TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A man convicted of raping and fatally beating his former manager at a Florida convenience store is scheduled to be put to death in November under a death warrant signed Tuesday by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is setting a record pace for executions.
Richard Barry Randolph, 63, is scheduled to die by lethal injection Nov. 20 at Florida State Prison. Randolph would be the 17th person set for execution in Florida in 2025, with DeSantis overseeing more executions in a single year than any other Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The previous record was set in 2014 with eight executions.
DeSantis signed the death warrant a week before the Oct. 28 scheduled execution of Norman Mearle Grim Jr. Another convicted killer, Bryan Fredrick Jennings, is set to die Nov. 13.
Randolph was convicted of murder, armed robbery, sexual battery and grand theft and sentenced to death in 1989.
According to court records, Randolph attempted to break into the safe at the Handy-Way convenience store in Patatka, where he had previously worked, in August 1988. Randolph was spotted by the manager, Minnie Ruth McCollum, and the two began to struggle. Randolph then beat, strangled, stabbed and raped McCollum before leaving the store and taking the woman’s car.
Three women witnessed Randolph leaving the store and called the sheriff’s office after seeing through the window that the store was in disarray. A deputy responded and found McCollum still alive. She was taken to a hospital in a coma and died six days later of severe brain injuries, according to doctors.
Randolph was arrested shortly after the attack at a Jacksonville grocery store while trying to borrow money and cash in lottery tickets stolen from the convenience store, according to deputies. Investigators said Randolph admitted to the attack and directed them to bloody clothing that he had discarded.
Attorneys for Randolph are expected to file appeals to the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court.
So far Samuel Lee Smithers, convicted of killing two women whose bodies were left in a rural pond.
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