June 24, 2021- 3:35 p.m.
POLK COUNTY, Fla. – An all-new jury will determine whether the man convicted of first-degree murder in the 2016 execution-style killing of a single dad will spend life in prison or get the death penalty.
The penalty phase for FL v. Andre Warner is underway. On March 20, 2020, Warner was convicted of charges related to the death of 27-year-old Adam Hilarie. Hilarie had just returned home from a date with Hailey Bustos, a woman he’d met through the dating app Plenty of Fish, when he was fatally shot during a robbery.
Bustos, along with Warner, Gary Gray and Joshua Ellington, went to Hilarie’s apartment with the intention of robbing him. Warner was convicted of shooting Hilarie in the head during that burglary.
Warner was the first of the four co-defendants to face trial. Cases against Bustos, Gray and Ellington have yet to begin. All three face the same charges, but the first-degree murder charges carry a mandatory life sentence only if convicted. Only Warner faces the possibility of a death sentence.
