Florida executed a man Tuesday for stabbing, strangling grocery store owner in 1986 for their second one this year
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 6:15 p.m. following a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke for the 1986 stabbing death of Virgie Langford.
The curtain to the execution chamber went up at the scheduled 6 p.m. execution time. Trotter declined to give a last statement and the drugs began flowing about two minutes later. Trotter began to breath heavily and twitch about a minute afterward. Then his movements slowed about two minutes later.
The prison warden checked Trotter's face and shouted his name, but there was no reaction. A medic was then called in at 6:14 p.m. to check the inmate's vital signs and Trotter was declared dead a minute later.
According to court records, Trotter strangled and stabbed Virgie Langford at her store in Palmetto in 1986. A truck driver found Langford alive after the attack, and she was able to describe her attacker before eventually dying at a hospital.
Besides recalling Trotter's physical appearance, Langford said her attacker 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 grocery store.
Last week, the Florida Supreme Court denied appeals filed by Trotter. His attorneys had argued that Florida corrections officials had mismanaged its own death penalty protocols. Attorneys also argued that Trotter's advanced age of 65 should exempt him from execution.
Trotter's final appeals were still pending Tuesday before the U.S. Supreme Court.
A total of 47 people were executed in the U.S. in 2025. Florida led the way with a flurry of death warrants signed by DeSantis. Alabama, South Carolina and Texas tied for second with five executions each last year.
So far this year, Texas, Oklahoma and Florida have carried out one execution each.
On Feb. 10, a man convicted of killing a traveling salesperson who he and his brother had met at a bar become the first person executed in Florida this year. Ronald Palmer Heath, 64, was convicted of first-degree murder and other charges in the 1989 killing of Michael Sheridan.
Two more Florida executions have already been scheduled for next month: Billy Leon Kearse, 53, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection on March 3, and Michael Lee King, 54, on March 17.
All Florida executions are carried out by injecting a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Department of Corrections.