STARK, FL– The man convicted of killing a grocery store owner during a robbery Tuesday evening is set to become the second person executed in Florida this year.
Melvin Trotter, 65, is scheduled to receive a three-drug injection starting at 6 p.m. at the Florida State Prison near Stark. Trotter was initially convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in 1987. However, the Florida Supreme Court found that the lower court had erred in addressing the aggravating factors in Trotter’s case and ordered a new sentence, and Trotter imposed the death penalty again in 1993.
An execution scheduled for Tuesday and another earlier this month in Florida comes on the heels of a There were 19 executions recorded in the state last year In 2025, Governor Ron DeSantis presided over more executions in one year than any other Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in the United States in 1976. Florida’s previous record was eight executions in 2014.
According to court records, Trotter strangled and stabbed Virgie Langford in her Palmetto store in 1986. Langford was found alive after the attack by a truck driver, and she was able to describe her attacker before she eventually died in 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 the grocery store’s meat cooler.
Last week, the Florida Supreme Court rejected Trotter’s appeals. His lawyers said Florida corrections officials mismanaged their death penalty protocols. Lawyers also argued that Trotter’s advanced age of 65 should exempt him from execution.
Trotter’s final appeals are pending before the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday.
A total of 47 people They were executed in the United States in 2025. Florida led the way with a series of death warrants signed by DeSantis. Alabama, South Carolina and Texas tied for second place with five executions each last year.
So far this year, Texas, Oklahoma and Florida have each carried out one execution.
On February 10, A A man was convicted of killing a street vendor Who he and his brother met in a bar became the first person to be 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 other executions are already scheduled to take place in Florida next month: Billy Leon Kearse, 53, is scheduled to receive lethal injection on March 3, and Michael Lee King, 54, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection on March 17.
All executions in Florida are carried out by injection of a sedative, a paralytic, and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Department of Corrections.