A man convicted of killing a traveling salesman during a Gainesville robbery is set to become Florida's first execution of this year under a death warrant signed Friday by Gov. Ron DeSantis, who signed off on a record 19 executions last year.
Ronald Palmer Heath, 64, is scheduled to die by lethal injection Feb. 10 at Florida State Prison.
Heath was convicted of first-degree murder, robbery with a death weapon and multiple forgery charges in 1990.
According to court records, Heath and his brother, Kenneth Heath, met traveling salesman Michael Sheridan in Gainesville at the Purple Porpoise Lounge in May 1989. After hanging out at the bar for some time, the three men agreed to go somewhere else to smoke marijuana.
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At some point, the brothers plotted to rob the other man, investigators said. Ronald Heath drove the group to a remote area, where Kenneth Heath pulled a handgun on Sheridan. The man initially refused to give the brothers anything, and Kenneth Heath shot Sheridan in the chest.
As Sheridan emptied his pockets, Ronald Heath began kicking the man and stabbing him with a hunting knife, prosecutors said. Kenneth Heath then shot Sheridan twice in the head.
The brothers dumped Sheridan's body in a wooded area and returned to the bar to take items from his rental car. The brothers made multiple purchases with Sheridan's credit cards the next day at a Oaks Mall in Gaineville.
Ronald Heath was arrested several weeks later at his Douglas, Georgia, home after investigators connected him to the stolen credit cards. Officers recovered clothing purchased with the stolen cards, as well as Sheridan's watch, according to court records.
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Ronald Heath had only been out of prison for six months after serving 10 years of a 30-year sentence for a second-degree murder conviction from 1977.
Kenneth Heath, 60, was also charged with Sheridan's murder, but he was sentenced to life in prison as part of a plea agreement. The judge's sentencing order said he “acted under the power" of his older brother.
Attorneys for Ronald Heath are expected to file appeals to the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court.
In 2025, DeSantis oversaw more executions in a year than any other Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The previous record was eight in 2014.
A total of 47 people were executed in the U.S. in 2025, led by Florida's 19.
