Murderpedia has thousands of hours of work behind it. To keep creating
new content, we kindly appreciate any donation you can give to help
the Murderpedia project stay alive. We have many
plans and enthusiasm
to keep expanding and making Murderpedia a better site, but we really
need your help for this. Thank you very much in advance.
Elmer Leon CARROLL
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics:
Rape - Convicted child molester
Number of victims: 1
Date of murder:
October 30,
1990
Date of arrest:
Same day
Date of birth:
August 19,
1956
Victim profile: Christine
McGowan (female, 10)
Method of murder: Stabbing
with knife
Location: Orange County, Florida, USA
Status: Sentenced to death on April 16, 1992. Executed
by lethal injection on May 29, 2013
Elmer Carroll executed for
murder of 10-year-old Orange County girl
By Susan Jacobson - Orlando
Sentinel
May 29, 2013
His last appeal rejected by the Florida Supreme
Court, Elmer Carroll died by lethal injection Wednesday for the 1990
murder of Christine McGowen, a 10-year-old girl from northwest Orange
County.
Carroll, 56, died at 6:12 p.m. at Florida State
Prison in Starke, the Florida Department of Corrections said.
Carroll declined to make a final statement, but
Christine's mother, Julie McGowen, issued one: "Thank you to all that
have worked so hard, and justice for all, namely, Christine McGowen.
Rest in peace."
Carroll raped and strangled Christine in her bed Oct.
30, 1990 while her stepfather slept in another room and her mother was
at work. The family lived next door to the halfway house where Carroll
was staying after his release from prison.
He was convicted of lewd conduct with two other
children before he met Christine.
At 10 a.m. Wednesday, Carroll ate a last meal of
sunny-side-up eggs with bacon and sliced tomatoes, biscuits, avocados, a
fruit salad of strawberries, papaya, peaches and pineapple and canned
milk.
He had two visitors — death-penalty opponents Susan
Cary, a lawyer, and Dale Recinella, a Catholic lay chaplain, author and
lawyer.
Orange-Osceola State Attorney Jeff Ashton, who
prosecuted the case, attended the execution.
"For me, it's completion," Ashton said.
At 5 p.m., the Catholic Diocese of Orlando held a
service at St. James Cathedral to pray for the death penalty to be
abolished.
"It's a destructive tool rather than a preventive
tool," Bishop John Noonan told about 30 people assembled for the
service.
Carroll was written up 20 times in more than 20 years
on death row for prison infractions including attempted arson,
possession of contraband and, in December, for making threats.
Elmer Carroll executed for 1990
Apopka murder
Cfnews13.com
May 29, 2013
The man convicted of brutally
raping and murdering a 10-year-old Apopka girl was executed Wednesday.
Elmer Carroll’s execution went as
scheduled for the death of Christine McGowan in 1990. He was pronounced
dead at 6:12 p.m. following an injection at the state penitentiary at
Starke, Gov. Rick Scott's office said.
Catherine Mohr taught 10-year-old
Christine McGowan math more than two decades ago.
"She was spunky and full of life,"
said Mohr.
In October 1990, McGowan was raped
and killed by Elmer Carroll, who lived in a halfway house next door to
her parents’ home.
To this day, the tragedy still
haunts the 10-year-old’s teacher.
"I still pray for her daily because
she is a part of my life because I taught her in one of my first years
teaching," said Mohr.
Back in 1990, McGowan was a third
grader at Lockhart Elementary school.
The case stunned entire community,
especially the students in her class.
"Heartbreaking. Very difficult to
go through the days and the motions," Mohr described.
Robin Wilkinson was a prosecutor
who helped put Carroll behind bars.
She said the case was one she'll
never forget.
"Justice is served for Christine.
The death penalty is something that’s only for the worst of the worst
but this is the type of case that deserves it," said Wilkinson.
More than two decades later, people
close to McGowan and the case remember what happened.
"Even though this man is going to
be executed, it does not erase that that child's life was taken from
her," said Mohr.
In November 1990, Carroll was
indicted on a count of first-degree murder and sexual battery for the
rape and murder of 10-year-old Christine McGowan. The girl lived with
her family next door to a halfway house for homeless men, where Carroll
was staying in Apopka.
