1984 Murder of Christmas Tree Salesman in Ft. Walton Beach Officially Closed

Matt Boster

Viewed: 6229

Posted by: Matt Boster
Date: Feb 15 2016 12:47 PM

Thirty-two years after a Christmas tree salesman was bludgeoned to death near Fort Walton Beach, the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office is officially closing the case due to the death of the murder suspect in a Texas prison.

The body of 78-year old Glynn Jernigan of Marianna was found early December 13th, 1984 in one of his cars at a Christmas tree lot near Racetrack Road and Jackson Street. He had been beaten to death with a hammer. Another of his vehicle’s had been stolen and was located in Navarre.

Investigators considered serial killer Frank Walls a possible suspect in the crime but in 2010, the OCSO learned that the Latent Print section of the FDLE Lab had been uploading fingerprints submitted from cold case murders and had gotten a match on prints taken from light bulbs at the crime scene. Those prints matched a man identified as Robert Wayne Wesson, who was serving time in Texas for a 1985 robbery and murder. The FDLE began assisting the OCSO to work to contact family and determine why Wesson would have been in the Okaloosa area during December 1984.

Wesson’s fingerprints also matched ones found inside the victim’s car and on alcohol bottles at the scene. During Investigator Bob Grappone’s initial interview with Wesson in 2011, Wesson didn’t deny responsibility for Jernigan’s murder but said he did not remember the incident. He said he was in Florida while on the run after escaping from the Wood
County Jail in September 1984 and had been living on the streets, traveling around. At a later interview in 2012, Wesson said his recollection was fuzzy because he had been drunk. However in a letter to a family member, Wesson wrote that he had been working with the old man and drinking and they got into an argument.

He said the old man struck him with something and that he took the item and began hitting him with it until the victim was not moving, and then he fled. Jernigan was found to have 17
lacerations to his head from the hammer, as well as a fractured skull, lacerations to his left hand, and other abrasions and contusions. Those injuries were to the back of Jernigan’s head and to the back of his hands.

Although Wesson presented his case as self-defense, Investigator Grappone noted that Wesson was in his mid-thirties and the victim was a frail man in his late seventies at the time of the crime. He says Wesson “would have no problem protecting himself
without beating the man to death” and would “have had no problem retreating” to safety.
Investigator Grappone and the FDLE continued investigating and preparing to submit to the State Attorney’s Office for consideration of extradition and prosecution before Wesson was scheduled to be released from the Texas prison in August 2015.

However Wesson died in prison in June 2015. The case was submitted for review to the State Attorney’s Office, which agreed on February 9th with our investigation that it could be officially closed with the death of the offender, Robert Wesson.

<- back