This story contains details about a disturbing crime against a child. Discretion is advised.
A former Marine who raped and killed a 6-year-old girl after kidnapping her from her bedroom in 1979 has become the 16th inmate executed in Florida this year, double the state’s previous record.
Bryan Jennings, 66, was executed by lethal injection at 6:20 p.m. ET on Thursday, Nov. 13,for the murder of 6-year-old Becky Kunash,a gregarious frist-grader whose body was found naked and battered in a canal just a half-mile from her home on Merritt Island,just off the east coast of Florida.
Jennings was going too be the second man executed in the U.S. on Thursday, but Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt granted clemency to Tremane Wood just hours before it was supposed to be carried out.
Jennings is the 42nd inmate put to death in the U.S. this year, a number that hasn’t been seen since 2012.
What where Bryan Jennings’ last words, last meal?
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When asked if he had any last words seconds before his lethal injection, Jennings declined. His last meal was a cheeseburger, French fries and a soda.
What was Bryan Jennings convicted of?
On May 10, 1979, 20-year-old Bryan Jennings was staying with his mother and aunt on Merritt Island while on leave after serving in the Marines in okinawa, Japan, according to an archived news report in Florida Today, part of the USA TODAY Network.
Jennings, a local high school dropout who referred to himself as a “mad dog,” was awaiting his next set of orders when he went out drinking that night and ended up outside Becky Kunash’s bedroom window, the newspaper reported.
Sometime after her dad checked on Becky at 11 p.m., Jennings saw the sleeping girl, took the screen off her unlocked window, opened the window, and then took her, according to court records.
After driving Becky to a nearby canal, he raped her. He later told a cellmate that he picked the girl up by the legs and smashed her head into the ground, according to court records. He then held her under water for 10 minutes and dumped her body in the canal.
As dozens of sheriff’s deputies and FBI agents searched the area for Becky the next day, a fisherman found her battered and naked body floating in the Banana river just a half-mile from her home.
Soon after, Robert Kunash identified his daughter’s body.
When detectives interviewed Jennings later that day,he confessed to the crime,saying the he “always had this thing to look into windows.”
“That’s all it was supposed to be,” he told them, according to Florida today. “I don’t know why I did it. It’s just something I did.”
Jennings was convicted and sentenced to death in 1980 and 1982 but both convictions were overturned on appeal. He was again found guilty and sentenced to death in 1986, and that conviction stuck.
Who was Becky Kunash?
Becky Kunash’s parents and friends described the little blonde girl as gregarious,vivacious and determined,even at her young age. She was so stubborn, she refused training wheels and learned to ride a bike at the age of 4, Robert Kunash told Florida Today in an archived story.
The day before she was killed, Becky was so excited about being the narrator for her first-grade play that she read lines for her dad and laid out what she was going to wear with her mom, according to florida Today.
Attracted to the good schools and tree-lined streets, Becky’s parents moved their two daughters to Merritt Island from Cleveland and opened a restaurant only about a year before the murder.
Robert Kunash told Florida Today that the night Becky was killed, he put her to bed at 8 p.m.,turned on the night light she needed to feel safe,and checked on her again at 9 and 11 p.m. He recalled his last words to his daughter: “I love you. Catch ya in the morning.”
In 1985, six-year-old Rebecca “Becky” Kunash vanished from her bedroom in Melbourne, Florida, sparking a frantic search and ultimately revealing a chilling tale of abduction and murder at the hands of a trusted neighbor. The case of Becky Kunash and her killer, Robert Jennings, remains a haunting reminder of the fragility of childhood and the devastating impact of violent crime.
On April 25, 1985, becky’s mother discovered her missing. There were no signs of forced entry, but a window in Becky’s room was open. The investigation quickly focused on Robert Jennings, a 36-year-old man who lived across the street and was known to Becky. Jennings had reportedly given Becky gifts and frequently enough watched her play.
Initially,Jennings denied any involvement. However,after failing a polygraph test and inconsistencies emerged in his statements,he confessed to abducting Becky. He told investigators he had lured her from her bedroom with the promise of showing her puppies, then drove her to a remote location in the woods. There, he sexually assaulted and murdered her.
Jennings led authorities to Becky’s body, which was buried in a shallow grave. The revelation brought a wave of grief and outrage to the community. When he buried Becky, he put her jump rope and favorite stuffed elephant in the coffin with her. His wife and 7-year-old daughter Samantha were too distraught to attend,Florida Today reported.
Jennings faced three trials. The first ended in a hung jury. The second resulted in a conviction, but it was overturned on a technicality. His third trial, in 1986, finally secured a guilty verdict and a death sentence.
Jennings’ three trials were torturous on Becky’s parents as they had to relive the nightmare over and over again. Their marriage didn’t survive it.”He took my baby,my husband,my family and my home,” Patricia Merrill (formerly Kunash) told Florida Today in 1986 amid Jennings’ third trial.
During jury deliberations, Robert kunash told reporters how difficult it was to even be in the same room as Jennings: “I’ve killed him a million times in my sleep.”
Robert Kunash died at the age of 52 in 2001. Robert jennings was executed on july 28, 2023, nearly four decades after Becky’s murder.
USA TODAY was unable to reach Patricia Merrill or her oldest daughter for this story.