Shawn Rogers was sentenced to death by the State of Florida for a prison murder. According to court documents Shawn Rogers would murder his cellmate Ricky Dean Martin at the Santa Rosa Correctional Institution in 2012. According to officials the murder was to avenge the death of Trayvon Martin. Shawn Rogers would be convicted and sentenced to death
A state prisoner with a history of attacking other inmates has been sentenced to death for fatally beating his cellmate.
Shawn Rogers, 37, was sentenced Monday after Santa Rosa County jurors voted unanimously for his execution. He was convicted in August of first-degree murder and kidnapping.
Authorities say Ricky D. Martin was found lying in a pool of blood with bound hands and feet in his cell at Santa Rosa Correctional Institution in March 2012. He was taken to a Pensacola hospital, where he died a week later.
Rogers was already serving a life sentence for armed robbery and battery convictions in Volusia County. Officials say Rogers has a history of violence, including multiple assaults on inmates.
Ultimately, he got what he wanted. At the time he strangled his cellmate to death at Wakulla Correctional Institute back in October 2017, Scottie Allen made it clear to investigators that he wanted the death penalty. On Tuesday, July 23, Wakulla Circuit Judge Ron Flury pronounced sentence: death. It was a brief hearing in which only Judge Flury spoke, reading aloud his judgment, weighing the numerous aggravators for the death penalty against the sparse mitigating factors for imposing a life sentence. Allen had made the choice to represent himself in the case, and he demanded a speedy trial. That was held in February, and it took the jury less than 30 minutes to find him guilty of premeditated murder. Then the jury heard the state’s case for imposing death – Allen put on no defense. After less than 30 minutes deliberation, the jury unanimously recommended Allen face the death penalty. In an abundance of caution, Judge Flury appointed attorney Alex Morris to mount some sort of case to present possible mitigating evidence. That defense was somewhat hamstrung by Allen’s insistence that no one contact his family. Allen told the judge that his mother is gravely ill and he didn’t want to cause her further emotional upheaval to find that her son is in prison for one murder and facing the death penalty for another. Judge Flury noted the aggravators: • That Allen was previously convicted of a felony and was in prison for a second degree murder in South Florida and was serving a 25-year sentence. • That he had previously been convicted of violence on another person when he strangled a woman to death. The judge noted that, along with the murder of his cellmate, Ryan Mason, Allen has strangled to death two people. • That the crime was heinous, atrocious and cruel – which was something that appeared to weigh heavily in the judge’s decision. Allen strangled Mason with a T-shirt knotted around the neck – in fact, it was so tight that it broke bones in Mason’s neck and the medical examiner had a difficult time cutting it off with a scalpel. The judge noted that the medical examiner estimated it took 3 to 5 minutes for irreversible brain damage on Mason before he ultimately died. Allen had also told Mason that he was going to kill him, and made the comment, “Say hello to the devil for me.” • The judge also noted the aggravator that it was a cold, premeditated killing. Allen had planned the murder for weeks before, and had raped his cellmate over two weeks to make him suffer. Allen’s reason for the killing was that he found out Mason was a child molester. On Oct. 2, 2017, between head count at the prison, Allen put a sheet over the window to the room he shared with Mason and took a T-shirt and strangled him to death. After the killing, Allen made himself coffee and ate half a honeybun. He had intended to rape the dead body but Mason had defecated on himself post-mortem. Allen reportedly said to the dead man, “You win that one.” He left the body in the room for several hours covered in sheets on the bed to make it look like Mason was asleep. He apparently counted on guards noticing Mason wasn’t moving but evenutally the smell became too much and Allen went to a female prison guard and told her in a calm tone: “Hate to ruin your day but I killed my bunkmate.” Because of his tone, the guard almost didn’t believe him. As far as mitigators, the defense team had put on evidence that Allen suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and a claim that this affected his ability to conform his conduct because of childhood trauma. It was presented as a mitigator that Allen came from a dysfunctional family: His mother and father divorced at an early age and his father went to prison for a sex offense. Around the age of 9, Allen started smoking marijuana with his mother and began getting in trouble. He was sexually abused by some family members and began using drugs heavily. It was noted that the happiest time in his childhood was when he was in a state juvenile institution. The judge also noted that Allen was well-behaved and respectful in court and to the courtroom staff. But, Judge Flury said, “The aggravating factors outweigh the mitigating and death is the appropriate sentence.” There will be an automatic appeal to the Florida Supreme Court and a public defender will represent Allen. After reading the sentence, Allen was fingerprinted in the courtroom and taken back to the Wakulla County Jail before being transported to Florida State Prison in Starke.
