Hertz, Looney to return for retrial
The two were found guilty of the Spears-King murders 25 years ago, will have a re-do of the death penalty phase of their trial
Guerry Wayne Hertz and Jason Looney
By WILLIAM SNOWDEN Editor
The resentencing of Guerry Wayne Hertz and Jason Looney on murder charges is scheduled to get underway on June 19 with jury selection.
The question before jurors will be whether or not Hertz and Looney should be sentenced to death for the 1997 murders of Melanie King and Keith Spears. At their 1999 trial, Hertz and Looney were found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder and, by a vote of 10-2, the jury recommended death, which was ordered by the court.
(A third man involved in the murders, Jimmy Dempsey, testified against Hertz and Looney at the trial in exchange for a sentence of life in prison.)
The only issue before the jurors will be whether to recommend a death sentence. The guilt of Hertz and Looney is not at issue, and they will never be released from prison even if a jury recommends a life sentence.
In 1999, there was not a requirement in Florida for a unanimous jury verdict for a death sentence. The case was sent back for a re-do of the death penalty phase and has been pending for several years.
In this year’s Legislative session, in response to the lack of a unanimous jury verdict for the death penalty at the trial of Parkland High School shooter Nikolas Cruz, Florida lawmakers changed the standard to an 8-4 vote for death.
Defense attorney Zachary Ward, who represents Hertz, noted at a docket sounding hearing on Wednesday, June 7, that the defense team had anticipated a change in the law on jury verdicts, but had anticipated the law would go into effect on Oct. 1 – which is why the defense had agreed to set the resentencing for June 19. The Florida Legislature made the change in jury verdicts immediate.
Ward argued for a continuance of the hearing until questions about death penalty cases are resolved by the Florida Supreme Court.
Wakulla Chief Prosecutor Jon Fuchs, who is prosecuting the Hertz-Looney case along with Assistant State Attorney Eddie Evans, said a continuance should be denied. “The defense gambled,” Fuchs said, and lost on whether the Wakulla jury would be facing a requirement for a unanimous verdict.
Wakulla Circuit Judge Layne Smith, who is presiding over the resentencing, did not rule immediately on the request for a continuance, but he issued an order denying it the next day.
Much of the June 7 hearing focused on payments for two doctors who examined Hertz and are expected to testify on mitigating factors to be considered by the jury – such as his difficult childhood growing up with deaf parents and learning disabilities.
The clerk’s office will be sending out jury summonses to 300 citizens, with 100 ordered to report on Monday morning, another 100 Monday afternoon, and 100 on Tuesday morning.
The goal is to seat 12 jurors and two alternates for the penalty phase of the trial.
On July 26, 1997, Hertz, Looney, and Dempsey were bored and walking around looking for a way to get to Tallahassee. A woman who lived approximately 500 yards from the Spears-King home said that, at approximately 2 a.m., Hertz came to her home requesting to use her telephone because “his truck had broken down.” She refused and the three men resumed their walk up the road towards the home of King and Spears.
Acting as a decoy, Dempsey and Hertz knocked on the front door and asked if they could use a telephone. King gave them a cordless telephone and Dempsey pretended to make a call. When Dempsey started to hand the phone back to King, Hertz forced his way into the home at gunpoint.
Looney entered after him and targeted Spears with his rifle. King and Spears were forced face down on their bed after being bound and gagged with duct tape. The three defendants stole various items including a television, a VCR, furniture, jewelry, CDs, and $1,500 cash. They loaded the stolen goods into the victims’ two vehicles.
Hertz and Looney decided that they could not leave witnesses and then informed Dempsey of their plan. Dempsey testified that Hertz and Looney poured gasoline throughout the house, after which all three men went back to the bedroom armed. King told the defendants that she would “rather die being burnt up than shot.”
She then stated, “Please, God, don’t shoot me in the head.” Hertz replied, “Sorry, can’t do that,” before he started firing his firearm. Looney started firing and was followed by Dempsey. Both King and Spears died as a result of the gunshot wounds.
After the shootings, the house was set afire. Looney drove away in the victims’ Ford Mustang with Dempsey as a passenger, while Hertz drove the victims’ white Ford Ranger.
Testimony was given by two Tallahassee Walmart employees that the three men showed off their new vehicles, a black Ford Mustang and a white Ford Ranger, after making a purchase at approximately 5 a.m. The employees’ testimony was corroborated by a Walmart receipt for clothes that was found in the Mustang.
Hertz, Looney, and Dempsey then drove to Daytona Beach where they were involved in a shootout after a police pursuit. Looney and Dempsey abandoned the Mustang and were arrested as they were fleeing the scene. Hertz suffered a gunshot wound to the head and paid $100 for a cab-ride to his aunt’s St. Augustine home. Hertz was arrested that day and police discovered Spears’ 9mm gun in Hertz’s bag.
The bodies of Spears and King were both severely burned, but the medical examiner testified that both deaths were caused by gunshot wounds due to a lack of soot in the victims’ trachea, indicating that they were already dead when the fire started. Further testimony indicated that both victims lived one to two minutes after being shot.
