{"id":45962,"date":"2025-11-14T01:36:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T01:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/45962\/"},"modified":"2025-11-14T01:36:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T01:36:11","slug":"florida-ex-marine-executed-nearly-50-years-after-kidnapping-rape-murder-of-6-year-old-merritt-island-girl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/45962\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida ex-Marine executed nearly 50 years after kidnapping, rape, murder of 6-year-old Merritt Island girl"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ex-marine Ex-marine executed in 1979 abduction, murder of child<\/a> <\/p>\n

Bryan Jennings, 66, was declared dead shortly after 6:20 p.m at the Florida State Prison. Jennings died by lethal injection. Jenning’s execution marks the 16th execution in Florida this year. He was sentenced to death in 1979 for the abduction, rape, and brutal killing of 6-year-old Rebecca “Becky” Kunash in Brevard County.<\/p>\n

ORLANDO, Fla. – A Florida man convicted of kidnapping a 6-year-old girl from her bedroom<\/a> and drowning her in a canal more than 40 years ago was put to death on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

Bryan Jennings, 66, was declared dead shortly after 6:20 p.m. at the Florida State Prison. Jennings died by lethal injection, according to the Associated Press. Jenning’s execution marks the 16th execution in Florida this year.<\/p>\n

He was sentenced to death in 1979 for the abduction, rape, and brutal killing of 6-year-old Rebecca “becky” Kunash in Brevard County.<\/p>\n

According to records, Jennings, a 20-year-old Marine at the time, was in Florida on leave from service in Japan. He reportedly had been drinking at a bar and, while walking home, opened the window to the little girl’s bedroom at her Merritt Island home<\/a> and took her.<\/p>\n

“He\u2019s an evil evil person”<\/p>\n

He brought her to a secluded canal where he raped her and drowned her, records said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Gov. DeSantis has signed a death warrant for Bryan Frederick Jennings, convicted in the 1979 murder of a 6-year-old Merritt Island girl. [Credit: FDLE] <\/p>\n

He was tried and convicted three times over the years: 1979, 1982, and 1986. Dozens of appeals have been filed \u2013 and rejected, leading up to Thursday’s execution.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To wait this long is not justice for Rebecca<\/p>\n

It took nearly 50 years for Rebecca’s killer to be sentenced.<\/p>\n

Most of the state prosecutors who worked on Rebecca’s case are no longer with the State Attorney’s Office, except for Michael Hunt. He prosecuted Jennings in 1982 and said he can still visualize the place where Rebecca’s body was found and the details of her murder.<\/p>\n

“The death of an innocent child is something that you never forget,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Members of Rebecca’s family have also died in the years that Jennings’ case was making its way through the appeals process.<\/p>\n

“To wait this long is not justice for Rebecca,” said Hunt.<\/p>\n

State Attorney William Scheiner was not involved in the initial trials against Jennings, but has had to file documents and go before a judge leading up to Thursday’s execution.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“This person is the poster child for why we should have the death penalty,” Scheiner said of Jennings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“He\u2019s an evil, evil person, and that\u2019s why what happened happened.”<\/p>\n

The Source: The information in this article is from the Florida Supreme Court, Department of Corrections, and court documents.<\/p>\n

Brevard County News<\/a>Crime and Public Safety<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ex-marine executed in 1979 abduction, murder of child Bryan Jennings, 66, was declared dead shortly after 6:20 p.m…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[315,630,47,28,30,29,115,628],"class_list":{"0":"post-45962","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-brevard-county","9":"tag-crime-publicsafety","10":"tag-fl","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-florida-headlines","13":"tag-florida-news","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-us"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}