FORT PIERCE — On a morning just over seven years ago, Joan Loughman was on the phone with her twin sister when she ended their call abruptly.

“She said, ‘I have to go, someone’s at the door,’” Assistant State Attorney Lynne Park told a group of jurors today.

Park said it was the last time anyone heard from Loughman before she was found bludgeoned to death and stripped of her jewelry inside her father’s house on Hutchinson Island south of Fort Pierce.

A jury in 2005 determined that Loughman’s death came at the hands of Michael Andrew Gosciminski, who wound up on Death Row for the crime. But a state court’s ruling last year overturning his conviction has led to a second trial, which began Friday, two days after the seventh anniversary of Loughman’s murder.

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The Florida Supreme Court today upheld the death penalty for the man who killed a Fort Pierce Tribune newspaper carrier four years ago.

Steven Hayward was convicted of robbing and murdering Daniel DeStefano, 32, of Port St. Lucie at a convenience store while DeStefano dropped off newspapers along his business route.

DNA samples taken from Hayward’s blood-soaked jeans contributed to his conviction.
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