Jury decision imminent in 2002 Jacksonville triple murder case

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The life of a Jacksonville man who murdered his ex-girlfriend, her teenage daughter and her new boyfriend is expected to be in the hands of a jury Thursday morning.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys presented their closing arguments to the jury on whether Pinkney Carter, 69, should live or die for the 2002 murders. Carter was convicted years ago, but due to changes in death penalty laws, his sentence will now be retried.

This means that the families of the victims of Carter's murder will be reliving the crime and the trial proceedings, including seeing photographs of their loved ones' bodies shown in court and hearing testimony from family members about the night of the murders.

Prosecutors say Elizabeth Reed was murdered by her ex-boyfriend after the relationship ended. Carter also shot Reed's 16-year-old daughter, Courtney Smith, and her boyfriend, Glen Pafford, in the Arlington home where prosecutors say Carter also lived.

“Three innocent victims were murdered and three children were left without a mother,” said Bernardo Enrique De La Rionda of the 4th District Prosecutor's Office.

The prosecution assumes that Carter planned the murders and that his motive is clear.

“I ask you to go back in time and look at what this man did,” said De La Rionda. “Every victim was shot in the head! None of his shots missed!”

The defense disagrees and says the act was neither planned nor cold-blooded and calculated.

“This was a hot-blooded murder motivated by jealousy, not anger,” said defense attorney Alan Chipperfield. “And it wasn't cold-blooded. It wasn't a premeditated thought process. It was hot-blooded.”

The defense told the jury a different version of events.

“There was an accidental shooting in a scuffle with Courtney Smith,” Chipperfield said. “And then there was an absolutely horrific, wrong, horrific response after two more people were shot.”

The judge ordered the jury to return at 8:30 a.m. Thursday for instructions, after which they would deliberate and decide whether Carter should live.