Scheduled Execution (06/02/26): Andrew Lukehart – Florida Death Row – Murder of Gabrielle Hanshaw

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:09]Hello and welcome back to the Death Row and Executions channel. My name is Paco Rivera and I do presentations on an execution happening soon, including a story on what got the death row inmate sentenced to death. You can also follow me on Facebook for updates and more death row news. There will be a link to my Facebook in the description below.

[00:00:29]Also, check out my other channel, The Maximum Sentence, where I cover a recent crime and conviction. There will also be a link for that. Okay, I'm going to tell you the story of this case a bit differently than most others have done and how it appears in most reports. Because in most reporting on this case, they tell you everything that happened after the murder and the reason for the murder is told last. I'm going to tell you about the so-called motive first and then get into what happened afterwards.

[00:01:06]This is yet another very sad and tragic case, mostly because of the age of the victim, a 5-month-old baby girl.

[00:01:20]In 1996, this evil, brutal monster, Andrew Richard Luccart, had a girlfriend named Misty Rue and she had two young daughters and she allowed Luccart to live in her home in Jacksonville, Florida.

[00:01:43]Ladies, please, once again, please do your research on any man that you are dating and especially if you are about to let him live in your home. Andrew Luccart had been previously convicted of felony child abuse, and he was on probation at the time because 2 years earlier, in 1994, Luccart was charged with abusing an 8-month-old girl who was the daughter of a former girlfriend. That child had suffered injuries that included head trauma, retinal hemorrhages, and broken ribs.

[00:02:30]Luccart pleaded guilty to felony child abuse for that attack.

[00:02:34]Back to 2 years later, 1996. Like I said, Luccart's current girlfriend had two young daughters, a 2-year-old named Ashley and a 5-month-old girl named Gabrielle Hanshaw. Misty lived with her father in the home, so the two girls' grandfather, and her uncle also lived there, who I suppose is her father's brother. Now, I'm not seeing anything in the case files as to whether Misty's father and uncle were home when the crime happened. According to reports, at about 5:00 on the afternoon of February 25th, 1996, early evening, Misty and Luccart returned home with her two children after running some errands around town in Jacksonville, Florida.

[00:03:28]At some point, Misty took her 2-year-old into one bedroom to lay her down for a nap, and while she was putting the child to sleep, Andrew Luccart took baby Gabrielle into another bedroom, and Misty would later tell investigators that she could hear her baby, Gabrielle, laughing, and Luccart was doing some baby talk with her.

[00:03:54]A short time later, Lucart went into the bedroom that Misty was in, still trying to get the toddler, Ashley, to sleep, and he grabbed a diaper saying that Gabrielle had soiled herself. Now, here's where things get really bad.

[00:04:11]If we are to believe the final confession that Andrew Lucart finally gave, he was trying to change the diaper on baby Gabrielle, and he was doing this on the floor of the bedroom. Now, why not on the bed or some other elevated surface? I don't know.

[00:04:33]The problem for Lucart was that Gabrielle would not stay still, and she kept moving around so much that Lucart became frustrated at not being able to get the diaper she was wearing off of her. So, what did he do?

[00:04:49]He grabbed the baby's head and slammed it into the floor.

[00:04:55]He says to get her to stay still, and he did that at least five times until she was dead.

[00:05:08]And there you have it.

[00:05:09]This father of the year who wasn't the actual father killed a baby because he wasn't able to change a diaper.

[00:05:21]The next thing you know, Misty had finally got Ashley to sleep, and she heard a car engine start up outside the house. It was her car. So, she looked outside and saw her boyfriend, Andrew Lucart, inside her car, and he was leaving. At this point, she's probably wondering where he was going without saying anything. Misty then went into the bedroom where Lucart was with her baby and the baby was gone.

[00:05:50]Now she must be wondering why in the world did he leave with the baby?

