Man convicted of killing a grocery store owner is set to be executed in Florida
Feb 23, 2026, 9:36 PM | Updated: Feb 24, 2026, 4:12 pm
STARKE, Fla. (AP) — A man convicted of killing a grocery store owner during a robbery is set Tuesday evening to become the second person executed in Florida this year.
Melvin Trotter, 65, is scheduled to receive a three-drug injection starting at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke. Trotter was initially convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in 1987. However, the Florida Supreme Court found the trial court had erred in handling aggravating factors in Trotter’s case and ordered a new sentencing, and Trotter again drew the death penalty in 1993.
Tuesday’s planned execution and another earlier this month in Florida follow a record 19 executions in the state last year. In 2025, Gov. Ron DeSantis oversaw more executions in a single year than any other Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in the U.S. in 1976. The previous Florida record was eight executions in 2014.
According to court records, Trotter strangled and stabbed Virgie Langford at her store in Palmetto in 1986. A truck driver found Langford alive after the attack, and she was able to describe her attacker before eventually dying at a hospital.
Besides recalling Trotter’s physical appearance, Langford said her attacker had a Tropicana employee badge with the name “Melvin” on it. According to court records, police later found a T-shirt with Langford’s blood type at Trotter’s home and the man’s handprint on a meat cooler at the grocery store.
Last week, the Florida Supreme Court denied appeals filed by Trotter. His attorneys had argued that Florida corrections officials had mismanaged its own death penalty protocols. Attorneys also argued that Trotter’s advanced age of 65 should exempt him from execution.
Trotter’s final appeals were still pending Tuesday before the U.S. Supreme Court.
A total of 47 people were executed in the U.S. in 2025. Florida led the way with a flurry of death warrants signed by DeSantis. Alabama, South Carolina and Texas tied for second with five executions each last year.
So far this year, Texas, Oklahoma and Florida have carried out one execution each.
On Feb. 10, a man convicted of killing a traveling salesperson who he and his brother had met at a bar become the first person executed in Florida this year. Ronald Palmer Heath, 64, was convicted of first-degree murder and other charges in the 1989 killing of Michael Sheridan.
Two more Florida executions have already been scheduled for next month: Billy Leon Kearse, 53, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection on March 3, and Michael Lee King, 54, on March 17.
All Florida executions are carried out by injecting a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Department of Corrections.
