Bio

Kenneth Wayne Hartley was born on January 27, 1967, and grew up in Duval County, Florida. He is the older brother of Shawn Jefferson, who later achieved national prominence as a professional wide receiver in the National Football League. While his brother pursued sports, Hartley became deeply entrenched in local criminal activity in Jacksonville during his youth.

In 1987, Hartley was arrested and subsequently convicted of manslaughter for the shooting death of his 15-year-old former girlfriend, Angel McCormick, after she terminated their romantic relationship. He received a 10-year prison sentence for the crime within the Florida Department of Corrections. Due to early release programs and gain-time credits utilized by the state prison system at the time, Hartley served only a fraction of his term. He was officially paroled and released back into the Jacksonville community in early 1991, just two months before his involvement in the capital offenses that permanently altered his legal standing.

Murder Story

On the evening of April 22, 1991, 17-year-old local drug dealer Gino Mayhew was selling crack cocaine from his Chevrolet Blazer in Jacksonville, Florida. State witnesses testified that Hartley, alongside two co-defendants identified as Ronnie Ferrell and Sylvester Johnson, targeted Mayhew for a targeted armed robbery. Hartley reportedly held a firearm to Mayhew’s head and forced him into the driver’s seat of the vehicle. Hartley positioned himself directly behind Mayhew in the rear passenger area, while Ferrell sat in the front passenger seat. The perpetrators sped away from the scene while Johnson followed them in a separate truck. 

On April 23, 1991, law enforcement officers discovered the abandoned vehicle. Mayhew was found deceased, slumped in the driver's seat after sustaining five total gunshot wounds, including one to his forehead and three to the back of his head.The State of Florida processed the three suspects via separate criminal trials. On July 25, 1991, a Duval County grand jury officially indicted Hartley on charges of first-degree murder, armed robbery, and armed kidnapping. During the trial, prosecutors relied heavily on witness testimony to place Hartley at the scene. 

August 27, 1993, the jury returned guilty verdicts on all counts. Following a 9-3 death recommendation by the panel, Circuit Judge R. Hudson Olliff formally sentenced Hartley to death on December 9, 1993. He also received a concurrent 15-year term as a habitual felony offender for the robbery charge and life imprisonment for the kidnapping. In contrast, co-defendant Ferrell was also initially sentenced to death—later reduced to life in 2010—while Johnson received life imprisonment.

Hartley has spent more than three decades pursuing extensive state and federal post-conviction litigation. While the Florida Supreme Court affirmed his direct appeal in 1996, his defense teams have continually challenged the validity of his conviction. Independent investigative reports and litigation initiated by organizations like The Tributary have highlighted severe flaws in the original 1993 prosecution, noting that zero physical or forensic evidence connected Hartley to the vehicle, and that the case relied almost exclusively on a witness who was later exposed as a known fabricator. 

Additional legal developments revealed that alternative suspect fingerprints found inside Mayhew’s Blazer were withheld from the defense during the initial trial. Although a Conviction Integrity Unit review was initiated, procedural limits briefly stalled the state's probe. As of mid-2026, Hartley's defense attorneys continue to litigate public records requests and evidentiary appeals. He remains incarcerated on death row at the Union Correctional Institution in Raiford, Florida.