Governor Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant for a man found guilty of killing three people in Orange County in 1992 on Tuesday, continuing his swift schedule of executions.
According to the execution warrant available on the Florida Supreme Court website, Curtis Windom, 59, is set to be executed in Florida State Prison on August 28. Windom might become the 11th prisoner to be executed in the state this year, setting a new record.
DeSantis has signed a death warrant to execute Kayle Barrington Bates on August 19 for the 1982 murder of a woman in Bay County, and the state is set to execute Edward Zakrzewski on Thursday for the 1994 killings of his wife and two children in Okaloosa County.
In an attempt to stop his execution, Zakrzewski’s lawyers have petitioned the US Supreme Court. However, the state would surpass a record of eight executions in a single year if he were executed via lethal injection. That record, which was set in 1984 and 2014, reflects the years following the 1976 reinstatement of the death penalty following a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that had stopped executions four years earlier.
Similar to the previous executions, DeSantis provided no further explanation when the Windom death warrant and accompanying paperwork were made public on the Florida Supreme Court website on Tuesday.
However, one of the records, a letter to DeSantis from Attorney General James Uthmeier, described the February 7, 1992, Windom shootings.
According to the paper, Windom asserted that he was owed $2,000 by victim Johnnie Lee. Windom learned that Lee had won $114 at a greyhound track and purchased ammunition and a.38 caliber handgun.
According to the affidavit, Windom shot Lee twice in the back while driving his car near to where Lee was standing a few minutes later. Then, while Lee lay on the ground, he exited the vehicle and fired two additional close-range shots at Lee.
According to the affidavit, Windom then raced to the apartment of Valerie Davis, his erratic girlfriend, and shot her dead. Mary Lubin, Davis’s mother, left work and was driving down the street after finding out that her daughter had been shot.
According to the Uthmeier paper, Windom came up to her car as she stopped at a stop sign, spoke to her, and then shot her twice, killing her. Kenneth Williams, another male, survived the gun spree despite suffering injuries.
This year, the state has executed Jeffrey Hutchinson on May 1, Glen Rogers on May 15, Michael Bell on July 15, Edward James on March 20, James Ford on February 13, Thomas Gudinas on June 24, Anthony Wainwright on June 10, and Michael Tanzi on April 8.
Jim Saunders, Florida News Service
