Oscar Ray Bolin Dies By Lethal Injection

STARKE, FL — Convicted serial killer Oscar Ray Bolin’s last-ditch appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to stay his execution was denied shortly before 10 p.m. Thursday, paving the way for lethal injection. The execution was carried out at 10:16 p.m., several media outlets reported.

The court delayed the execution to give it time to review a final appeal filed on Bolin’s behalf. Bolin had been scheduled to die at 6 p.m. Thursday for the December 1986 murder of Teri Lynn Matthews. Bolin had also been convicted in two other murders. All told, he’d been found guilty 10 times by 10 juries in regard to the three Tampa Bay area murders.

Bolin was scheduled to die Thursday to carry out the sentence handed down following his conviction in the Matthews’ death. The 26-year-old woman was abducted from the Land O’ Lakes Post Office on U.S. 41. Her body was found beaten and stabbed.

Matthews would have turned 55 on Dec. 30. Her mother, Kathleen Reeves, visited her daughter’s grave on her birthday bringing flowers. Inside the bouquet was a copy of the death warrant Gov. Rick Scott signed for Bolin, NBC reported.

“It’s the last thing I can do for her,” Reeves, 78, told the network.

Reeves isn’t the only grieving family member left to pick up the pieces after Bolin went on a 1986 killing spree in Tampa Bay. Bolin was also convicted in the murder of Stephanie Collins of Carrollwood. Collins was abducted from a shopping plaza along North Dale Mabry Highway. The Chamberlain High School student was 17. Bolin also received a death sentence following that conviction.

The death row inmate also received a life sentence in the January 1986 slaying of Natalie Blanch Holley, 25, in Hillsborough County.

See Also:

• Serial Killer Oscar Ray Bolin Scheduled to Die Thursday
• Convicted Serial Killer Seeks Stay of Execution
• Serial Killer Oscar Ray Bolin’s Appeal Denied

Bolin, who was once a carnival worker and long-haul trucker, was a suspect in four other Bay area murders, but was never charged.

A number of appeals had been filed on Bolin’s behalf in recent days. The Florida Supreme Court rejected a request for a stay of execution and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit also on Monday declined to grant a stay. The final stay of execution request went before U.S. Supreme Court Thursday, prompting the temporary hold.

Bolin’s execution is Florida’s first in 2016. Another execution has been scheduled for Feb. 11 for Cary Michael Lambrix, 55. Lambrix was convicted in Glades County for a 1983 double homicide. He has been on death row for more than 30 years.

Photo of Oscar Ray Bolin courtesy of the Florida Department of Corrections