Dade City, Florida - A man was sentenced to life in prison today after a jury found him guilty in the rape and stabbing death of a 9-year-old Pasco County girl in 1997. Jurors deliberated just over an hour before finding Gary Steven Cannon guilty in the slaying of Sharra Ferger. The girl’s body was found in October 1997 in a field near her Blanton home, north of Dade City. She was sexually assaulted, stabbed 46 times and bitten. Prosecutors said the girl’s head had been stabbed nine times, her chest 33 times and her neck four times. The defendant was 17 at that time of the killing. He could not be sentenced to death because of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling barring the execution of juveniles. Cannon was a friend of the girl’s uncle who also is charged and could get the death penalty if convicted at trial later this year. Six of the head wounds went through her skull. Five of the chest wounds pierced her lungs and heart.
Man convicted of rape and fatal stabbing of 9-year-old girl
A man was sentenced to life in prison today after a jury found him guilty in the rape and stabbing death of a 9-year-old Pasco County girl in 1997.
