Emilia Carr Receives Death Penalty

by Natalia Martinez - February 23rd 2011 12:10am

The last time a Marion County Judge gave a woman the death penalty was back in 1992. Aileen Wournos was executed ten years later. Tuesday, Judge Willard Pope sentenced 26 year-old Emilia Carr to death.
Carr was convicted of kidnapping and murdering Heather Strong, a mother of two, in February, 2009.
Today Carr's mother was in disbelief. "A mother's worst nightmare," Maria Yera told TV20. "I didn't think she was going to get the death penalty." The prosecution contended Carr and Joshua Fulgham, Strong's estranged husband, lured Strong to a trailer in the back of Carr's mother's house one February night.
There, the prosecutors said, Carr tried to break Strong's neck before Carr and Fulgham placed a bag on Strong's head, ultimately suffocating her. Strong's body was later found by detectives in a shallow grave near the trailer. The defense proclaimed Carr's innocence, painting a troubled youth hurt by misguidance and abuse. In an exclusive in-jail interview, Carr, a mother of four, told TV20 she did not kill Strong.
But Tuesday, the defense's case was not enough for the Court to spare Emilia's Carr's life. Carr is now the second woman in the State on death row. Her case will be automatically appealed to the Florida Supreme Court. Carr's alleged accomplice, Joshua Fulgham will also face trail, which was expected to begin in March.