Kenneth Bell, who was not on the court when the appeal was filed and discussed in oral argument, didn't take part in the decision.

In a second capital case, the court unanimously upheld the sentence and conviction of Faunce Pearce, 42, who is on death row for the murder of 17-year-old Robert Crawford.

Crawford was fatally shot after a drug deal that went sour in Land O'Lakes in 1999.

Another man was also sentenced to death for Crawford's murder but in January the state Supreme Court ordered that Lawrence Smith be resentenced because of a mistake made by the trial judge.

Smith shot Crawford and Stephen Tuttle after the two Land O'Lakes high school students took $1,200 to buy LSD for a friend of Smith's but then returned without the drugs or the money. Tuttle survived.