Emilia Carr and Joshua Fulgham waived their right to a speedy trial during their arraignment for murder in April 2009. Prosecutor Rock Hooker immediately filed notice of his intent to pursue the death penalty because of the heinous nature of the crime.[9] In November 2009, State Circuit Judge Willard Pope declined Emilia Carr's request for a continuance of the trial because of her concerns over the preparedness of defense attorney Candace Hawthorne.[8] A jury found Carr guilty of first-degree murder and kidnapping after two and a half hours of deliberations on December 7, 2010.[11] During the penalty phase of the trial, Carr's family testified on her behalf that she had been traumatized since her early childhood by sexual abuse from her father and grandfather.[6] However, the jury voted 7-to-5 on December 10 in favor of the death penalty for Carr.[14][15] She was formally sentenced to death by lethal injection on February 22, 2011.[1]
More than a year after Carr's conviction for the murder of Heather Strong, her co-defendant Joshua Fulgham went on trial for his alleged participation in the murder in April 2012. Carr, on death row at the Lowell Correctional Institution Annex,[16] would not testify at the trial. The prosecution detailed the gruesome aspects of the crime. Both the prosecution and Fulgham's defense attorneys agreed that the motives for Heather Strong's murder were jealousy and betrayal.[17] At the conclusion of his trial, Fulgham was convicted of first-degree murder and kidnapping.[2] Despite the death sentence of his co-defendant, Joshua's jury voted 8-to-4 to sentence him to life in prison with a chance of parole and the judge followed the jury's recommendation.[3]
Carr was placed in the annex at Lowell Correctional Institution in Marion County on February 23, 2011. She is one of five women on death row in Florida, the other four being Tiffany Cole, Margaret Allen, Ana Marie Cardona and Tina Brown. Carr also became the first woman to be sentenced to death in Marion County since the 1992 sentencing of Aileen Wuornos.
See also