ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – A 44-year-old Hastings man serving a life sentence for two murders in the early 1990s was charged with a third murder and indicted by a St. Johns County grand jury Monday.
Ervin Cherry was indicted in the March 1994 killing of Katherine Walker.
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He is serving life in prison for a 1993 murder of Wanda Robinson in St. Johns County and a 1994 murder of Christina Cooper in Putnam County.
Walker's decomposed body was found in a ditch adjacent to a large field in the 800 block of Federal Point Road in Hastings. At the time, Cherry, who had been charged in the other two murders, denied involvement in the Walker homicide, and the investigation continued, deputies said.
The case was looked at on several occasions since that time, and each time, Cherry denied any connection to the third killing, deputies said.
In March of this year, detectives with the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office said they reopened the investigation into the Walker homicide. Cherry was brought back to St. Johns County and interviewed. During the interview, Cherry admitted that he strangled Walker after arguing over a drug deal, deputies said.
Detectives said the similarities of the three killings led them to believe that the same suspect committed all three crimes. They said the three victims were black women who were strangled and their clothing was discarded in a remote and wooded area, and all occurred within a four-month time period.
Deputies said Cherry left town and was arrested in Savannah, Ga., on grand theft auto charges in February 1994. He was subsequently charged with the two other murders and was sentenced to life in prison in 1995.