Around 9:40 p.m. on the night of January 9, 2014, corrections officers responded to a disturbance in the K dormitory at the RMC. Captain William Hamilton was the shift commander that evening, and he had just completed his normal rounds, including the K dormitory, without incident. However, after finishing his rounds, Captain Hamilton heard a banging noise while talking with another officer, Sergeant Kelvin Young. Hamilton instructed Sergeant Young to investigate the source of the noise and to advise if he needed help. The source of the banging noise was inmates who were trying to get the attention of the corrections officers and direct them to the cell where Burns and Santiago-Gonzalez were housed. When Sergeant Young reached the cell, Santiago-Gonzalez was standing inside the cell, and Burns, the victim of a brutal stabbing, was lying on the floor. Burns was also tied up, his hands and his feet both bound. Sergeant Young, who remained outside of the cell, advised via radio that he needed help. Captain Hamilton went to the cell, called for assistance from additional staff members, and notified the on-site medical personnel. Santiago-Gonzalez had a knife in his hand that he refused to relinquish to the corrections officers until a video camera was brought to the cell to record him. A video camera was brought to the cell, and once the recording began, Santiago- -2- Gonzalez slid the knife under the cell door. He was restrained without incident. While being escorted to a holding cell, Santiago-Gonzalez commented that he was not interested in homosexual activity. A medical assessment of Santiago-Gonzalez conducted shortly thereafter confirmed that he was uninjured. In Burns’ cell, ligature cutters were used to remove the restraints that Santiago-Gonzalez placed on him. Lieutenant Mark Ficken, who also heard the radio calls, responded to the cell to provide assistance and brought a camera to photograph the scene. Lieutenant Ficken observed Burns’ multiple stab wounds, including a severe neck wound, and believed them to be life-threatening. Burns was weak but communicative, and he repeatedly said that he was afraid he was going to die. Lieutenant Ficken then questioned Burns about the incident as follows: FICKEN: Listen to me, listen to me. I need to know what happened in there. BURNS: I got stabbed multiple times. FICKEN: By who? BURNS: My roommate. FICKEN: What happened? Why did he stab you? BURNS: I don’t know. FICKEN: How did he tie you up? BURNS: I let him. -3- FICKEN: Huh? BURNS: I let him. FICKEN: You let him tie you up. Why? BURNS: I don’t know. FICKEN: Talk to me man, I need to know what happened in there. BURNS: Tied me up. FICKEN: He tied— BURNS: He tried to rape me. FICKEN: Huh? BURNS: He tried to rape me. FICKEN: You let him tie you up? BURNS: No. FICKEN: You just said you let him tie you up, why did you let him? BURNS: I don’t know. I’m dying. FICKEN: Huh? BURNS: I’m going to die. FICKEN: They are going to work on you, man, you need to tell me what happened. BURNS: I guess (Unintelligible) FICKEN: Why did you let him tie you up? BURNS: I don’t know. I was a fool. -4- FICKEN: Huh? BURNS: I was a fool. FICKEN: Were you all playing games? BURNS: No, sir. FICKEN: Well, then how did you let him tie you up? BURNS: I just did. FICKEN: What’s your roommate’s name? BURNS: Santiago. FICKEN: You all have a beef? BURNS: No, sir. He did it out of spite. FICKEN: Huh? BURNS: He did it out of spite. FICKEN: Out of spite. Did he tie you up before he stabbed you? BURNS: No, he tied me up and then stabbed me. FICKEN: He tied you up and then stabbed you, huh? BURNS: Yes, sir. FICKEN: All right. So what I need to know though is how did he tie you up? Did he hold you down? BURNS: Yes. FICKEN: Or did you let him do it? BURNS: He held me down. -5- FICKEN: Look, man, I need you to be truthful for me. BURNS: I am. FICKEN: He held you down and then he tied you? BURNS: Yes. FICKEN: Hey, listening to me? What is your name, man? BURNS: Burns. Santiago-Gonzalez Interview About three hours after the incident, senior inspector Kevin Ortiz conducted an interview of Santiago-Gonzalez. After being advised of his Miranda rights, Santiago-Gonzalez advised that he understood his rights and wanted to discuss the incident. Santiago-Gonzalez explained that hours before the incident, he asked a corrections officer to move him into Burns’ cell to facilitate Burns helping him with his legal matters. He said that he knew Burns was in prison for committing sexual offenses against minors but that he was not concerned because he just wanted legal help from Burns.1 According