A man who fatally stabbed a married couple during a robbery is set to be executed in Florida under a death warrant signed Friday by Gov. Ron DeSantis. The state already has put to death more people this year than ever since the death penalty was restored nearly 50 years ago.
Victor Tony Jones, 64, is scheduled to die Sept. 30 in what would be the state's 13th execution scheduled for this year. DeSantis signed the order Friday, a day after Curtis Windom was executed for the 1992 murders of three people in Winter Park.
Another man, David Pittman, is scheduled to die Sept. 17 for fatally stabbing his estranged wife’s sister and parents and then set fire to their Mulberry home in 1990.
Pittman's attorneys appealed to the Florida Supreme Court on Friday to halt the lethal injection after a Polk County judge on Wednesday rejected the claim that Pittman has an intellectual disability.
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Jones was convicted and sentenced to death in 1993 on two counts of first-degree murder. Jurors also found him guilty of two counts of armed robbery.
Jones was a new employee at a Miami-Dade business owned by Matilda and Jacob Nestor in December 1990 when he stabbed the wife in the neck and the husband in the chest. Investigators determined that before he died from his wounds Jacob Nestor managed to retreat to an office. He pulled a .22 caliber pistol from a holster and fired five times, striking Jones once in the forehead.
Police found Jones wounded at the scene with the Nestors' money and personal property in his pockets.
The state Supreme Court is scheduled to hear an appeal, and an appeal will also likely be filed with the U.S. Supreme Court.
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The highest previous annual total of recent Florida executions is eight in 2014, since the death penalty was restored in 1976 by the U.S. Supreme Court. Florida has executed 11 people this year, more than any other state, ahead of Texas and South Carolina which have each executed four people.
A total of 30 people have been executed so far this year in the U.S., exceeding the 25 executions carried out last year. The most recent year with more executions for the entire U.S. was 2014, when 35 people were put to death.
In addition to Windom, Florida inmates executed this year were Kayle Bates on Aug. 19; Edward Zakrzewski on July 31; Michael Bell on July 15; Thomas Gudinas on June 24; Anthony Wainwright on June 10; Glen Rogers on May 15; Jeffrey Hutchinson on May 1; Michael Tanzi on April 8; Edward James on March 20; and James Ford on Feb. 13.
Information from News Service of Florida was used in this report.
