A Florida man who confessed to killing his girlfriend’s infant daughter and discarding her body in a pond three decades ago was executed by lethal injection on Tuesday evening. Andrew Richard Lukehart, 53, received a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke at 6 p.m. local time.
Lukehart was sentenced to death in 1997 for the first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse of five-month-old Gabrielle Hanshaw in February 1996. According to court records, he was watching the baby while his girlfriend cared for her ill older daughter. He later claimed the infant died after he dropped her on her head and shook her, then panicked and threw her body in a pond.
This execution marks Florida’s eighth this year, following a record 19 executions in 2025. Governor Ron DeSantis has overseen more executions in a single year than any other Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The previous record of eight was set in 2014.
Lukehart’s final appeals were denied by the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court. His attorneys had argued that medication for his kidney disease could react negatively with the lethal injection drugs, and that the short time between the signing of his death warrant and execution violated due process.
Another execution is scheduled later this month in Florida: Dusty Ray Spencer, 74, convicted of fatally stabbing his wife in 1992. All Florida executions are carried out via lethal injection of a sedative, a paralytic, and a drug that stops the heart.
