07 December 2017 :

Death Sentence Commuted to Life For William Gregory, 34, White. The murders happened on August 21, 2007. William Gregory, 24 at the time, walked in on his ex-girlfriend Skyler Dawn Meekings, 17, and her boyfriend of 2 months, Daniel Arthur Dyer, 22, as they slept together, and shot them both at close range with a shotgun. He was tried, found guilty, and in 2011, sentenced to death in the culmination of a case that had drawn such notoriety locally that it was moved to Volusia County. It was tried before Circuit Judge William A. Parsons. But the jury's recommendation for death in 2011 was by the slimmest possible margin of 7-5, back when Florida was 1 of just 2 states that still allowed death sentences to be imposed after less than a unanimous jury verdict. That changed less than 2 years ago, when U.S. Supreme Court and Florida Supreme Court decisions found Florida's method of sentencing defendants to death unconstitutional. Recommendations must now be unanimous. In Gregory's case, the Supreme Court on August 31 (see) threw out his death sentence and returned the case to circuit court in Flagler County for a new sentencing phase. Monday morning, Circuit Court Judge Dennis Craig commuted Gregory's death sentence to life in prison without parole on both counts. "We looked at the case and consulted with the family," Assistant State Attorney Jason lewis said. "They did not want to go through the process again." So the prosecution agreed to a commutation in what amounted to a hearing lasting all of 5 minutes.