TALLAHASSEE - The Florida Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence of a drifter who is also serving a life sentence for the murder of a Buford, Georgia, woman in 2008.
Florida's high court Thursday unanimously affirmed 66-year-old Gary Michael Hilton's sentence in the abduction and beheading of a woman in the Apalachicola National Forest in 2007.
Cheryl Dunlap of Crawfordville in north Florida was a 46-year-old nurse and Sunday school teacher.
In Georgia, Hilton is serving a life sentence in the January 2008 murder of Meredith Emerson. She was abducted while hiking on Blood Mountain in Union County. Her body was found in the Dawson National Forest near Dawsonville.
Hilton also pleaded guilty and was imprisoned for life for ambushing and killing an elderly couple while they were hiking in North Carolina. John and Irene Bryant vanished while hiking in Pisgah National Forest in 2007.
