Florida to put man to death for a triple murder in record 11th execution this year | iNFOnews | Thompson-Okanagan's News Source
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Florida to put man to death for a triple murder in record 11th execution this year

This image provided by the Florida Department of Corrections shows Curtis Windom. (Florida Department of Corrections via AP)
Original Publication Date August 27, 2025 - 8:51 PM

STARKE, Fla. (AP) — A man convicted of killing his girlfriend, her mother and a man he claimed owed him $2,000 is scheduled to receive a lethal injection Thursday in what would be a record 11th execution in the state of Florida this year.

Curtis Windom, 59, would become the 30th person executed this year in the U.S., with Florida leading the way behind a flurry of death warrants signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. A 12th man, David Joseph Pittman, 63, is scheduled to be put to death in Florida on Sept. 17.

Windom, whose final appeals for a stay were rejected Wednesday by the U.S. Supreme Court, is scheduled to be executed at Florida State Prison near Starke. Prison officials said before the scheduled execution that Windom woke up at 5 a.m. and “was in good spirits.” He had no visitors Thursday and had a last meal of ribs, baked beans, collard greens, potato salad and a slice of pie.

Windom was sentenced to die for the Nov. 7, 1992, killing of Johnnie Lee, Valerie Davis and Mary Lubin in the Orlando area.

Court records show a friend told Windom that day that Lee, who supposedly owed Windom $2,000, had won $114 at a greyhound racetrack. Windom told the friend that “you're gonna read about me” and that he planned to kill Lee.

Windom went to a Walmart to buy a .38-caliber revolver and a box of 50 shells, according to court testimony. Not long after, Windom drove to find Lee, located him and shot him twice in the back from his car, followed by two more shots standing over the victim at close range.

Then Windom ran to Davis' apartment and fatally shot his girlfriend “with no provocation” in front of a friend who witnessed the murder, court records show. Windom randomly shot and wounded another man before encountering Davis' mother, Mary Lubin, as she drove to her daughter's apartment. Lubin was shot twice in her car at a stop sign.

Windom received death sentences for the murders and a 22-year sentence for the attempted murder. Davis was the mother of one of Windom's children, a daughter who has been campaigning to halt her father's execution.

“We’ve all been traumatized,” the daughter, Curtisia Windom, told the Orlando Sentinel. “It hurt. It hurt a lot. Life was not easy growing up. But if we could forgive him, I don’t see why people on the street who haven’t been through our pain have a right to say he should die.”

A group called Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty said in a statement Thursday that it had delivered more than 5,000 petition signatures to the governor, urging him to stop the execution plans. The statement noted that Curtisia Windom was among those calling for mercy.

“Forgiveness comes with time, and 33 years is a long time. I, myself, have forgiven my father,” the inmate's daughter was quoted in the statement as saying.

Windom's lawyers have filed numerous appeals over the years, including a claim that evidence of his mental problems should have been introduced at trial. But the Florida Supreme Court ruled that was not prejudicial against Windom because prosecutors then would have presented evidence that he was a drug dealer and the two women he killed were police informants.

Many of Windom's appeals have focused on claims that he was represented by an incompetent lawyer when it came to presenting mental health evidence.

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, while Texas and South Carolina are tied for second place with four each.

The most recent execution in Florida took place on Aug. 19 when Kayle Bates, 67, was put to death for the killing of a woman he abducted from a Florida Panhandle insurance office.

Florida executions are carried out using a three-drug lethal injection — a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the state Department of Corrections.

News from © The Associated Press, 2025
 The Associated Press

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