Florida Executes Man for 1986 Murder

A man convicted of killing a 70-year-old grocery store owner was put to death Tuesday in Florida, becoming the second person executed by the state this year after a record 19 executions in 2025. Melvin Trotter, 65, was pronounced dead at 6:15pm following a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke for the 1986 stabbing death of Virgie Langford, according to authorities. Alex Lanfranconi, a spokesman for Gov. Ron DeSantis, said there were no complications.

• Trotter was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in 1987. After the state Supreme Court found the trial court erred in handling aggravating factors in his case, he again drew the death penalty at resentencing in 1993.

• According to court records, Trotter stabbed and strangled Langford on June 16, 1986, at her store in Palmetto near the southern edge of Tampa Bay, the AP reports. Afterward, a truck driver found Langford bleeding but alive on the back floor of the store, and she provided key details about her attacker before dying at a hospital.
• Besides recalling Trotter's physical appearance, Langford said he had a Tropicana employee badge with the name "Melvin" on it. According to court records, police later found a T-shirt with Langford's blood type at Trotter's home and the man's handprint on a meat cooler at the store.
• The Florida Supreme Court recently denied appeals in which Trotter's attorneys argued officials had mismanaged his death penalty protocols. They also argued Trotter's advanced age of 65 should exempt him from execution. The US Supreme Court denied Trotter's final appeal Tuesday.
• On Feb. 10, a man convicted of killing a traveling salesperson became the first person executed in Florida this year. Ronald Palmer Heath, 64, received a lethal injection for the 1989 killing of Michael Sheridan. Two more Florida executions are scheduled next month starting with Billy Leon Kearse on March 3 and Michael Lee King on March 17.