Murder of Trisa Thornley

On January 23, 1978, eight-year-old Trisa Gail Thornley, a third-grade student in Ocala, Florida, was walking home from school when she encountered 20-year-old Aubrey Dennis Adams Jr., a prison officer at Marion Correctional Institution who was a friend of her family. Adams offered Thornley a ride, and she got into his car. During the journey, Adams attempted to molest and rape her; Thornley was strangled to death during this assault. Adams then removed her clothing and disposed of her body in a remote forest.

Nearly two months later, on March 15, 1978, Thornley's body was discovered by a group of men who were hunting for gophers in the same forest. Her body was found naked, with rope tied around her hands and covered with plastic bags. An autopsy determined the cause of death to be strangulation, though another forensic expert did not rule out manual suffocation as a possibility. Investigators linked Adams to the case after tracing an obscene phone call made to Thornley's family following her disappearance and death.

Adams was arrested and, on March 17, 1978, was charged with Thornley's murder. Due to significant local publicity, the trial was moved from Marion County to Lake County. On October 20, 1978, a jury found Adams guilty of first-degree murder after roughly 90 minutes of deliberation. One week later, the jury recommended a death sentence, and on January 16, 1979, Circuit Judge William F. Edwards formally sentenced Adams to death by electric chair.

Adams's case underwent an extensive series of appeals over the following decade, including reviews by the Florida Supreme Court, the U.S. Supreme Court, and the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Two death warrants were signed and later delayed—one in 1984 and another in 1986, the latter halted just 13 hours before the scheduled execution when the U.S. Supreme Court granted a stay. In November 1986, the 11th Circuit sent the case back to the lower courts for re-sentencing, but the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately restored Adams's death sentence in February 1989.

A third death warrant was signed on April 18, 1989, setting the execution for May 4, 1989. After a final round of unsuccessful appeals in the days leading up to the execution, Adams was put to death by electric chair at Florida State Prison on the morning of May 4, 1989, and was pronounced dead at 7:09 a.m. Members of Thornley's family gathered outside the prison and applauded upon confirmation of the execution, while a small group of protesters also demonstrated outside. In 2009, a former classmate of Thornley's recalled playing a game of school with her on what turned out to be one of their last days together.