Joan Loughman




Summary of Offense:

A judge in Fort Pierce said that the former nursing home administrator, convicted by a jury of killing Joan Loughman, should pay the ultimate penalty for the 2002 murder. "It's such a heinous crime, and he deserved the death penalty," said Loughman's daughter, Karen Stillman of Danbury. It's the second time Gosciminski was found guilty of the murder and the second time a judge sentenced him to die. Another jury convicted him of killing Loughman in 2005, but the Florida Supreme Court later ruled that prosecutors had improperly introduced evidence and ordered a new trial. "It was bittersweet," said Stillman, who lives in Danbury. "Six of the jurors from the trial were at the sentencing. They said they came back to support the family."

Loughman, who worked for a Brookfield chiropractor and was a longtime volunteer with the Girl Scouts of America, was beaten and stabbed to death in her father's Fort Pierce condominium in September 2002. The mother of two adult daughters, and the wife of Danbury resident Thomas Loughman, she had gone to Florida several weeks earlier to help her ailing father move into an assisted living facility. Her father died the day after Loughman was beaten and stabbed to death.

Gosciminski was the community outreach director at the facility Loughman eventually selected, and prosecutors said he killed her so he could steal $40,000 worth of jewelry, including the two-carat diamond ring she inherited from her mother. Judge Robert Belanger also sentenced Gosciminksi to life in prison for burglary and robbery charges stemming from the same crime. Under Florida law, the case will automatically be reviewed by the state's high court. "Because he gets another appeal, this time we're just taking it one day at a time," Stillman said.

Gosciminski was re-sentenced to death in St. Lucie County on November 6, 2009.