Florida sets execution date for man who fatally stabbed woman during home invasion robbery

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A man convicted of fatally stabbing a woman during home invasion robbery is scheduled to be put to death in December under a death warrant signed Friday by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is setting a record pace for executions.

Mark Allen Geralds, 58, is scheduled to die by lethal injection Dec. 9 at Florida State Prison. Geralds would be the 18th person set for execution in Florida in 2025, with DeSantis overseeing more executions in a single year than any other Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The previous record was set in 2014 with eight executions.

DeSantis signed the death warrant a week before the Nov. 13 execution of Bryan Fredrick Jennings. Another convicted killer, Richard Barry Randolph, is set to die Nov. 20.

Geralds was convicted of murder, armed robbery, burglary and grand theft auto and sentenced to death in 1990. The Florida Supreme Court later vacated the sentence but affirmed the conviction, and Geralds was resentenced to death in 1993.

According to court records, Tressa Pettibone’s 8-year-old son found her beaten and stabbed to death on the kitchen floor of their Panama City home in February 1989. Geralds had previously done remodeling work at the home and knew the family’s schedule, including when the children went to school and that Pettibone’s husband would be out of town for work. Investigators found that Geralds pawned jewelry with traces of Pettibone’s blood on it, and plastic ties used to bind Pettibone matched ties found in Geralds’ car.

Attorneys for Geralds are expected to file appeals to the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court.

So far Norman Mearle Grim Jr., who was convicted of raping and killing his neighbor.