A Florida man who confessed to killing his girlfriend's infant daughter three decades ago was executed by lethal injection on Tuesday evening. Andrew Richard Lukehart, 53, received a three-drug injection at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke.
Lukehart was sentenced to death in 1997 for the 1996 first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse of five-month-old Gabrielle Hanshaw. This execution marks Florida's eighth this year, following a record 19 executions in 2025.
Governor Ron DeSantis oversaw more executions in 2025 than any other Florida governor since the death penalty's reinstatement in 1976, surpassing the previous record of eight set in 2014.
Court records detail that in February 1996, Lukehart was watching Gabrielle while his girlfriend was out. He drove away from their Jacksonville home, and the baby vanished. He later called, claiming she had been kidnapped and he was chasing the abductor. Police found him in a neighbouring county after a car crash. The next day, he confessed that Gabrielle died after he dropped and shook her, then panicked and threw her body in a pond, where it was recovered.
The Florida Supreme Court denied Lukehart's appeals last week. His attorneys argued that kidney medication could react with the lethal injection drugs and that the one-month period between his death warrant and execution violated due process. The U.S. Supreme Court denied his final appeal on Monday.
Nationally, 47 people were executed in the U.S. in 2025, with Florida leading through numerous death warrants signed by Governor DeSantis. Another Florida execution is planned this month for Dusty Ray Spencer, 74, convicted of fatally stabbing his wife in 1992.