to Santiago-Gonzalez, after being in Burns’ cell for two to three hours, Burns started “acting funny,” and Santiago- Gonzalez started cleaning the cell. At some point, Burns touched Santiago- 1. During senior inspector Ortiz’s investigation, he learned that Burns and Santiago-Gonzalez were previously inmates at the Santa Rosa Correctional Institution, and the inmates there were aware that Burns was in prison for child molestation. -6- Gonzalez’s buttocks underneath his boxer shorts, and Santiago-Gonzalez observed that Burns’ penis was erect. Santiago-Gonzalez became irate. Over the course of several minutes, Santiago-Gonzalez formed his plan to attack Burns and ripped his bedsheet into multiple pieces. He said: And I just, I wasn’t, like, what the fuck, you know what I mean? And I said, I’m going to kill this man. I just blamed him. I wanted to tie him, I want to knock him over. I tied him up and I’m going to kill him and that’s what I did. Just punch him somewhere in the eyes, somewhere in the head. After Santiago-Gonzalez punched Burns in the head causing Burns to fall down, he tied Burns up with the torn pieces of bedsheet. One piece of the sheet was used to tie Burns’ hands together, another to tie his feet together, and another to tie his bound hands and bound feet together. Then, Santiago-Gonzalez removed a concealed homemade knife from inside a bandage that was tied to his leg. He recalled: He [Burns] trying, he was, I just hold him down just to keep him, I punched around, all around the neck and head. I tried to stab him in the face, in the eye, heart, chest, back, and hand. I just black out, I just, I had been on psyche [sic] medication for a long time, just all my anger, everything, I just come out. I just black out. To be honest with you, I just, I don’t know I just— When questioned about his statement that he blacked out, Santiago- Gonzalez responded: “Really, I react slow. You know what I mean? I take my time and because I would like, what the fuck, and so now the mother fucker has to -7- die, he’s going to die. I just plain knocked him out and tie him up, and that’s what I did.” Burns’ Medical Treatment Burns was initially treated for multiple stab wounds in the emergency unit at RMC. Nurse Jeffrey Dukes, who helped treat Burns, observed Burns’ life- threatening wounds. Burns told Dukes that he was going to die. Due to the nature of his injuries, Burns was transported by EMS to the University of Florida Shands Hospital (Shands). Trauma surgeon Dr. Lawrence Lottenberg treated Burns upon his January 10, 2014, transfer to Shands. Dr. Lottenberg recalled that Burns’ case was memorable because of the numerous “stab wounds all over his neck, chest, and abdomen. Succumbed numerous times in the emergency department and in the operating room and yet managed to live through all of that.” Dr. Lottenberg further stated: “Well, obviously this patient had wounds in his neck, both sides of his chest, in his abdomen. He had all of the stab wounds in his back. This patient was at an extreme level of pain and discomfort and required all of the aggressive support with pain medicine that we could give him.” -8- Burns’ Death and Autopsy Burns lived for nearly six months after the stabbing and died on July 3, 2014. Dr. William Hamilton, the District Eight Medical Examiner, conducted the autopsy of Burns. Dr. Hamilton identified a total of sixty-four stab wounds on Burns’ body but conceded that number to be a minimum, not a maximum, because some wounds may have healed during the time between the stabbing and Burns’ death. One of the multiple wounds was a gaping 9.5 inch x 2.5 inch healing abdominal wound. Weighing only 86 pounds at the time of his death, Burns suffered from severe malnutrition as a result of the stab wounds, which Dr. Hamilton described as “penetrating injuries of chest and abdomen which resulted in a profound loss of blood and ischemic injury to internal organs, particularly to the intestinal canal.” Dr. Hamilton also testified that Burns “had penetrating injuries into the central nervous system with a resultant small stroke in the cerebellum and subsequent infarction and necrosis of much of his spinal cord which left him quadriplegic.” Dr. Hamilton did not identify any defensive wounds. In November 2014, Santiago-Gonzalez was indicted for first-degree murder. He subsequently expressed his intent to plead guilty as charged, and in June 2016, the trial court sua sponte ordered two competency evaluations. Both experts -9- determined that Santiago-Gonzalez was competent to proceed and submitted written reports to that effect.
