The Misery Machine - Cherish Perrywinkle: Stolen From Walmart

Starting point is 00:00:00 I met him in today at Dollar General. He saw that I was struggling to buy them some clothes. He drove us here to buy us some clothes. And the only reason I went with him because she said his wife was going to be here. I had a strange feeling about him when I first met him. And he took her to the dressing room twice. And I was hoping that she would be okay. And I was looking at the shoes.

Starting point is 00:00:25 And I didn't want him to think that I was overly protected. June 21st, 2013 was an exciting day for eight-year-old Cherish Perry Winkle. Her mother, Rain, was about to take her shopping for some new clothes. And the best part? The next day, she was about to fly out to California to see her father for an entire summer. Cherish had already washed up and partially packed some of her luggage. Now she just needed some new summer clothes.

Starting point is 00:00:51 Cherish was born on Christmas Eve of 2004 to her mother, Rain Perry Winkle, and her father, Billy Jero. Her parents never married and unfortunately fought many custody battles. in regards to their daughter. Cherish lived with her mother, her mother's boyfriend, Aaron Pearson, and her two younger sisters, five-year-old Destiny and four-year-old Nevea in the city of Jacksonville, Florida. At around 7.30 p.m. that evening, Rain loaded up her two youngest into a stroller and made the 20-minute walk to their local Dollar General on Edgewood Avenue with Cherish in tow. Rain didn't have a car and was low on funds, so a cab was out of the question. She only had $100 on hands of purchase household items, new clothing for Cherish's trip, and cab fare to and from the airport the following day.

Starting point is 00:01:36 Soon, Rain realized that she didn't have enough money to purchase many of the items that she had planned. She wanted to buy Cherish a white dress with red hearts on it, but after price checking the item with a clerk had to put it back. Frustrated and feeling rather defeated, the family left the store with only what they could afford. Outside, an older man was waiting for them. The stranger introduced himself as Don, and a stranger, explained that he had witnessed Rain having to put the clothes that she intended to purchase for Cherish back onto the racks. He explained that he was waiting for his wife and that he happened to have an $150 Walmart gift card that he'd be happy to share with the family in order to purchase

Starting point is 00:02:16 new clothes for the girls. Rain and Don spoke for about 50 to 20 minutes outside in the parking lot, after which he began to rain. Weather in Florida can be rather unpredictable, especially in the summer. It can go from hot and humid one moment to torrential rain and thunderstorms the next. Don suggested that his wife could meet them at Walmart and offered to give the family a ride there. Rain was left with two choices. Either take the ride to Walmart with her kids in tow from a man that she had just met and possibly get clothes that she couldn't afford for her daughter, or make the 20-minute trek home in the rain while in the dark. Although she was initially reluctant, rain eventually agreed

Starting point is 00:02:58 and the family loaded into Dawn's white conversion van and made the 10-minute drive to the local Walmart on Lem Turner Road. This van was something straight out of the 80s, something maybe that your parents or grandparents might have owned at one time. This was the kind of van that was comfortable and easy to camp out in with carpeted floors

Starting point is 00:03:15 and blinds on the windows. But this was also the type of van that kids from the 80s and 90s were warned to stay away from the days of the stranger danger panic. When Rain, her own. girls and Don arrived at Walmart, Don advised them that he would wait for his wife in the parking lot and that he would meet up with them inside. Rain began shopping, picking out all sorts of cute items for chairs to wear on her trip. All seemed to be going well and soon Dawn met them inside,

Starting point is 00:03:42 but his wife wasn't with him. Maybe she couldn't find him. With it being 2013 and cell phones being commonplace at this point, this seemed unlikely. Or maybe it was because the this was all a lie, and Don didn't have a wife. While inside Walmart, Don was not interested in shopping for himself. In fact, the only thing he added to the cart was a bundle of rope. He hovered around the family and started to exhibit troubling behavior and focused much of his attention on Cherish. He picked out a pair of women's high-heeled shoes for the eight-year-old to wear, and in at least two occasions brought Cherish to the dressing room alone. An announcement came over the intercom alerting Walmart shoppers that the store would be closing soon and to finish up their shopping.

