Execution Set In FL Store Owner's Fatal Stabbing

PALMETTO, FL — Florida on Tuesday is set to execute a man convicted of robbing and killing a longtime grocery store owner in Manatee County.

Florida prison records show Melvin Trotter, 65, was sentenced to death on May 18, 1987, after being convicted of first-degree premeditated or attempted murder. He was also convicted of burglary and two robbery charges.

The execution of Trotter is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday at Florida State Prison in Raiford after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the death warrant on Jan. 23.

Trotter will be the second person executed this year in Florida after the state put to death Ronald Palmer Heath on Feb. 10.

The state uses a three-drug cocktail for its lethal injection: a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Tuesday's planned execution and another earlier this month in Florida follow a record 19 executions in the state last year. In 2025, 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, the Associated Press reported.

According to court records, Trotter strangled and stabbed Virgie Langford, 70, in her store in Palmetto in June 1986.

The Herald-Tribune reported she was stabbed seven times with a butcher knife.

At the time, Langford had operated her grocery store for at least 50 years and was set for retirement at the time, USA Today reported.

A truck driver found Langford alive after the attack, and she was able to describe her attacker before eventually dying at a hospital.

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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.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said Langford suffered a "large abdominal wound that resulted in disembowelment. Several hours after surgery for her wounds, Ms. Langford suffered cardiac arrest and died."

Trotter was on house arrest for a prior burglary conviction at the time of the killing, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported.

The Florida Supreme Court initially reversed a ruling that sentenced him to death; however, he was later sentenced to death a second time.

Last week, the 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.

The impending execution has drawn criticism from Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, which has accused the Department of Corrections of using "expired drugs, incorrect dosages and drugs not in the protocol at all during several executions last year."

According to the organization, Trotter's latest appeals challenge Florida's "repeated failures to follow its own lethal injection procedures." The FADP is asking for DeSantis to stay the execution.

During DeSantis' tenure, the FADP said Trotter's death will be Florida's 30th execution.

Billy Kearse and Michael King are scheduled to be executed on March 3 and March 17 respectively, according to FADP. Both were convicted of first-degree premeditated murder, prison records showed.

The Associated Press contributed reporting and writing.