Carroll, who had been imprisoned
twice for indecent assault on a child, had told one of his housemates
that the girl was "cute, sweet and liked to watch him make boats,"
according to witness testimony at his trial.
Christine's stepfather found the
girl dead in her bedroom, and his truck was missing. The truck was found
a short time later and an officer came upon Carroll, who had blood on
his sweatshirt and genitals, while traces of his semen, saliva and pubic
hair were found on Christine, according to court records.
Carroll's lawyers employed the
insanity defense at his trial, during which they and prosecutors
presented conflicting testimony from psychiatrists about Carroll's
mental competency. During his two decades on death row, Carroll's
lawyers argued that he's too mentally ill to stand trial or be subjected
to the death penalty.
Hours before Elmer Carroll was
scheduled by die by lethal injection, the U.S. Supreme Court has denied
a stay of execution for the man convicted of raping and strangling a
young girl 22 years ago in Orange County.
The petition was the final attempt
to stop Carroll's execution at Florida State Prison in Starke. The
56-year-old death row inmate's lawyers argued he should have been
considered mentally ill at the time of the murder.
Carroll was served bacon and eggs
for his last meal at 10 a.m., which included a whole sliced tomato, a
fruit salad with strawberries, papaya, peaches, pineapple and tropical
fruit, an avocado and a can of Carnation milk.
Carroll had two visitors Wednesday
morning, a mitigation specialist and a Catholic priest. No family
visited.
Execution looms for felon who
raped, killed girl, 10
By Susan Jacobson - Orlando
Sentinel
May 28, 2013
Nearly 23 years ago, 10-year-old Christine McGowen
was raped and murdered in her bed by a sex offender who sneaked into her
northwest Orange County home.
On Wednesday, 56-year-old Elmer Carroll, who killed
the fifth-grader who loved hide-and-seek, Nintendo and writing stories,
is scheduled to die by lethal injection.
It's a day that Christine's grandfather Richard Rank
has been waiting for since the Oct. 30, 1990, killing.
"It's been 20-some years that our granddaughter could
have enjoyed her life but didn't, so it's long overdue," Rank, 73, said
from his home in northwest Georgia.
After the murder, Christine's mother, Julie Rank, and
her husband, Robert Rank, moved to rural Alabama. They divorced after
more than two decades of marriage, and Robert Rank now lives inNorth Dakota, where he drives a truck for an oil company.
Both plan to attend the execution.
So does Orange-Osceola State Attorney Jeff Ashton. He
was one of two prosecutors on the case, and it remains vivid in his
memory.
Hanging on the wall behind Ashton's desk is a framed
photo of a bearded, handcuffed Carroll on April 16, 1992, the day
Circuit Judge Belvin Perry sentenced him to death. Perry, now chief
judge, then called the killing "savage and barbaric."
Carroll promised to "rise from the grave" to take
vengeance on Ashton and co-counsel Robin Wilkinson after a jury took
just an hour to unanimously vote for the death penalty.
"Elmer Carroll's a monster, and he always will be,"
Ashton said last week. "To feel no compassion or pity of any kind for
this child, that is the very definition of a monster in my mind."
Carroll had a history of molesting children long
before he met Christine.
In 1976 in Pasco County, he performed a lewd and
lascivious act in the presence of a child younger than 14. He was
sentenced Jan. 8, 1980, to six years and one day in prison for that
felony and for aggravated assault.
But Carroll served only about 16 months. At the time,
criminals were being released after serving about one-third of their
sentences.
Carroll was arrested again in Pasco in November 1982
and sentenced Feb. 1, 1983, to 15 years for fondling a child younger
than 15.
He was freed April 16, 1990 — 61/2 months before
Christine's murder — after serving about half of his sentence.
"A little 10-year-old girl should not have to die in
her bed by the hands of an animal," said Richard Rank, formerly of
Sanford. "He was in prison twice before; they let him out early both
times, and there was a warrant out for him when this happened."
Since Oct. 1, 1995, Florida inmates have been
required to serve at least 85 percent of their sentences.
After his 1990 release, Carroll found a place to live
at Lighthouse Mission, a halfway house for homeless people and convicts.
Carroll's travel trailer sat about 50 feet from Christine's family's
backyard, where she was playing with a friend the evening before she was
killed.