Starting point is 00:04:32 It was extremely late and at this stage no one had eaten supper. So Don offered to walk over to the McDonald's restaurant located inside the Walmart to purchase cheeseburgers for everyone. As they weren't leaving the store, Rain allowed Cherish to accompany Dawn to retrieve the food. However, after 20 minutes had passed and the pair had not. returned, Rain began to worry. The store was about to close and there was no sign of Don or Cherish. Rain was left with a shopping cart full of clothing and no way to pay for any of it. She spent an additional 20 minutes searching from aisle to aisle, searching the McDonald's, and eventually the parking lot. They were gone. At 11.20 p.m., rain frantically called 911,

Starting point is 00:05:14 fearing the worst. As Dawn was a stranger, Rain couldn't offer up many details to the police. She described him as an older man with white hair who drove a white van. The mother was frantic and insisted that she knew that Don was going to kill an essay her daughter and that she knew that she shouldn't have trusted him. However, this little bit of information was actually all that the police needed. The police knew Don very well. He was 61-year-old Donald Smith, a registered offender with offenses dating back as far as the 1970. In fact, he had just been released from prison three weeks earlier.

Starting point is 00:05:56 Now, when I first did research on Donald Smith, I was amazed that he wasn't in prison for life, that he was released. And I want to stress just how ridiculous this is and how much the state has failed, why he should have been kept in prison for the rest of his life. So allow me to take a moment and go back over all the heinous things Don Smith has done. November 1st, 1974, arrested for larceny, auto theft, and car arson. July, 1975, arrested for Violating Controlled Substances Act and Burglary. 1977, arrested for SA against two minors, ages 5 and 8.

Starting point is 00:06:38 1977 deemed a mentally disordered offender, and therefore involuntarily committed by Judge Dorothy Pate. Doctors said he showed little motivation to change and refurb. use therapy. Doctors further concluded that Smith had received the maximum benefit possible from any rehabilitation program. In September of 1979, he was sent to county jail where he served only a year. October 1981, arrested for stealing a canoe and grand theft of a car as well as burglary. This triggers a violation of his 1977 probation. He was subsequently sentenced to five years, but his sentence was corrected, given additional credit, which led to just over three.

Starting point is 00:07:20 three years and two months. He was released early because of this sentence correction. 1986, arrested for battery. 1987, arrested for theft of utilities. 1991, arrested for two counts of petty theft and passing a worthless check. June, 1991, attempts to escape from the Duval County Jail. November, 1991, arrested for burglary and grand theft. Smith could have gotten 15 years, plus five years. but instead he only got four months.

Starting point is 00:07:52 June 3rd, 1992, Smith is arrested for loitering and prowling. October 1992, the attempted kidnapping of 13-year-old Carrie Ann Buck and showing obscene materials to minors. He was tried in a CRF, which is a repeat offender court, where penalties can exceed the statutory maximum. Because he faced two first-degree felonies, he could have gotten life in prison, but instead only got 15 years, which was later reduced to six years.

Starting point is 00:08:24 He remained in custody until 1997, and this would ultimately prompt the state's first Jimmy Rice petition to have Smith permanently confined in 1999. Now, if you don't know what the Jimmy Rice Act is, this was passed in 1998. The law requires the state to evaluate offenders of this type before they're released from prison and keep the most dangerous confined in a treatment facility. So despite getting life reduced to 15 years to six years, Smith only served five years and was released on October of 1997 on parole. March 13, 1998. Not even a year later, Donald Smith purchases crook and violates his conditional release. November 10th, 1998, Smith was sentenced to 90 days for his purchase. March 9, 1999, DCF sends an urgent notice that he is set to be released.

Starting point is 00:09:15 A doctor evaluation determines Smith is a violent predator. Smith is recommended for a permanent commitment under the Jimmy Rice law by Dr. Shaw and Dr. Benoit. State Attorney's Office files paperwork for permanent confinement. While in prison, Smith refuses to attend group therapy. April 18, 2002, Assistant State Attorney Ernest Bell signs disposition statement voluntarily dismissing effort to have Smith permanently confined. Smith is then released based on a promise of compliance, including chemical castration, and no further arrests. Agreement says Jimmy Rice's commitment proceedings may be reinstated if he doesn't follow his plan of compliance.

