Florida man convicted of fatally stabbing couple in a 1990 robbery is set to be executed

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STARKE, Fla. (AP) — A man convicted of fatally stabbing a married couple during a 1990 robbery in South Florida is scheduled to be executed on Tuesday evening.

Victor Tony Jones, 64, is set to receive a lethal injection starting at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke under a death warrant signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. It would be Florida's 13th death sentence carried out in 2025, further extending the state record for total executions in a single year.

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, followed by Texas with five. Two more executions are planned next month in Florida.

On Tuesday, Jones awoke at 4:30 a.m., and later met witha spiritual adviser but had no other visitors, according to a corrections department spokesman. He remained compliant with prison officials and received a meal of fried chicken, collard greens and sweet tea, the spokesman added.

Jones was convicted and sentenced to death in 1993 on two counts of first-degree murder. Jurors also found him guilty of two counts of armed robbery.

Jones was a new employee at a Miami-Dade business owned by Matilda and Jacob Nestor in December 1990 when he stabbed the wife in the neck and the husband in the chest. Investigators determined that before he died from his wounds, Jacob Nestor managed to retreat to an office. He pulled a .22 caliber pistol from a holster and fired five times, striking Jones once in the forehead.

Police found Jones wounded at the scene with the Nestors’ money and personal property in his pockets. Jones was subsequently hospitalized.

Jones filed an appeal with the Florida Supreme Court earlier this month, based on intellectual disability and alleged abuse he suffered as a teen at a since shuttered state-run reform school. Justices denied the claims, finding that the disability issue had already been litigated and allegations of abuse were never presented during Jones' trial.

An appeal was filed Saturday with the U.S. Supreme Court, but the justices denied it without comment just hours ahead of Tuesday's planned execution.

A total of 33 men have died by court-ordered execution so far this year in the U.S., and at least eight other people are scheduled to be put to death during the remainder of 2025.

Samuel Lee Smithers, 72, is set to become the 14th person executed in Florida on Oct. 14. He was convicted of killing two women whose bodies were found in a rural pond in 1996.

Norman Mearle Grim Jr., 65, is scheduled for Florida’s 15th execution on Oct. 28. He was convicted of raping and killing his neighbor, whose body was found by a fisherman near the Pensacola Bay Bridge in 1998.

Florida's most recent execution was carried out Sept 17: David Pittman, 63, received a lethal injection for killing his estranged wife’s sister and parents and setting their house on fire in 1990 around the time Pittman and his wife were going through a contentious divorce.

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.

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