TALLAHASSEE FLORIDA, A man convicted of killing a grocery store owner during a robbery is set to become Florida’s second execution of 2026 under a death warrant signed Friday by Gov. Ron DeSantis, who approved a record number of executions last year.
Melvin Trotter, 65, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Feb. 24 at Florida State Prison. DeSantis, a Republican, authorized 19 executions in 2025, the most carried out in a single year by a Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The previous record was eight executions in 2014.
Following a pause in January, Florida appears poised to resume a pace of two executions per month, a pattern the state maintained from May through December of last year. Ronald Palmer Heath, 64, is scheduled to be executed on Feb. 10, two weeks before Trotter.
Trotter was originally convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in 1987. The Florida Supreme Court later ruled that the trial court had improperly handled aggravating factors in the case and ordered a new sentencing. He was resentenced to death in 1993.
Court records state that Trotter strangled and stabbed grocery store owner Virgie Langford in 1986 at her store in Palmetto. A truck driver discovered Langford alive following the attack, and she was able to describe her assailant before later dying at a hospital.
In addition to describing the attacker’s physical appearance, Langford told authorities that he wore a Tropicana employee badge with the name “Melvin.” Investigators later found a T-shirt with Langford’s blood type at Trotter’s home and identified Trotter’s handprint on a meat cooler inside the grocery store, according to court documents.
Attorneys representing Trotter are expected to file appeals with the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court.
A total of 47 people were executed in the United States in 2025, the highest number since 2009. Florida accounted for the largest share, following a series of death warrants signed by DeSantis.
