The defense team for the man accused in the 2013 kidnapping, rape and murder of 8-year-old Cherish Perrywinkle want recordings of jail conversations between Donald Smith and another inmate to be blocked from being used in Smith's trial.
The conversations between Smith and convicted murderer Randall Deviney were recorded while the two were in adjoining cells in the Duval County jail.
Smith’s new attorney, Charles Fletcher, has filed a motion to suppress the recordings, which captured 72 hours of conversations between Smith and Deviney, claiming that they were obtained unlawfully, without a warrant.
At a hearing before Judge Mallory Cooper on the motion Thursday, State Attorney investigator Robert Henson testified that he received information that a confidential informant wanted to provide information about Donald Smith.