Month: May 2021

James Rose Florida Death Row

james rose

James Rose was sentenced to death by the State of Florida for the murder of eight year old Lisa Lynn Berry. According to court documents James Rose would kidnap, sexually assault and murder the little girl. James Rose was arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. In 2018 James Rose would plead guilty to the murder of Jean Savage who was sexually assaulted and murdered in her own home in 1975. James Rose is currently the longest serving death row inmate in Florida

Florida Death Row Inmate List

James Rose 2021 Information

DC Number:011225
Name:ROSE, JAMES F
Race:WHITE
Sex:MALE
Birth Date:12/19/1945
Initial Receipt Date:10/14/1971
Current Facility:UNION C.I.
Current Custody:MAXIMUM
Current Release Date:DEATH SENTENCE

James Rose More News

For more than 43 years, James Franklin Rose had gotten away with the murder of Jean Savage, a suburban Delray Beach woman who was beaten, raped and murdered inside her home in 1975.

But justice finally caught up with Rose on Monday after he was given a life sentence without the possibility of parole by Circuit Judge Laura S. Johnson during a brief hearing. The sentence came as the result of a plea agreement between Rose and prosecutors, who agreed not to pursue the death penalty.

Rose, 72, testified by satellite television from Union Correctional Institute in Raiford, where he is already on death row following his conviction for killing an 8-year-old Broward County girl in 1975.

Wearing dark, wrap-around glasses to protect failing eyesight and unable to hear most of the questions asked of him, Rose said little beyond responding to a few queries from the judge.

A Palm Beach County sheriff’s detective who investigated the case told The Palm Beach Post at time was “among the most brutal murders” he had investigated.

While the outcome of Monday’s hearing wasn’t a surprise, Assistant State Attorney Reid Scott dropped a bombshell by stating in court that Rose admitted to detectives that he killed Savage after being given a house key and money from Edwin Savage, Jean’s husband.

No other testimony was given Monday to support Rose’s claim that Edwin Savage played a role in his wife’s murder.

“You, sir, are the devil incarnate,” Shirley Harner, a friend of Savage, said to Rose during Monday’s hearing.

Harner, of Boca Raton, was 19 when Savage was murdered on April 4, 1975. The women became friends because of their mutual interest in cats and Harner was supposed to meet Savage on the morning of her death. Harner said Savage was “the big sister I never had.”

“Mr. Rose has haunted me for 43 years, five months and 15 days,” Harner testified. “Your acts were not that of a human.”

Rose did not make any comments or show any emotion during Harner’s testimony. Given the chance by the judge to make a final comment before sentencing, Rose declined.

Savage’s murder produced few initial leads and then turned cold until 2015. That’s when PBSO’s cold-case unit processed the initial evidence from the murder and came up with a match. DNA evidence connected Rose to the murder and he admitted his involvement during an interview with sheriff’s detectives. In September 2015, a grand jury indicted Rose.

It was during that interview that Rose detailed Edwin Savage’s alleged role in his wife’s murder. Rose allegedly told detectives he was paid to “execute” Jean Savage.

Edwin Savage told authorities he found his wife’s nude body on the floor of a guest room after returning to the couple’s exclusive subdivision residence off Hagen Ranch Road on the night of the murder.

Edwin Savage died four years after the murder, according to published reports.

Harner said she long suspected Edwin Savage’s involvement in the murder and believed Jean Savage to be a battered woman.

“I’m glad it came out today,” she said of the husband’s alleged involvement.

Harner said she planned to visit Jean Savage’s grave on Monday night “and let her know she was not forgotten.”

Rose has been on death row for about 40 years for the murder of Lisa Lynn Berry, an 8-year-old girl whose beaten and nude body was bound by a canal in Davie.

Rose had been romantically linked with the girl’s mother, before the woman broke off the relationship. According to court documents, Rose picked up Lisa at a bowling alley where her mother worked and the girl was never seen alive again.

