December 2021 | Page 21 of 26

Manuel Pardo Jr was executed by the State of Florida for nine murders. Manuel Pardo Jr was a former police officer who over a three month period would murder six men and three women. Manuel Pardo Jr would later deny the murders of the three women and believed he was doing the right thing by murdering the six men who according to him were all involved in the drug trade. Manuel Pardo Jr would be executed by lethal injection on December 11, 2012

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A former police officer who murdered nine people during a 1986 crime spree was executed Tuesday after his attorneys’ last-minute appeals were rejected.

Manuel Pardo, 56, was pronounced dead at Florida State Prison at 7:47 p.m., about 16 minutes after the lethal injection process began. His attorneys had tried to block the execution by arguing that he was mentally ill, but federal courts declined to intercede.

Reporters could not hear his final statement because of an apparent malfunction in the death chamber’s sound system. A white sheet had been pulled up to his chin and IV lines ran into his left arm. He blinked several times, his eyes moved back and forth and he took several deep breaths. Over the next several minutes the color drained from his face before he was pronounced dead.

Prison officials said his final words were, “Airborne forever. I love you, Michi baby,” referring to his daughter.

Manuel Pardo also wrote a final statement that was distributed to the media, in which he claimed that he never killed any women, but “accepted full responsibility for killing six men.

“I never harmed those 3 women or any female. I took the blame as I knew I was doomed and it made no difference to me, at this time, having 6 or 9 death sentences,” he wrote on Dec. 11, hours before his execution. “I don’t want this hanging over my head, especially these last few minutes of life, because my war was against men who were trafficing (sic) in narcotics and no one else!”

Officials said most of Pardo’s victims were involved with drugs. Pardo contended that he was doing the world a favor by killing them over three-month period in early 1986.

“I am a soldier, I accomplished my mission and I humbly ask you to give me the glory of ending my life and not send me to spend the rest of my days in state prison,” Pardo told jurors at his 1988 trial.

Frank Judd, the nephew of victim Fara Quintero read a statement following the execution, which was witnessed by fewer than 10 family members of the victims.

Judd thanked the state of Florida for bringing closure to his family and said the pain he and his relatives feel about the murder of Quintero “continues to this day.”

“Personally, I don’t feel that what happened today was enough justice,” he said, adding that Pardo was a “disturbed soul.”

Pardo’s final letter apologized to his family for the “pain and grief” he caused.

“You all are so loving and wonderful, not deserving of this nightmare,” he wrote. He asked his family to please not suffer and to “be strong.” He mentioned his daughter Michi in the written statement.

“Remember Michi you are Airborne and hardcore…No tears!” he wrote.

Manuel Pardo also touched on his love of sports, devoting one of three paragraphs in his letter to baseball, soccer and bullfighting.

“On a lighter note, as a New Yorker and loyal fan, I was happy to see my Yankees and Giants win so many championships during my lifetime,” Pardo wrote.

He said it was a lifelong dream to see Spain win the World Cup and urged the Spanish government to never stop bullfights because they are “a part of our culture and heritage.”

“And if they do, I’m glad I won’t be alive to see such a travesty!”

Ann Howard, a spokeswoman for Florida’s Department of Corrections, said that Pardo visited with eight people Tuesday. He also met with the prison chaplain and a Roman Catholic bishop.

Manuel Pardo ate a last meal of rice, red beans, roasted pork, plantains, avocado, tomatoes and olive oil. For dessert, he ate pumpkin pie and drank egg nog and Cuban Coffee. Under Department of Corrections rules, the meal’s ingredients have to cost $40 or less, be available locally and made in the prison kitchen.

Manuel Pardo was dubbed the “Death Row Romeo” after he corresponded with dozens of women and persuaded many to send him money.

The former Boy Scout and Navy veteran began his law enforcement career in the 1970s with the Florida Highway Patrol, graduating at the top of his class at the academy. But he was fired from that agency in 1979 for falsifying traffic tickets. He was soon hired by the police department in Sweetwater, a small city in Miami-Dade County.

In 1981, Pardo was one of four Sweetwater officers charged with brutality, but the cases were dismissed.

He was fired four years later after he flew to the Bahamas to testify at the trial of a Sweetwater colleague who was accused of drug smuggling. Pardo lied, telling the court they were international undercover agents.

