Killer Executed
By Robert A. Waters
The sand track lay invisible in the black night, but Dorothy Lewis stumbled along. Her torn dress snagged the limbs of trees as her eyes tried to focus on what lay ahead. Rattlesnakes, alligators, panthers--she didn't know what could be waiting out in the Florida swamp to attack her, but she did know that a wild animal couldn't be any worse than the human predators who had left her to die.
Dorothy's wounded right knee barely functioned, and her head ached. She'd been shot in the leg, neck, mouth, and forehead. Before that, she had been repeatedly raped by two men. But now, staggering through the darkness, her heart ached worse than her body because Dorothy had no idea where her children were. When the men had shot her and stolen her car, they took Jamilya, 7, and Jasmine, 3 (pictured).
Several miles later, she spotted a light in the distance.
It's been called the worst crime in the history of Lake County, Florida.
On January 30, 1993, Lake County was home to only a few small towns. Much of the county was made up of farmland and wooded areas. The building boom in the town of Eustis had not yet begun. With a population of less than 12,000, many who lived there worked in agriculture. Other residents fought the traffic jams to drive the 30 miles to work at Disney World in Orlando.
Florida court documents provide the following narrative: "When Ms. Lewis left the store, she went to her car and put her daughters in the front passenger seat. As she walked behind the car to the driver's side, Ms. Lewis noticed Alfonza Smalls coming towards her. As Smalls approached, he pulled up his shirt and revealed a gun in his waistband. Smalls ordered Ms. Lewis and her daughters into the back seat of the car and then called to Henyard. Henyard drove the Lewis car out of town as Smalls gave him directions.
"The Lewis girls were crying and upset, and Smalls repeatedly demanded that Ms. Lewis 'shut the girls up.' As they continued to drive out of town, Ms. Lewis beseeched Jesus for help, to which Henyard replied, 'This ain't Jesus, this is Satan.'"
After driving for about 20 miles, Henyard stopped near Hicks Ditch Road, in an isolated field of orange groves surrounded by swamps. As the girls watched through the back window, Henyard raped Dorothy on the trunk of the car. After he finished, Smalls also raped Dorothy. While he was assaulting her, he laid the pistol down on the trunk. Dorothy reached for it but Smalls was too fast for her. Snatching it, he shouted, "You're not going to get this gun, bitch."
Henyard took the pistol from Smalls and forced Dorothy to sit in a ditch alongside the road. When he thought she was moving too slow, he fired the gun, hitting her in the leg. The girls continued to scream, begging the men not to hurt their mother. Dorothy pled with Henyard and Smalls not to kill her children.
After being shot, Dorothy blacked out. Henyard and Smalls thought she was dead and left.
The girls in the backseat continued to scream for their mother. Regardless of how many times Henyard and Smalls yelled at them to shut up, they wouldn't stop. "Mommy," they screamed. "Mommy. I want my mommy." Henyard drove for a few more miles, then stopped again.
Henyard yanked Jasmine out of the back seat while Jamilya got out on her own. According to court documents, "The Lewis girls were then taken into a grassy area along the roadside where they were each killed with a single bullet fired into the head. Henyard and Smalls threw the bodies of Jasmine and Jamilya Lewis over a nearby fence into some underbrush."
Later that day, Henyard bragged to his friends and family about the rape and murders. No one contacted police and reported Henyard's confession.
Finally, nine days after the murders, Henyard went to the Eustis Police Department and told detectives that Smalls and a friend had killed the girls. It was thought he hoped to get the reward money, which by now had reached a meager $1,000.
Investigators quickly uncovered his schemes and Henyard confessed.
On September 23, 2008, more than fifteen years after having been convicted of two counts of first degree murder, as well as kidnapping and rape, Henyard stumbled into the death chamber at Raiford. According to police reports, he had never shown a bit of remorse. Clinical-like, prison officials stuck his arm with a needle and he quickly drifted off to sleep.
A Christian, Dorothy Lewis said she had forgiven Henyard and did not attend his execution.
Alfonza Smalls was convicted of the same crimes. Because of his age, he received a sentence of life in prison. According to prison records, he is still incarcerated.