[00:05:57]About a half hour later, Misty gets a telephone call from Lucart who was calling from a convenience store and he told her that someone driving a blue Chevy Blazer had gone into the house, kidnapped Gabrielle, ran out of the house and drove off with her and that he quickly chased after the blue Chevy Blazer, but the kidnapper got away. He instructed her to call police. Sometime later, Lucart was wandering around a property that coincidentally belongs to a Florida State Trooper named Richard Davis. By this time there was an all-out search for him and baby Gabrielle taking place in the Jacksonville area and there was even a police helicopter circling overhead at the trooper's property. The trooper came outside and was aware that they were searching for a white male fitting Lucart's description. So the trooper put handcuffs on him and notified police.

[00:07:03]Meanwhile, police found Misty's car lodged in a ditch appearing to have been in some kind of an accident. There was no one in the car. When police arrived at the trooper's home, Lucart told them, "I don't want to speak to anybody until I see a lawyer." That's a direct quote from testimony. Police asked Lucart to go with them to the area where he had abandoned his girlfriend's car and Lucart agreed.

[00:07:37]During the drive, Lucart pointed at a tree and told the officer, "That was where he had tried to hang himself earlier. After arriving at the location of the abandoned car, Lucart saw that officers were searching for the missing baby in the woods. An officer tried to question Lucart about where the baby was and what happened during the supposed abduction, but Lucart responded by once again asking for a lawyer.

[00:08:07]Officers would later testify that while Lucart was standing handcuffed by one of their patrol vehicles, he was clearly heard saying, "I wish she hadn't crapped in her diaper."

[00:08:21]He actually used the S-word, which I can't say here. When asked what he meant by that, Lucart responded by saying that he tried to crash the car into a telephone pole at high speed, but missed the pole. That's how the car ended up in the ditch. So, he didn't make a clear response as to why he had spoken about the baby's soiled diaper. Lucart later agreed to speak to a detective investigating the case, and he told the detective the same story that he had told his girlfriend, that a man entered the house and took the baby, and that he chased after him, but the man got away.

[00:09:01]The following morning, Lucart agreed to show the detective the route that was taken when he chased after the kidnapper. So, the detective drove out to Misty's home, and they started from there. He then showed the detective the convenience store where he made a phone call to Misty to let her know what happened and to call police. He then proceeded to the area where he said he wanted to take his life by running the car into a telephone pole and missed, and that is where the car ended up before he walked away from there and ended up at the property of a Florida state trooper. Luccart was later taken back to the police station and now Luccart changed his story. He now says that he had taken the baby to the convenience store to buy some roses for Misty and while he was in the store for a few minutes someone kidnapped the baby out of the car. During the interrogation one detective suggested placing a photo of baby Gabriel in front of him and they did and this angered Luccart who pushed it away and said that he did not want to look at that. Investigators told Luccart that they did not believe any of his stories. Luccart eventually broke down and confessed that the abduction story was not true and that he killed Gabriel but he said that he had been holding the baby up in his arms while changing her diaper at the same time.

[00:10:43]Who does that?

[00:10:45]And that she suddenly squirmed and he accidentally dropped her on her head hitting the floor.

[00:10:54]They always have a story.

[00:10:57]Don't they? He said he shook the baby trying to revive her and even tried mouth-to-mouth resuscitation but that didn't work so he put the baby in the car drove away a few miles and threw her body into a shallow pond.

[00:11:15]Luccart later led investigators to the pond and they recovered the body of baby Gabriel. She was still wearing her soiled diaper.

[00:11:30]Andrew Luccart was indicted on one of first-degree murder and one count of aggravated child abuse. The medical examiner who testified at trial said that Gabriel's injuries were inconsistent with Lockart's story that she was dropped once on her head. The baby had five separate impacts to the head, two of which caused skull fractures, and either one of them was fatal. By the way, the prior violent felony child abuse charge from 1994 was used as an aggravating factor during the penalty phase of the trial in which Andrew Lockart was ultimately sentenced to death. Please go ahead and hit the subscribe button so that you're alerted when the next video comes out. You can also follow me on Facebook for updates.

[00:12:34]There will be a link to my Facebook in the description below. My name is Paco Rivera. Thank you for watching. Take care, and bye for now.