Then over a 92-day period in early 1986, Pardo committed a series of robberies, killing six men and three women. He took photos of the victims and recounted some details in his diary, which was found along with newspaper clippings about the murders. Pardo was linked to the killings after using credit cards stolen from the victims.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ex-cop-manuel-pardo-executed-in-fla-for-9-murders/

Richard Stokley Arizona Execution

Richard Stokley was executed by the State of Arizona for the kidnapping and murders of two 13 year old girls. According to court documents Richard Stokley and Randy Brazeal would kidnap the two 13 year old girls, Mandy Myers and Mary Snyder , who were driven out to the desert where they were sexually assaulted and murdered. Randy Brazeal would testify against Richard Stokley in exchange for the death penalty off the table. Richard Stokley would be sentenced to death and would be executed by lethal injection December 5 2012

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For 20 years, Patty Hancock refused to buy new Christmas stockings for her children because they wouldn’t match the one that belonged to her slain daughter, Mandy.

After the execution Wednesday of one of the two men who raped and murdered Mandy and her friend Mary Snyder on July 8, 1991, Hancock announced she was ready to begin a new phase in her life. It is OK to get new stockings.

Richard Dale Stokley, 60, was pronounced dead at 11:12 a.m. after receiving an injection of pentobarbital.

Richard Stokley was sentenced to die in July 1992 for killing Mandy Meyers and her friend Mary. Both girls were 13.

His death was witnessed by more than a dozen family members and lawyers involved in the case.

Richard Stokley was chatty with the medical personnel who spent 52 minutes trying to find veins that could be used to administer the pentobarbital – a drug used to both sedate an inmate and stop his heart. But when Stokley was asked if he had any final words, he simply responded, “Nah.”

He warned the medical team he had hepatitis, told a phlebotomist joke and assured them he was doing fine.

“I grew up a long time ago,” Stokley said. “I do wish I could die doing something meaningful, you know. This seems like such a waste.”

After finally assessing the final vein they needed, one of the team members told Stokley he “did good.”

“Thank you,” Stokley replied. “You did too, all of you young guys and all of you all.”

The pentobarbital rendered Stokley unconscious five minutes after the first dose was administered. The second dose was then given.

At 11:03 a.m. Stokley’s body convulsed one time. He was pronounced dead nine minutes later. He never looked at the crowd watching from the other side of the glass.

Hancock said Richard Stokley should have apologized to the families but wasn’t surprised he did not. “What do you expect from a heartless man with no soul?” she asked.

Dennis Hancock married Patty Hancock, 56, exactly one week prior to Mandy’s death.

“We’ll finally have a holiday where we don’t have someone on death row or in prison,” Dennis Hancock said. “I hope it will be a joyous one, but there will always be someone missing.”

Mary’s sister, Elisha Gonzales, broke down when recounting all of the milestones her sister never got to experience.

Stokley’s execution was a “long time in coming” and now there will hopefully be a time of healing and peace, Gonzales, 39, said. Her parents were not emotionally up to witnessing the execution, but were on the grounds of the prison, Gonzales said

On July 7, 1991, Mary and Mandy went to a community celebration near Elfrida. Witnesses said they saw 20-year-old Randy Brazeal talking to the girls at their campsite and later while next to Brazeal’s father’s car with Stokley beside him.

About 1 a.m., the girls told friends they were going to the restroom, and they were never seen alive again.

The next day, Brazeal turned himself in to Chandler police and Richard Stokley was arrested in Benson.

The girls’ nude bodies were found in an abandoned mine shaft. They’d been raped, strangled, stabbed and stomped.

Brazeal was sentenced to two concurrent terms of 20 years after being allowed to plead guilty to second-degree murder. He had invoked his right to a speedy trial, and prosecutors said they offered him a plea agreement for fear they would not have the DNA evidence back from the lab before his trial date.

Brazeal was released from prison last year and is now living in another state, Hancock said. Although Stokley is now dead, there will never really be closure for her because Brazeal is out there, Hancock said.

“I’m worried I will get a phone call that he murdered someone else’s children,” Hancock said.

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Stokley’s final appeal on Tuesday

At the time of this sentencing on July 14, 1992, Stokley said he did not deny culpability, but said there was no premeditation on his part. He also said he’d been made a scapegoat.

“What I am guilty of is being an irresponsible person for most of my life, running from responsibility, living in a fantasy world, and it was my irresponsibility on the night that this incident occurred that involved me in the incident. … There is no words that can express the grief and the sorrow and the torment I have experienced over this, but I am just going to leave everything in the hands of God because that’s where it is anyway.”

For his last meal Stokley ordered a porterhouse steak, french fries, fried okra, a salad, a 2-ounce wedge of cheddar cheese, two biscuits, a banana, an apple, a peach, chocolate ice cream and cream soda.

Stokley was the sixth person to be executed in Arizona this year.

https://tucson.com/news/local/crime/stokley-makes-no-apology-is-executed/article_5ecbefc5-9c16-568f-b2d5-90e830611585.html

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Manuel Pardo Jr Florida Execution

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Richard Stokley Arizona Execution

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