The girl was found four days later. Prosecutors said she was killed with a hammer.

https://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/20181119/death-row-inmate-pleads-guilty-to-1975-cold-case-murder

Thomas Pope Florida Death Row

thomas pope

Thomas Pope was sentenced to death by the State of Florida for the murders of Kristine Walters, Al Doranz and Caesar Di Russo. According to court documents Thomas Pope would shoot and kill Al Doranz and Caesar Di Russo at Kristine Walters home. Two days later the body of Kristine Walters would be found. Thomas Pope would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Florida Death Row Inmate List

Thomas Pope 2021 Information

DC Number:083040
Name:POPE, THOMAS D
Race:WHITE
Sex:MALE
Birth Date:01/29/1949
Initial Receipt Date:04/09/1982
Current Facility:UNION C.I.
Current Custody:MAXIMUM
Current Release Date:DEATH SENTENCE

Thomas Pope More News

On January 19, 1981, the bodies of Al Doranz and Caesar Di Russo were discovered in an apartment rented to Kristine Walters.   Both had been dead several days but Di Russo’s body was in a more advanced state of decomposition than Doranz’s.   Both victims had been shot, Doranz three times and Di Russo five times.   A spent .22 caliber shell casing was found under Di Russo’s body.   Three days later, the body of Kristine Walters was found floating in a canal.   She had been shot six times with exploding ammunition, her skull was fractured and she had been thrown into the canal while still breathing.

All three victims had been shot with exploding ammunition, so ballistics comparison was impossible.   However, parts of an AR–7 rifle were found in the canal near Walters’s body and the spent shell casing under Di Russo’s body had been fired from an AR–7 weapon.

Investigation led to appellant’s girlfriend, Susan Eckard, and ultimately police were able to show that Doranz purchased an AR–7 rifle for Pope shortly before the murder.   Eckard and Pope admitted being with Doranz and Walters at Walters’s apartment on Friday night, the night Doranz and Di Russo were killed.   Eckard later testified that Pope had arranged a drug deal with Doranz and Di Russo.   She stated that she and Pope left Walters’s apartment to visit Clarence “Buddy” Lagle and to pick up some hamburgers.   They then returned to the apartment where Pope and Doranz convinced Walters to go with Eckard to the apartment where Pope had been staying.

Later that same night, Pope arrived at his apartment and told the women there had been trouble and that Doranz had been injured but that it was best for Walters to stay away from him for a while.   Eckard said she knew that Di Russo and Doranz were dead, and that she had known Pope intended to kill them at this point.   The next day, Walters checked into a nearby motel, where Pope supplied her with quaaludes and cocaine.   On Sunday, Pope told Walters he would take her to see Doranz.   Eckard testified that Pope had told her that he knew he had to get rid of Walters but that he regretted it because he had become fond of her.   According to Eckard, Pope described Walters’s murder when he returned and said the gun had broken when he beat Walters over the head with it.   The next day Eckard went with Pope to the scene of the crime to collect fragments of the broken stock and to look for the missing trigger assembly and receiver.

Buddy Lagle told the police he had made a silencer for the AR–7 rifle at Pope’s request.   Because Lagle planned to leave the jurisdiction to take a job on a ship in the Virgin Islands, he was deposed on videotape pursuant to an order granting the state’s motion to perpetuate testimony.   When the state was unable to produce him at trial, the videotape was admitted into evidence.

Pope v. State, 441 So.2d 1073, 1074–75 (Fla.1983).   As noted, Pope’s ex-girlfriend, Susan Eckard,1 testified against him at trial, providing much of the damaging testimony.   Pope also testified, denying that he had killed anyone.

Pope was convicted on three counts of first degree murder for the deaths of Caesar Di Russo, Albert Preston Doranz, and Kristine A. Walters.   After the jury’s guilty verdict, but before the penalty phase, Pope and his trial counsel 2 had this exchange with the court, outside the jury’s presence:

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-11th-circuit/1600950.html

Omar Blanco Florida Death Row

omar blanco

Omar Blanco was sentenced to death by the State of Florida for the robbery and murder of John Ryan. According to court documents Omar Blanco broke into the home of John Ryan and in the process of robbing it would shoot and kill the victim. Omar Blanco would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Florida Death Row Inmate List

Omar Blanco 2021 Information

DC Number:084582
Name:BLANCO, OMAR
Race:WHITE
Sex:MALE
Birth Date:07/04/1950
Initial Receipt Date:06/23/1982
Current Facility:UNION C.I.
Current Custody:MAXIMUM
Current Release Date:DEATH SENTENCE