Starting point is 00:09:59 This prompts an urgent letter from Smith's doctor, Dr. Jim Valley, to assistant state attorney Ernest Bell, warning that Smith quit therapy and refused to take his chemical castration shots. Valley Warren Smith's noncompliance poses a clear, present, and future danger to the community. Apparently, there was no response from this letter from Ernest Bell. April 24, 2003, commits two burglaries. May 29, 2003, arrested for dealing and stolen property. State does not revive the Jimmy Rice petition as they threatened, despite violations of his conditional release, including not following his compliance plan and multiple new offenses since then.

Starting point is 00:10:41 April 5th, 2004, Smith is sentenced for his 2003 crimes. He could have gotten 30 years to life in prison based on his parole violation in prior history. Instead, he got four years and only served two of them. September 21st, 2006, Smith is set for release on Halloween. Later, after a flurry of emails between DCF and the state attorney's office, DCF caseworker Amanda Claus wants to know why the state dismissed its Jimmy Rice petition. Smith is scheduled for a new evaluation by the state's violent predator program. October 24, 2006, Dr. Christopher Robinson issues his evaluation of Smith,

Starting point is 00:11:21 decides that he does not meet the criteria for civil commitment. Donald Smith is subsequently released March 29, 2007. January 2008, Smith is arrested for neglect after his son said Smith took him to a house and refused to take him home. Smith's son, according to police reports, walked the streets of Northside and Jacksonville for several dark hours before finding fire station number 18 and calling the police. This charge is later dropped.

Starting point is 00:11:52 March 2009, Smith is arrested for an open container violation. June 2009, arrested for impersonating a DCF employee, abuse of a minor, and making obscene telephone calls, which involved nine-year-old Christina Hand, asking her obscene questions and threatening her and her family. He tried to get Christina to meet up with him in order to take her from her family, but he was not successful. Christina's mother was reluctant to testify against Smith. What started as three felony charges and a habitual offender designation,

Starting point is 00:12:27 which would have triggered his third Jimmy Rice assessment and gotten him 30 years minimum in prison, is now pled down to two misdemeanors. because they are misdemeanors, Smith serves his time in jail, not prison, which doesn't trigger the Jimmy Rice review. The DCF impersonation case later gets disposed. He could have gotten 30 years in prison. Instead, he gets 24 months in jail.

Starting point is 00:12:52 May 31st, 2013, Donald Smith is released. And three weeks later, bringing to this point in the story, Cherished Perry Winkle goes missing. There's so many moments in time where Donald Smith could have been taken off the streets, where Donald Smith would have been prevented

Starting point is 00:13:11 from committing more of these acts, that it was so obvious that he would do. And so many people failed this young girl. At 421 a.m., five hours after rain made that frantic 911 call, an Amber Alert was finally issued. Police searched through the night, but couldn't find any trace of dawn or cherish. A press conference was held at 5 a.m.,

Starting point is 00:13:38 in which photographs of Cherish and Don were displayed with the description of his white conversion van. However, police got their lucky break at about 9 a.m. the following morning after an officer responding to an accident recognized Don's van as it drove past him on 995 South. Soon, Dawn was apprehended, but Cherish was nowhere to be found. The white conversion van was empty. All of the items that Rain had left inside were missing, including her purchases from Dollar General, and the stroller she used to push her two youngest. Police did have one clue, however.

Starting point is 00:14:12 Don was dressed in the same clothes that he had been seen wearing on the Walmart security footage, and his pants were soaked. Don told the officers that he was doing drugs all evening in the company of ladies that he had solicited. When asked why he was all wet, Don advised police that he sweats profusely when doing d' chis. Soon, police received a tip from a woman who had seen Don's van on the news. She stated that she had observed it early. earlier part near the Highland Baptist Church on Rutgers Avenue.

Starting point is 00:14:40 With the help of a police dog, authorities searched along a creek that ran behind the church for any clues that could lead them to cherish. But sadly, her body was found in the grassy marsh, weighted down by bricks and other woodland debris, stuffed underneath a fallen log. A plastic Walmart bag was found nearby. An examination of Cherish's body gave clues to the horror of what she went through during the last hours of her short life. much of which is far too graphic for us to explain in detail.

