A Jacksonville man on Florida’s death row for nearly 30 years has been executed.
The state Supreme Court rejected Andrew Lukehart’s final appeal for a stay, allowing for the 53-year-old to be put to death by lethal injection at 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 2, at Florida State Prison in Raiford. He was pronounced dead at 6:19 p.m.
In 1996 Lukehart inflicted at least five blows to the head of hist girlfriend’s 5-month-old daughter, Gabrielle Hanshaw, then concocted a story that she was abducted before eventually leading authorities to her body in a swampy area. He was on probation for child abuse conviction of a different girlfriend’s 8-month-old daughter in 1994. That child suffered a broken arm, two broken ribs, a broken leg and a fractured skull.
Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty pointed out that evidence presented during Lukehart’s trial showed that he grew up in an abusive and deeply dysfunctional home marked by alcoholism, violence, sexual abuse, mental illness and profound loss. That evidence was significant enough that three jurors voted for a life sentence rather than death.
He becomes Florida’s eighth man on death row to be executed in 2026 and 36th under Gov. Ron DeSantis, including Michael Bell also of Jacksonville last year.
In Gabrielle’s case, Lukehart told police she was abducted from his car after he parked at a convenience store on Normandy Boulevard. He said he was walking toward the store when he heard a noise and turned to see someone fleeing with the baby in a blue Blazer.
He said he chased the Blazer until crashing off County Road 217 in Clay County. As many as 50 officers from Jacksonville and Clay County along with K-9 units, a helicopter and dive team searched the woods and several ponds. Police grew suspicious of Lukehart’s story because it changed several times, and he finally led them to her after about 15 hours into the search.
His girlfriend Misty Rhue had said Lukehart told her a stranger in a blue Blazer kidnapped Gabrielle from their home while he was throwing away a diaper. She said he took off after the abductor and called her saying he was chasing the Blazer.
Lukehart didn’t deny killing the baby during his testimony but said it was an accident. His attorney said if he was guilty of anything, it was negligent manslaughter and not premeditated, a requirement for a first-degree murder conviction.
“There is nothing negligent about five blows to a baby’s head,” then Assistant State Attorney Angela Corey Lee countered.
Jurors found him guilty as charged with first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse. In a 9-3 vote, they chose to punish him with death. Florida law later changed the requirement for execution to be a unanimous jury recommendation. That requirement was rescinded in 2023 when the state ruled an 8-4 jury recommendation was sufficient.
(This is a developing story.)
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: 30 years later, Jacksonville baby killer’s death sentence is fulfilled
Reporting by Scott Butler, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
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