Omar Blanco More News

 Omar Blanco broke into John Ryan’s home at 11 p.m., January 14, 1982, struggled with Ryan, and shot him.   As Ryan fell onto a bed, Blanco shot him six more times.   Blanco was arrested a few minutes later and was identified at the scene by a neighbor.   Blanco’s wallet, driver’s license, and keys were found at the scene.   The next day, he was identified by Ryan’s niece, Thalia, who had confronted him in her lighted bedroom for several minutes just before the shooting.  (It was Thalia’s bed that Ryan fell onto when he was first shot, and she was lying underneath him when he was shot six more times.)

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/fl-supreme-court/1312946.html

Bruce Pace Florida Death Row

bruce pace

Bruce Pace was sentenced to death by the State of Florida for the robbery and murder of Floyd Covington. According to court documents Bruce Pace would fatally shoot Floyd Covington during a robbery. Bruce Pace would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Florida Death Row Inmate List

Bruce Pace 2021 Information

DC Number:084643
Name:PACE, BRUCE D
Race:BLACK
Sex:MALE
Birth Date:12/12/1959
Initial Receipt Date:06/28/1982
Current Facility:UNION C.I.
Current Custody:MAXIMUM
Current Release Date:DEATH SENTENCE

Bruce Pace More News

On November 7, 1989, investigators found Floyd Covington’s bloodstained taxicab in a wooded area.   Bloodstain patterns indicated that Covington was shot while he was sitting in the driver’s seat, with the first shot coming from the passenger’s side.   Covington’s body was found three days later in another wooded area approximately twelve miles from where the taxicab was found.   Covington had been shot twice with a shotgun.   Serology testing showed that the blood in the taxicab was consistent with Covington’s type.   An investigation led police to Pace, who was an acquaintance of Covington’s.

During Pace’s trial, the State presented evidence that Pace was seen driving Covington’s taxicab on the morning of the murder;  Pace’s clothing had bloodstains that were consistent with Covington’s blood type;  Pace’s fingerprint was found on the driver-side window of the taxicab;  and Pace stated to a witness the night before the murder that he was going to do something he hated to do because he needed money.   Pace’s stepfather testified that Pace informed him that after Covington had given Pace a ride to his stepfather’s home, Pace entered the home through an open window and was choked to unconsciousness.   Pace told his stepfather that he awoke in the woods, lying next to a shotgun and Covington’s car, and after noticing blood in the car, he grabbed the gun and left the scene.   Also, on the morning after the murder, Pace’s stepfather recovered from the front yard of his house two shotgun shells that were consistent with the type used to kill Covington.   Pace had possession of the shotgun believed to be the murder weapon.   A jury convicted Pace of first-degree murder and armed robbery.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/fl-supreme-court/1378805.html

Milford Byrd Florida Death Row

milford byrd

Milford Byrd was sentenced to death by the State of Florida for the murder of his wife Debra Byrd. According to court documents Milford Byrd would hire two men to murder his wife at the motel that the couple owned. Milford Byrd would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Florida Death Row Inmate List

Milford Byrd 2021 Information

DC Number:085488
Name:BYRD, MILFORD W
Race:WHITE
Sex:MALE
Birth Date:09/11/1949
Initial Receipt Date:08/18/1982
Current Facility:UNION C.I.
Current Custody:MAXIMUM
Current Release Date:DEATH SENTENCE

Milford Byrd More News

  We briefly summarize them to provide context for the issues raised here.   Byrd, who managed a motel in Tampa, confessed to police that when his wife refused to give him a divorce, he hired two of his motel’s residents-Ronald Sullivan and James Endress-to kill her.   On the evening of October 12, 1981, however, all three men participated in the murder, in which Debra Byrd was shot and then strangled to death in the motel office.   All three men were charged with first-degree murder.   Byrd and Endress were tried separately, and Sullivan testified for the State at both trials.   In exchange for his truthful testimony at Byrd’s trial, Sullivan negotiated a plea agreement under which he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and received a term of probation

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/fl-supreme-court/1057620.html