A Florida man was executed Tuesday evening for fatally stabbing a woman during a decades-old home invasion.
Mark Allen Geralds, 58, died at 6:15 p.m. after receiving a three-drug lethal injection at Florida State Prison for the February 1989 murder of Tressa Pettibone. The execution marked Florida’s 18th of the year, extending the state’s record for most executions in a single year, with one more scheduled for next week.
When asked for last words, Geralds addressed someone by name, though the name could not be heard clearly. He said, “I’m sorry that I missed you,” then added, “I loved you every day.” After the injection began, he took several deep breaths, his body quivered and twitched, and his mouth moved as he spoke. Within a few minutes, he was still.
Following the procedure, a Pettibone family advocate spoke on behalf of the family, noting they had endured a lengthy legal journey that sometimes seemed endless. “Tomorrow, when we wake up, it will be the first time in nearly 37 years that we don’t have to worry about another appeal being filed or another law changing that could potentially thwart the justice we have pursued so long,” the statement read.
The Florida Department of Corrections reported that eight people connected to Pettibone were present at the prison for the execution, though it was unclear how many witnessed it in person. None offered remarks to reporters.
Pettibone was attacked inside her Panama City home on Feb. 1, 1989. Later that day, her 8-year-old son returned from school to find his mother fatally stabbed on the kitchen floor, according to court records. Geralds, a carpenter who had remodeled Pettibone’s home about a year earlier, was identified as the assailant.
Evidence showed Geralds had encountered Pettibone and her children at a mall about a week before the killing. Pettibone reportedly told him her husband was away on business. Investigators also found Pettibone’s blood on jewelry Geralds had pawned, and plastic ties found in his car matched those used to restrain Pettibone.
Geralds was convicted of murder, armed robbery, and related charges, and sentenced to death in 1990. The Florida Supreme Court later vacated the sentence but upheld the conviction, leading to a resentencing to death in 1992.
After a death warrant was issued last month and the execution date set, Geralds told a judge he did not wish to pursue further appeals. The judge approved that decision.
Pettibone’s family described her as a faithful wife, loving mother, daughter, sister, aunt, and devoted friend whose world revolved around her loved ones. They recalled her love of the holiday season, describing her as a “Christmas nut” who decorated with lights, multiple trees, and ornate Santa Clauses and reindeer, and who baked cookies, bread, cakes, and pies. The family still displays her handmade crafts each year.
She was “a wonderful person with a family and many friends who cared for her deeply,” the statement said. “Today we have reached the end of a painful chapter and can close this chapter in our lives.”
Including Tuesday’s execution, 45 men have died by state-sanctioned execution in the United States this year, with several more scheduled before year’s end.
Since the Supreme Court authorized the death penalty again in 1976, Florida’s 2014 total of eight executions had been the recent peak in a single year. This year, Florida has carried out more executions than any other state, with another planned next week under death warrants signed by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis.
Frank Athen Walls, 58, is set to become Florida’s 19th execution of the year on Dec. 18. He was convicted of fatally shooting two people during a home-invasion robbery and later confessed to three other killings.
Florida conducts executions by lethal injection, using a sedative, a paralytic, and a drug that stops the heart, according to the state Department of Corrections.
Associated Press reporting included contributions from David Fischer in Miami.
