Inmate executed for 1996 murders of two women he met in Florida bars a day apart

A man convicted of killing two women he met in bars a day apart in Florida in 1996 was executed by lethal injection on Tuesday evening, Florida’s Department of Corrections said.

Michael Duane Zack III, 54, was executed at Florida State Prison after he was convicted and sentenced to death for the June 1996 murders of Ravonne Smith and Laura Rosillo.

The convicted murderer met with his wife and spiritual adviser on Tuesday prior to his execution and declined the last meal offered to him, the Department of Corrections said.

The 54-year-old was pronounced dead minutes after 6.14pm after receiving a lethal injection. Asked if he had any last words, he answered, “Yes sir.” He then lifted his head to look at the witnesses and said, “I love you all.”

Zack’s nine-day crime spree began at a bar in Tallahassee where he stole a pickup truck after a bartender offered to let him stay in it after his girlfriend called and said he was being evicted.

The convicted murderer then drove to a bar in Niceville in the Florida Panhandle, where he stole two guns and $42 from a construction worker he befriended.

At yet another bar, he met Rosillo and invited her to the beach to do drugs. He then beat her, dragged her partially clothed into the dunes, strangled her and kicked sand over her face, according to court records.

The next day, Zack met Smith at a Pensacola bar before the pair went to Smith’s home together.

At the home, Zack smashed her over the head with a bottle, slammed her head into the floor, raped her and stabbed her four times in the center of the chest with the oyster knife, court records show.

He then stole the woman’s television, VCR and purse and tried to pawn the electronics before fleeing and hiding in an empty house for two days after the pawn shop suspected the items were stolen, according to court records.

Zack admitted to killing Smith after he was arrested, saying he became enraged and beat her when she made a comment about his mother’s murder, which his sister committed.

The now-54-year-old said he stabbed Smith in self-defence when he thought she was going to another room to get a gun.

The US Supreme Court denied a request to halt his execution on Monday after attorneys for Zack requested a stay of execution last week, court records show.

Zack’s attorneys previously argued he “suffers from fetal alcohol syndrome and posttraumatic stress disorder which are classified as a brain dysfunction and a mental impairment respectively.”

They alleged on the basis of Zack’s conditions, it was wrong for the court to “deny his claim that he is intellectually disabled,” according to court filings.

On Thursday, attorneys for the state of Florida filed a response opposing the stay of execution, court records show, before the Supreme Court denied an appeal on Monday.

Zack’s execution was the eighth under Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the sixth in the state this year, according to state death row data.

Associated Press contributed to this report