Hertz-Looney death penalty case returns
Sentenced to death in 1999 for a 1997 double murder, the two men return for resentencing this week
By WILLIAM SNOWDEN
Editor
Guerry Wayne Hertz and Jason Looney, convicted of a double murder of a Crawfordville couple after a home invasion in 1997 and sentenced to death in 1999, will face resentencing in the coming week.
The case has been pending for years with back-and-forth changes in court decisions and Florida law.
Since the conviction, the U.S. Supreme Court found that Florida’s death penalty statute was inadequate because it failed to have jurors make a unanimous finding that aggravating factors exist that would qualify the defendant for the death penalty.
The Florida Supreme Court weighed in that a unanimous jury recommendation for death is required. After a change in justices, the new Supreme Court contended that decision was wrong. Prompted by Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz not getting a 12-0 recommendation for death, the state Legislature weighed in during the recent lawmaking session and set the bar at an 8-4 jury recommendation for death.
The case had been set to go forward last year, but defense attorneys for Hertz and Looney filed motions at the Supreme Court on the eve of the resentening requesting an emergency stay on grounds that the case should not be moving forward under the 8-4 standard for a jury recommendation for death. Ultimately, the court did not rule sending the matter back to the trial court.
Wakulla Circuit Judge Layne Smith is presiding over the resentencing. Jury selection is set to get underway beginning Friday, Dec. 6. Attorneys are anticipating the case will take less than a full week. (The guilty verdict on the men stands; the only issue is whether the jury determines there are aggravating factors to warrant the death penalty or not.)
In 1999, Hertz and Looney were found guilty of the 1997 murders of Melanie King and Keith Spears. By a vote of 10-2, the jury recommended death, which was ordered by the court. Hertz and Looney have been on death row since 1999.
(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.)
Assistant State Attorney Eddie Evans, who is heading the prosecution of Hertz and Looney, was the second chair back in 1999, working with then-State Attorney Willie Meggs.
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.
