Florida set to execute man convicted in 1989 home invasion killing
STARKE, Fla. (AP) — A man convicted of stabbing and beating a woman to death during a home invasion robbery more than 30 years ago is scheduled to be executed Tuesday evening in Florida.
Mark Allen Geralds, 58, was set to receive a lethal injection starting at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison for the February 1989 murder of Tressa Pettibone. If carried out, the execution would be the 18th in Florida in 2025, further extending the state record for total executions in a single year.
Geralds was convicted of murder, armed robbery and other charges and sentenced to death in 1990. The Florida Supreme Court later vacated the sentence but affirmed the conviction, and Geralds was resentenced to death in 1992.
According to court records, Pettibone’s 8-year-old son found his mother beaten and stabbed to death on the kitchen floor of their Panama City home in 1989. Geralds was a carpenter who had previously done remodeling work at the home.
Geralds ran into Pettibone and her children at a shopping mall about a week before the killing, and Pettibone mentioned that her husband was away on business. Geralds later approached Pettibone's son at the video arcade and asked when the boy's father would return and what time he and his sister left for and returned from school each day, according to court records.
Investigators found that Geralds pawned jewelry with traces of Pettibone’s blood on it, and plastic ties used to bind Pettibone matched ties found in Geralds’ car.
After a death warrant was signed last month and his execution date set, Geralds told a judge he did not wish to pursue any further appeals. The judge signed off on that decision.
A total of 44 men have died by court-ordered execution so far this year in the U.S., and a handful of executions are scheduled for the rest of the year.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court restored the death penalty in 1976, the highest previous annual total of Florida executions was eight in 2014. Florida has executed more people than any other state this year. Another execution is planned next week in the state under death warrants signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Frank Athen Walls, 58, is scheduled for Florida’s 19th execution this year on Dec. 18. He was convicted of fatally shooting a man and woman during a home invasion robbery and later confessing to three other killings.
Florida executions are by lethal injection using a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the state Department of Corrections.
