BARTOW –A12-member jury recommended this week that Andre Maurice Warner,31,should be sentenced to death for the murderof27-year-old Adam HilarieinAugust 2016during a home-invasion robbery.
“We the jury unanimously find that Andre Maurice Warner should be sentenced to death,” Circuit Court Judge JalalHarb read in court on Tuesday.
Investigators and prosecutorssay Hilarie metco-defendantHailey Bustos, now 22, through the PlentyofFish.com dating website, and went outwith him,intending to fleece him for money. She was 18 at the time and had been told by a friend about meeting up with men through the dating app andthengetting them to give her money, shetestified at Warner’s murder triallast year.
Bustos and Hilariewent bowling on Aug.19,2016,and thenstoppedby Hilarie’s Auburndale apartment, before he took Bustos home. She met up with friends later that night, she told jurors, and described to her friends what she had seen in Hilarie's apartment — televisions, a video gaming system, marijuana, cash and liquor.She andher three friends, including Warner,drove to Hilarie’s apartment shortly before dawn.
Warner and Gary Gray, 34, of Lakelandforced their way into Hilarie’s apartment at gunpoint whileBustosand Joshua Ellington, 29, of Lake Alfred, stayed in the car, Bustos told the jury.
Warner shot Hilarie in the back of his head while he was on his knees, according to the police report.
When Warner and Gray returned to the car, they were laughing that Hilarie had begged for his life with a gun pointed to his head, according to Bustos. She testified that they said Hilarie had told them to take anything they wanted but to spare his life for the sake of his 5-year-old daughter.
Bustos told investigators she didn’t know thatWarner had killed Hilarie until the next day, when she saw it on social media.
During the trial, Warner testified that hehad nothing to do with the killing, but had let Bustos borrow his car the night Hilarie was gunned down.
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A different 12-member jury found Warner guilty in March 2020 following a three-week trial. But the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the courthouse and court proceedings for a time. A new jury had to listen to the evidence all over again during the two-week sentencing hearingthat ended Tuesday. It wasbroadcast on Court TV.
“The pure evil that exists in this defendant is demonstrated by his ...pitilessness, consciouslessness as Adam begged for his life for his 5-year-old daughter,” Assistant State AttorneyKristie Ducharmetold the jury. Then she grabbed a shopping cart that was filled with the items Warner stole from Hilarieand pushed it in front of the sentencing jury. “Let’s put this in perspective.This is what Adam’s life was worth to the defendant – what fits in this cart.”
Warner’s lawyer, Bob Norgard, explained that Warner suffered trauma as a child andhas attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, mood disorder and is bipolar.
“There were all these overwhelming issues and life events,” Norgard said.
The jury took only four hours to recommend the death penalty for Warner.
Harb has the ultimate say in Warner’s sentence and willannouncethatdecisionat a hearing that has yet to be scheduled.
As he was led from the courtroom, Warner, who is 6-foot-5 andweighs 220poundsand has a tattoo of a crosshair on his forehead, mouthed "I love you" to his mother, whocried.
Bustos, Gray, andEllingtonstill face trialon murder and burglary charges.
At the time of the murder, Warner was wanted in Coffee County, Georgia, for violation of probation on robbery charges.
While Warner has been in jail, he has also been charged inseveralother cases, including the aggravatedassault and aggravatedstalking of his boss at Wendy’s just two months before Hilarie’s murder.He was charged with that in 2017 and was found not guilty.
Jail guards found a makeshift knife sewn into Warner'sboxer shortsin September 2018 and he was charged with having a weapon in a detention facility.In July 2019, he was charged withpunching another inmateas they walked through the tunnel from the courthouse to a vehicle to be taken back to the jail.In July 2020, Warner was charged with punching a detention officer in the face afterthe officerordered Warner to go back to his cell following recreation timeand Warner refused.He has pleaded not guiltyto all three of those chargesand is awaiting trialon them.
Ledger reporter Kimberly C. Moore can be reached atkmoore@theledger.comor 863-802-7514. Follow her on Twitter at @KMooreTheLedger.
