Jurors in Escambia County, Florida will decide the fate of convicted murderer Donald Hartung, 63. He was found guilty on January 29 of killing his mother Voncile Smith, 77, and his half brothers John William Smith, 49, and Richard Thomas Smith, 47.
Prosecutors said he attacked them at Voncile Smith’s home on July 28, 2015 because the mother cut him out of the inheritance. In her will, she said it wasn’t out of “lack of love” but because he could fend for himself financially, according to the prosecution. The victims’ bodies were discovered after Richard Smith, a Department of Homeland Security employee, didn’t show up to work.
#HartungTrial – Donald Hartung was brought in for a police interview on July 31, 2015, the day the bodies were found. He says he was at that house on July 28, cooked dinner, as he normally did on Tuesdays, and left between 5;30-6pm. He said he left before Richard Smith got home pic.twitter.com/XIGEK3Bb9z
— Law & Crime Network (@LawCrimeNetwork) January 23, 2020
The defense said there’s no evidence that Hartung hated his family, or knew he was cut out of the will. Prosecutors brought up jailhouse informant Marlin Devon Purifoy, who testified that the defendant confessed the murders to him in great detail. Hartung’s lawyer Sharon K. Wilson subjected him to an aggressive cross-examination and suggested that the witness–serving a 30-year sentence for attempting to kill a girlfriend by using a hammer–was just trying to get a lighter punishment, and had learned about details of the case from Hartung’s discovery papers.
Jurors sided with the prosecution. Now the defendant faces the death penalty.
#HartungTrial – Donald Hartung, Sr. now faces the possibility of the death penalty. He had no visible reaction to the verdict. pic.twitter.com/Z1bhdmY04m
— Law & Crime Network (@LawCrimeNetwork) January 29, 2020
[Screengrab via Law&Crime Network]
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