Man Kidnaps Girl, Rapes Her Until Privates Destroyed — It Gets Worse

Donald Smith kidnapped, raped and murdered 8-year-old Cherish Perrywinkle. He lured the girl’s family to Walmart, then left with her alone. The medical examiner’s report was so graphic that it is difficult to read, let alone hear, and it is clear that this man is absolutely disgusting. But, if you can believe it, the situation gets worse, leaving one simple question: Does Donald Smith deserve the death penalty for the rape and murder of Cherish?

Cherish Perrywinkle of Jacksonville, Florida, disappeared from a local Walmart in June 2013, and her case quickly made national headlines. According to Rayne Perrywinkle, the child’s mother, she and her three daughters, including 8-year-old Cherish, were out shopping when a stranger changed their lives forever.

Struggling financially, the mother said she thought Donald Smith, then 56, was the blessing she needed when he approached her and offered to help. Little did she know that his ‘nice’ gesture was just a front to get what he really wanted, and it would lead to a mother’s worst nightmare.

After watching the mother struggle to pay for her children’s outfits at a Dollar General discount store, according to Fox News, Smith was able to lure the family to Walmart, gaining their trust with promises of new clothes and a McDonald’s meal at the store. Unfortunately, Rayne allowed Cherish to accompany Smith to get food after she helped the mother and her daughters buy the clothes, but her daughter would never return from the McDonald’s restaurant in front of the store.

When Rayne realized Cherish was missing with the stranger, she frantically called 911, but it was too late. Cherish’s body was found the next day outside a church. Not only was the innocent girl kidnapped and murdered, but she was also raped – the details of which a court had to hear when Donald Smith was captured and put on trial for kidnapping, sexual assault and first-degree murder. Be warned, the graphic nature of the crime is difficult to even read.

“I was screaming, ‘Call 911!’ » Rayne said, talking about the moment she realized Cherish was missing. “My daughter was kidnapped and no one wanted to help me right away,” she added. Little did she know what hell Cherish was facing during those times – a hell the medical examiner was able to describe in court when she was asked to testify at the trial of then 61-year-old Donald Smith. In great detail, she described the torture Cherish faced in her final moments.

The court grew emotional as the medical examiner recalled the graphic autopsy of the raped and murdered 8-year-old girl, and it was enough to turn your stomach. According to testimony from Jacksonville’s chief medical examiner, Dr. Valerie Rao, Cherish’s genitals were “totally deformed” due to the cruelty of the rape. Additionally, Smith strangled the child to death with a piece of clothing while raping her, while her right eye bled from the force of the strangulation.

The forensic doctor recalled finding serious injuries all over the child’s body following her strangulation with clothing and her rape and added that the girl’s body was “totally deformed” due to the trauma as jurors cried and covered their eyes, according to courtroom sources.

She estimated it took 3 to 5 minutes for the child, who also suffered blunt force trauma to the head, to die, News from the First Coast Journalist Anne Schindler live-tweeted the trial.

Rao continued his heartbreaking testimony, adding that the child’s right eye began to bleed while he was being strangled and also revealed that Cherish tried to fight back, injuring Smith’s penis.

Hearing his testimony, the jurors were also in tears. As if listening to the testimony wasn’t difficult enough, the court viewed photographs of the child’s body, leading even Rao to get teary-eyed and ask her to take a break.

However, not everyone was moved and not everyone appreciated the compassion Rao displayed. In fact, Smith’s defense urged the judge to declare a mistrial, arguing that the medical examiner’s emotional reaction could produce bias among jurors. Fortunately, Judge Mallory Cooper denied the motion.

The jury had already heard secret prison recordings in which State Attorney Melissa Nelson says Smith can be heard bragging about the crime. “She had a lot of it for a white girl,” he was heard telling another inmate on the tape, allegedly referring to his 8-year-old victim’s butt. He was also heard telling his fellow inmate that he targets 12-year-old girls.

Surprisingly, this was just one of dozens of times Smith was arrested over the past 40 years, and doctors had already determined he was a sexually violent predator after arrests in 1999. At least three of the Smith’s previous accusations have led to sexual accusations. convictions for sexual abuse and he is on the Florida sex offender registry. Worse still, Smith had just been released from prison just three weeks before he kidnapped, murdered and raped Cherish.

After closing arguments were presented, the case was submitted to the jury for deliberations. If guilty, prosecutors asked jurors to sentence Smith to death. The jury ruled in favor of the prosecution, not only convicting the rapist and child killer, but also unanimously recommending that Donald Smith be executed for his crimes against Cherish Perrywinkle.