Florida executes a man for the shotgun killings of his girlfriend and her 3 young children

STARKE Fla AP An Army combat veteran whose Gulf War experience triggered severe mental problems was executed Thursday evening in Florida for the shotgun slayings of his girlfriend and her three young children Jeffrey Hutchinson was pronounced dead at p m following a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke He was the fourth person executed this year in the state under death warrants signed by Gov Ron DeSantis with a fifth execution set for May Hutchinson had no last message but appeared to be mumbling to himself as the procedure started just before p m His legs shook sporadically and he seemed to have body spasms for several minutes and then was still The process took a little more than minutes The execution was carried out soon after the U S Supreme Court rejected a final appeal without comment Hutchinson had long claimed that he was innocent and that two unknown assailants perpetrated the killings under a U S leadership conspiracy aimed at silencing his activism on maintains including Gulf War illnesses involving veterans Hutchinson served eight years in the Army part of it as an elite Ranger Court records however proved that on the night of the killings in Crestview Hutchinson argued with his girlfriend -year-old Renee Flaherty then packed his clothes and guns into a truck Hutchinson went to a bar and drank chosen beer telling staff there that Flaherty was angry with him before leaving abruptly A short time later a male caller advised a operator I just shot my family from the house Hutchinson and Flaherty shared with the three children -year-old Geoffrey -year-old Amanda and -year-old Logan All were killed with a -gauge shotgun that was determined on a kitchen counter Hutchinson was located by police in the garage with a phone still connected to the center and gunshot residue on his hands Darran Johnson the brother of Renee Flaherty commented after the execution that justice was done but the family s pain will never end Not a day goes by that we don t think about the loved ones that were taken from us Johnson noted At his trial Hutchinson s defense was based on his claim that two unknown men came to the house and killed Flaherty and the children after he struggled with them A jury uncovered him guilty of four counts of first-degree murder and he received life in prison for Flaherty s killing and three death sentences for the children Hutchinson filed numerous unsuccessful appeals several focused on mental robustness problems linked to his Army organization In late April his lawyers sought to delay his execution by claiming he was insane and therefore could not be put to death Bradford County Circuit Judge James Colaw rejected that argument in an April order This Court finds that Mr Hutchinson s purported delusion is demonstrably false Jeffrey Hutchinson does not lack the mental threshold to understand the reason for the pending execution the judge wrote In their court filings Hutchinson s lawyers noted he suffered from Gulf War Illness a series of medical problems stemming from the - war in Iraq as well as post-traumatic stress disorder and paranoia related to his claim that he was targeted by leadership surveillance Florida s lethal injection protocol uses a sedative a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart according to the state Department of Corrections So far this year people have been put to death in the U S including Hutchinson A fifth Florida execution is scheduled May for Glen Rogers who was convicted of killing a woman at a motel in Rogers also was convicted of another woman s murder in California and is assumed by investigators to have killed others around the country