Gary M Hilton receives the death penalty
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – After an hour of deliberations, a jury unanimously recommended Monday that Gary Michael Hilton, the drifter found guilty in the 2007 slaying of a nurse whose beheaded body was found in a national forest, should get the death penalty.
Circuit Judge James C. Hankinson said he will give “great weight” to the jury’s recommendation.
Hilton was found guilty last week of killing 46-year-old Cheryl Dunlap, a Sunday School teacher and Florida State University nurse, who was found dismembered in a national forest in the Florida Pandhandle, where the 64-year-old drifter used to camp.
“We are extremely pleased with the death verdict and even more so that it was unanimous. Obviously the jury saw what needed to be done to bring justice and that’s what Mr. Hilton got today and Ms. Dunlap and her family got,” prosecutor Georgia Cappleman told CBS affiliate WCTV as she left the courtroom.
State Attorney Willie Meggs said he was surprised by the unanimous verdict, but said if there were ever a case for it, this was it.
I hope that this is not another killer that gets to stay on death row for years and years.
Real Life Monsters 