Carroll had been laid off from his job as a laborer
for a stucco company three weeks earlier. He started making and selling
ships from twine and polished wood from discarded pallets.
At his trial, a mission resident testified that
Carroll told him Christine was "cute, sweet and liked to watch him make
boats," court documents show.
While Christine's stepfather slept and her mother was
at work, Carroll broke into their house near Apopka Boulevard and Orange
Blossom Trail and attacked the Lockhart Elementary School student. He
placed his hand over her nose and mouth to quiet her, raped her and
strangled her, Ashton told the jury, calling him a "boogeyman."
DNA, hair and blood tied Carroll to the crime.
Robert Rank found his stepdaughter dead at about 6 a.m. when he went
to wake her for school.
Carroll stole Rank's work pickup and stopped for coffee at a 7-Eleven
before ditching the truck and getting caught while walking in Bithlo.
The keys to the truck and a box cutter were in his pocket.
He was sentenced to death for the murder, life for the rape and 15
years for breaking into the home of an ex-girlfriend four months earlier
and beating her new boyfriend with a beer bottle.
A jury in November 1995 awarded Christine's estate $1.5 million in a
lawsuit against Lighthouse Mission and its founder, but the Fifth
District Court of Appeal overturned the verdict a year later. The court
ruled that the mission had no control over Carroll, whom the judges said
was merely a tenant.
Though no one will pay monetarily for the crime, Richard Rank said he
hopes the execution will bring some sense of peace.
For Ashton, it's the rightful punishment for a heinous act.
"It's justice being carried out," he said.
Elmer Leon Carroll
DC #835908 DOB: 08/19/56
Ninth Judicial Circuit, Orange
County, Case #90-12464
Sentencing Judge: The Honorable
Belvin Perry
Trial Attorney: James E. Taylor,
Esq. – Private
Attorneys, Direct Appeal: J.
Wulchak & C. Quarles – Assistant Public Defenders
Attorney, Collateral Appeals:
Michael P. Reiter, Esq. – Registry
Date of Offense: 10/30/90
Date of Sentence: 04/16/92
Circumstances of Offense:
Elmer Carroll was convicted and
sentenced to death for the murder of 10-year-old Christine McGowan on
10/30/90.
Robert Rank attempted to wake
his stepdaughter, Christine McGowan, on the morning of 10/30/90 and,
when she did not answer his calls, Rank went to McGowan’s room. He
noticed her door, which was open the night before, was closed. Upon
entering the room, Rank discovered McGowan face down on the bed.
She
had blood between her legs and her body was cold to the touch. Rank
then noticed that the front door was slightly open and his construction
truck was missing. Police investigators at the scene determined that
McGowan had been raped and strangled to death, and issued a bulletin
regarding the stolen construction truck.
Upon hearing a radio bulletin
regarding the stolen construction truck, Debbie Hyatt notified police
that she remembered seeing the abandoned truck and a man, later
identified as Elmer Carroll, walking easterly away from the truck. As a
result of Hyatt’s tip, Carroll was arrested. When law enforcement
officers searched Carroll for weapons, they found a box cutter and the
keys to the stolen construction truck.
Information presented at trial
revealed that Carroll was a resident of the halfway house located next
door to the victim’s home and that Carroll had remarked to other
residents about the “cute” girl next door. DNA evidence recovered from
the scene matched Carroll’s saliva, semen and pubic hair, and after his
arrest, blood was found on Carroll’s sweatshirt and penis.
Trial Summary:
10/30/90 Defendant
arrested.
11/26/90 Defendant
indicted on:
Count I: First-Degree
Murder
Count II: Sexual Battery W/
Victim Under 12
04/13/92 The jury found
the defendant guilty on both counts.
04/13/92 Upon
advisory sentencing, the jury, by a 12 to 0 majority, voted for the
death penalty.
04/16/92 The
defendant was sentenced as followed:
Count I: First-Degree
Murder – Death
Count II:
Sexual Battery W/ Victim Under 12 – Life
Appeal Summary:
Florida Supreme Court – Direct
Appeal
FSC #79,829
636 So. 2d 1316
05/07/92 Appeal filed.
04/14/94 FSC affirmed the
convictions and sentence of death.
