Former College Cheerleader Found Guilty in the Murders of Three Women; Prosecutors Seeking Death Penalty

A former college cheerleader has been found guilty in the deaths of three Florida female sex workers.

On Tuesday, Robert Hayes, 39, was found guilty of murdering three women after DNA linked him to the victims after another killing took place in Palm Beach County, Hayes was working there as a chef, NBC News reports. Hayes killed the women 15 years ago, and he was arrested in 2019. 

During his senior year at Bethune-Cookman University, the bodies of the murdered women were found in Daytona Beach. He graduated from the school in 2006. Laquetta Gunther, 45, was found in between an auto parts store in a nearly empty utility building in 2005. Julie Green, 34, was found in 2006 on a dirty road at a construction site. Iwana Patton, 35, was found on Feb. 24 on a dirt road. 

NBC News reports all of the women were completely nude, lying face to the floor with a gunshot wound in the head. The gun used was a .40 caliber handgun. While looking into everyone who’d purchased a similar gun to the one connected to the killings, police questioned Hayes but never arrested him. 

Prosecutors are reportedly seeking the death penalty for Hayes. Hayes, may also be the killer of 32-year-old Rachel Bey, who was found in 2016 strangled and with her jaw and teeth broken.