STARKE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man who confessed to killing his girlfriend’s infant daughter and throwing her body in a pond three decades ago was executed Tuesday evening.Andrew Richard Lukehart, 53, was pronounced dead at 6:19 p.m. after receiving a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. He was sentenced to death after being convicted of first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse in 1997 for the death a year earlier of 5-month-old Gabrielle Hanshaw.When the curtain of the execution chamber went up at 6 p.m., Lukehart was already strapped to a table with an IV in his arm. A priest sat at the foot of the table to pray over him as he died.When a warden asked Lukehart if he had a final statement, he raised his head to look at a group in the front row of the viewing area and said, “I’m sorry.”Lukehart then recited the Bible verse Luke 23:34, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” which Scripture says Jesus Christ uttered during his crucifixion.
Lukehart lost consciousness almost immediately after the administration of the lethal drugs began. Several minutes into the execution, the warden shook Lukehart and shouted his name, but there was no reaction.
