6 of 64 Fla. inmates executed were child killers

6 of 64 Fla. inmates executed were child killers


6 of the 64 inmates executed by Florida raped and killed children, although others have been put to death for slaying children.

The most notable was serial killer Ted Bundy, who was executed in the electric chair in 1989 for the 1978 rape and murder of 12-year-old Kimberly Leach of Lake City. The confessed killer of 30 women was also on death row for the slayings of 2 Chi Omega sorority sisters in Tallahassee in 1978.

The others included three executed in 1984: Arthur F. Goode III, executed for killing 9-year-old Jason Verdow of Cape Coral in 1976; Johnny Paul Witt for killing, sexually abusing and mutilating Jonathan Mark Kushner, the 11-year-old son of a University of South Florida professor in 1973; and Aubry Dennis Adams Jr., who was executed for the Jan. 23, 1978, murder of Trisa Gail Thornley, a 3rd-grader last seen on her way home from school.

Phillip A. Atkins, 40, was electrocuted Dec. 5, 1995, for the murder and rape of 6-year-old Antonio Castillo in Lakeland and Rigoberto Sanchez-Velasco, 43, died of lethal injection on Oct. 2, 2002, after dropping appeals from his conviction in the December 1986 rape-slaying of 11-year-old Katixa "Kathy" Ecenarro in Hialeah. Sanchez-Velasco also killed two fellow inmates while on death row.

(source for both: Associated Press)