Michael Woodbury was sentenced to death by the State of Florida for a prison murder. According to court documents Michael Woodbury was serving a life sentence for a triple murder would beat his cellmate, Antoneeze Haynes, to death. Michael Woodbury would be convicted and sentenced to death.
The man convicted in the 2007 triple murder of three men in Conway has been sentenced to death in the beating death of his cellmate in a Florida prison.
Michael Woodbury received the death sentence this week for killing Antoneeze Haynes, 52.
Jurors voted this week 12-0 in favor of the death penalty.
According to court documents, Woodbury had only been living in that particular cell with his alleged victim for eight days before the attack.
According to court documents, Woodbury barricaded the cell door and beat and tortured Haynes using a metal lock for more than two hours, threatening to kill anyone who entered the cell.
Woodbury eventually surrendered. Haynes died on the way to the hospital.
Several witnesses said during negotiations, Woodbury demanded to be transferred back to New Hampshire because his father was dying of cancer. Woodbury was transferred to Florida in 2009.
Woodbury was already serving three consecutive life sentences for the shooting deaths of three men at a Conway Army surplus store.
The next hearing in this case will occur in September.
Daniel Craven was sentenced to death by the State of Florida for a prison murder. According to court documents Daniel Craven was already serving a life sentence for murder when he would stab his cellmate John H. Anderson repeatedly causing his death. Daniel Craven was convicted and sentenced to death.
A Graceville Correctional Facility inmate has been convicted of repeatedly stabbing his cellmate to death with a shank. However, his trial continues as prosecutors seek the death penalty.
Daniel Jacob Craven Jr., 32, was found guilty Thursday of first-degree murder. He was tried this week for killing his cellmate, John H. Anderson, by repeatedly stabbing him with a shank at Graceville Correctional Facility on June 28, 2015. Craven already was serving a life sentence for a 2011 conviction of first-degree murder; he now will go before the same jury to determine whether capital punishment will be the sentence for the most recent killing.
Craven had told a correctional officer at GCF he killed his “bunkie” about 2 a.m. the morning of June 28, 2015. An investigation through Florida Department of Law Enforcement began with Craven giving specific instructions to a shower drain where authorities could find the murder weapon, which they did.
It was not the first time Craven had killed.
He was serving a life sentence for killing a romantic rival and burning the body in the yard of his Apopka home in April 2011.
According to court records, Craven boasted to investigators about the violent killing of Ronald Justice, whose marriage Craven had broken up by having an affair with his wife.
Craven attacked Justice on April 6, 2011, at a home where Justice was squatting and beat him with a baseball bat as Justice begged for his life.
Craven went on to handcuff Justice, drown him in a dog bowl, then wrap his body and take it to the house near Apopka, where he burned it for several days in a pit in which he frequently burned furniture and trash.
In a recorded conversation, Craven bragged, “I wouldn’t have burned and killed [Justice] if I didn’t know what I was doing,” adding if he was arrested, “I’d get a lawyer… pro bono just like Casey Anthony.”
Craven’s sister later told detectives Craven had claimed killing four other people in Florida, something detectives continue to explore, though records show no additional arrests.
Craven also received a bevy of additional charges a month ago after he reportedly had tied 6-inch metal shanks to his hands in preparation as officers lined up outside his cell. Minutes after breaching the door, one of the correctional officers was carried out almost lifeless, turning purple and frothing at the mouth. A second officer was injured in the encounter with Craven, who jail officials said aimed to kill the officers. Both officers survived.
Craven was charged May 17 with two counts of attempted homicide and two counts of aggravated battery on law enforcement.
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