A drifter convicted of killing a Florida Sunday School teacher and leaving her beheaded body in a national forest has been officially sentenced to death. Gary Michael Hilton was convicted in February of killing, kidnapping and robbing Cheryl Dunlap, 46.The judge followed the recommendation of the Tallahassee jury which voted unanimously to recommend the death penalty.
Dunlap, a nurse from Crawfordville, was found by a hunter in the Apalachicola National Forest near one of Hilton's known campsites. Investigators said he removed her head in an attempt to conceal her identity if her body was discovered.
Hilton apparently had a pattern of preying on people in national forest sites. He is under a life sentence in Georgia for the death of 24-year-old Meredith Emerson who was hiking in the north Georgia mountains. She was also decapitated.
He remains a suspect in the deaths of an elderly couple killed in North Carolina in a National Forest, but he has not been charged.
Florida authorities said Hilton is suspected in another Florida death.
See Also:
Death for Drifter Convicted in Fla. Forest Slaying
Background:
The Gary Michael Hilton Case
Forum:
Discuss The Emerson Case
Photo: Mug Shot
Comments
If ever anyone deserves the death penalty this narcissistic sociopath clearly does. You can understand homocide in the heat of an argument, but this joker killed repeatedly, simply because he needed money. “I was down to $40 so someone had to die.
Allergic to work, dirt bag? Heres hoping he has an exceptionally painful stay in prison (don’t drop the soap, loser) before hes put to death.