Starting point is 00:15:11 Cherish had injuries inflicted all over her body. She had suffered essay in some of the most horrific ways possible. Prosecutors have been quoted as saying that Cherish had been torn apart. She had been gagged with such force that her gums and nostrils had bled. She had been strangled so hard that her eyeballs bled. Her neck showed signs of ligature marks, and she had suffered from blunt force trauma to the head. Her injuries also revealed defensive wounds, which showed that Cherish had fought for her life.

Starting point is 00:15:42 Donald Smith was charged with kidnapping, S.A., and first-degree homicide, and Cherish's death. The evidence against him was overwhelming, including witnesses, security footage, and even DNA evidence. Don offered no defense, nor did he call any witnesses. In the end, it took the jury less than 15 minutes to throw the book at him, finding him guilty on all. counts. And his sentence? The death penalty. If Donald Smith's crimes worn enough, his behavior while in prison took the cake. Don blamed Cherish for her own death, claiming it was her fault for jumping into the van with him. He claimed that he would get into trouble anyway for being on the registry with a minor in his vehicle, so she had to go. He asked his elderly mother to purchase him a

Starting point is 00:16:30 copy of the DSM-4, a guide to mental disorders, so he knew how to act mentally ill. And he was a even more bizarre, his mother actually plotted with him to try to pull off an insanity defense after the fact, communicating with him in whispers and even sign language during visits. He also boasted about his crimes, comparing himself to notorious offender Casey Anthony. Less than a month after Cherish was killed, the state of Florida removed her sisters, five-year-old Destiny and four-year-old Nevea from Rain's home. During earlier custody disputes between Rain Perry Winkle and Cherish's father, Billy Jereau, custody evaluators in the case felt that Cherish would have been better off in her father's home.

Starting point is 00:17:12 However, the judge ultimately awarded Rain custody. Rain suffered from bipolar disorder, and although she was an attentive mother and she loved her girls, she desperately needed help. A spokesman from the Florida DCF noted that it wasn't about punishing Rain, but to provide her with help and to reunite her with her girls when it was safe to do so. So how could this happen? I know a lot of parents will be voicing their opinions in the comments section condemning Rain for her poor decision, a decision that ultimately cost her her daughter's life and caused her to lose custody of her two other girls.

Starting point is 00:17:47 But Rain has to live with this knowledge for the rest of her life and has to face public scrutiny. None of this will bring Cherish back, so let's focus on what Don did that evening. Don saw an opportunity, a struggling mother alone with three young daughters. It was dark, she had no car, nor the means to afford the person. that she set out to make. Don used Rain's misfortune in the bad weather to lure the family into his van and into a secondary location with the promise of new clothing and later food with no strings attached, shelter from the rain, and a ride. Unfortunately, that secondary location, Walmart, allowed him to operate his scheme without attracting any attention. He would blend in

Starting point is 00:18:28 simply looking like a grandfather out with his granddaughter and no one would pay him any minds. Additionally, it wouldn't have been hard to lure cherish into the van since she'd already been there once before with her mother and sisters, and Don had been so nice to her. Statistically speaking, stranger abductions make up less than 1% of all incidents, with parents or family members being responsible for the rest. The vast majority end up simply being runaway cases. Based on FBI reports over the last decade, fewer than 350 minors were abducted annually by strangers. despite the high-profile news coverage that many of these cases get. This doesn't mean that you should let your guard down by any means. Minors from low-income households are more likely to be abducted,

Starting point is 00:19:14 and those who are targeted are more likely to have divorced or separated parents. The difference is actually staggering, with 9 in 1,000 experiencing and abduction in two-parent households, and 84 in 1,000 in single-parent households. And why do we bring this up? because these statistics reflect perfectly what happened to poor Cherish. A lot of people recommended this case after seeing our Amber Bobo case saying it was very similar. Now, if you haven't seen our Amber Bobo case, I suggest you check it out after this video.

Starting point is 00:19:48 We'll have a link to it at the end. But why I bring this up is the difference between Amber's case and the case here of Cherish. Two very different scenarios, in my opinion. Do you agree? And what do you think about the state's failure to put Don Smith behind bars permanently, even with the overwhelming number of charges and parole violations against him? Let me know your thoughts down below in the comments. If you appreciate this video, know that we have put a lot of time and effort into it.

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The Misery Machine - Cherish Perrywinkle: Stolen From Walmart

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