SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. — After deliberating for less than two hours Thursday afternoon, a jury found Thomas Garner guilty of killing Navy recruit Pamela Cahanes in Seminole County more than 30 years ago.
After he was convicted for first-degree premeditated murder, the judge sentenced him to life in prison.
Prosecutors said Garner’s DNA was founder under Cahanes’ fingernails and in the victim’s underwear.
Garner, of Jacksonville, was arrested in 2019 for the 1984 cold case murder of Cahanes, who was found murdered and sexually assaulted in the yard of an abandoned home in Sanford.
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Garner took the stand on Monday and admitted he may have had sex with Cahanes, but he didn’t kill her.
Cahanes’ sisters spoke out after the verdict was reached on Thursday.
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“I’m elated,” her sister Eileen Bergmann said. “I feel a sense of relief that it’s over, it’s done, finally after all these years. I guess I couldn’t give up because Pam was not here to speak for herself, and so somebody had to.”
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