06/09/94 Rehearing denied.
07/11/94 Mandate issued.
United States Supreme Court –
Petition for Writ of Certiorari
USSC #94-6014
513 U.S. 973
09/07/94 Petition filed.
10/31/94 Petition denied.
State Circuit Court – 3.850
Motion
CC #90-12464
02/01/96 Motion filed.
10/20/98 Motion denied.
Florida Supreme Court – 3.850
Appeal
FSC #94,611
815 So.2d 601
12/31/98 Appeal filed.
03/07/02 Decision
affirmed.
04/19/02 Rehearing denied.
05/20/02 Mandate issued.
Florida Supreme Court – Petition
for Writ of Habeas Corpus
FSC #SC00-46
815 So.2d 601
01/10/00 Petition filed.
03/07/02 Petition denied.
04/19/02 Rehearing denied.
05/20/02 Mandate issued.
State Circuit Court – 3.850
Motion
CC #90-12464
04/22/03 Motion filed.
01/12/04 Motion denied.
Florida Supreme Court – 3.850
Appeal
FSC #SC04-192
904 So. 2d 430
02/09/04 Appeal filed.
05/12/05 FSC affirmed the
denial of the Motion.
United States District Court,
Middle District – Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus
USDC# 05-857
06/08/05 Petition filed.
06/20/08 Petition denied.
United States Court of Appeals,
11th Circuit – Habeas Appeal
USDC# 08-14317
12/04/08 Appeal filed.
07/17/09 USCA affirmed the
denial of the Petition.
United States
Supreme Court – Petition for Writ of Certiorari
USSC# 09-6134
130 S.Ct. 500
08/24/09 Petition filed.
11/02/09 Petition denied.
Factors Contributing to the
Delay in the Imposition of the Sentence:
In December 1994, Carroll was
granted a time extension in filing a Motion to Vacate Judgment and
Sentence (3.850) until February 1, 1996. Statutorily, a defendant has
one year from the rehearing denial date in which to file a 3.850
Motion. With his motion for rehearing denied on 06/09/94, the time
lapse between filing was approximately one year and seven months. Other
than the filing extension, there have been no unreasonable delays at
this time.
Case Information:
Carroll filed a Direct Appeal in
the Florida Supreme Court on 05/07/92. In that appeal, Carroll alleged
that the keys that linked him to Rank’s construction truck should have
been suppressed as evidence because they were found as a result of an
illegal arrest. Next, Carroll contended that testimony of one of the
deputies unfairly and prejudicially commented on his refusal to testify,
and he also argued several improper questions asked of a psychiatrist on
cross-examination by the prosecutor. In reference to the penalty phase
of the trial, Carroll argued the application of the heinous, atrocious,
and cruel (HAC) aggravating factor and that the trial court erred in
failing to consider certain statutory mitigating evidence. The Florida
Supreme Court affirmed the convictions and sentence of death on
04/14/94.
Subsequently, Carroll filed a
Petition for Writ of Certiorari in the United States Supreme Court,
which was denied on 10/31/94.
On 02/01/96, Carroll filed a Motion
to Vacate Judgment and Sentence (3.850) in the State Circuit Court.
That motion was denied on 10/20/98, after which Carroll filed an appeal
in the Florida Supreme Court on 12/31/98, which was denied on 03/07/02.
Carroll also filed a Petition for
Writ of Habeas Corpus in the Florida Supreme Court on 01/10/00, which
was denied on 03/07/02.
On 4/22/03, Carroll filed another
3.850 Motion in the State Circuit Court that was denied on 01/12/04.
Carroll filed an appeal of that decision in the Florida Supreme Court on
02/09/04. On 05/12/05, the FSC affirmed the denial of the Motion.
Carroll filed a Petition for Writ
of Habeas Corpus with the U.S. District Court, Middle District, on
06/08/05 that was denied on 06/20/08.
On 12/04/08, Carroll filed a Habeas
Appeal with the United States Court of Appeals. The United States Court
of Appeals affirmed the lower courts disposition and denied the Petition
for Writ of Habeas Corpus.
On 08/24/09, Carroll filed a
Petition for Writ of Certiorari with the United States Supreme Court
that was denied on 11/02/09.
