Florida
Florida to execute man convicted in 1989 home invasion killing – WTOP News
STARKE, Fla. (AP) — A man convicted of stabbing a woman to death during home invasion robbery more than 30…
STARKE, Fla. (AP) — A man convicted of stabbing a woman to death during home invasion robbery more than 30 years ago is scheduled to be executed Tuesday evening in Florida.
Mark Allen Geralds, 58, is set to receive a lethal injection starting at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke. Geralds was convicted of murder, armed robbery, burglary and stealing a car and was sentenced to death in 1990. The Florida Supreme Court later vacated the sentence but affirmed the conviction, and Geralds was resentenced to death in 1992.
It would be Florida’s 18th death sentence carried out in 2025, further extending the state record for total executions in a single year.
According to court records, Tressa Pettibone’s 8-year-old son found his mother beaten and stabbed to death on the kitchen floor of their Panama City home in February 1989. Geralds was a carpenter who had previously done remodeling work at the home.
Geralds ran into Pettibone and her children at a shopping mall about a week before the killing, and Pettibone mentioned that her husband was away on business. Geralds later approached Pettibone’s son at the video arcade and asked when the boy’s father would return and what time he and his sister left for and returned from school each day, according to court records.
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.
After a death warrant was signed last month and his execution date set, Geralds told a judge he did not wish to pursue any further appeals. The judge signed off on that decision.
A total of 44 men have died by court-ordered execution so far this year in the U.S., and a handful of executions are scheduled for the rest of the year.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court restored the death penalty in 1976, the highest previous annual total of Florida executions was eight in 2014. Florida has executed more people than any other state this year. Another execution is planned for next week in the state under death warrants signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Frank Athen Walls, 58, is scheduled for Florida’s 19th execution this year on Dec. 18. He was convicted of fatally shooting a man and woman during a home invasion robbery and later confessing to three other killings.
Florida’s lethal injections are carried out with a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the state Department of Corrections.
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Florida
Area to watch for tropical development in Gulf to bring downpours to drought-stricken Florida | Latest Weather Clips | FOX Weather
Area to watch for tropical development in Gulf to bring downpours to drought-stricken Florida
While this area to watch for tropical development may not actually become tropical, it will definitely bring rain to Florida, which desperately needs it. The system is likely to bring the most significant rain to the Florida panhandle down south to Tampa, but the entire state can expect some moisture through midweek next week.
Gulf system to bring downpours to Florida
FOX 13 Meteorologist Jim Weber is continuing to watch an area in the Gulf that is expected to bring much-needed rain to Florida this weekend. He said the system will likely drift to the north and northwest and will linger before heading to the northeast. He said to get a tropical depression, or a tropical storm there needs to be winds and a closed low and he is not seeing that in the models yet. Weber is also tracking a system off the coast of Africa that has a 10% chance of developing over the next week. He says it will likely enter a hostile environment and dissipate.
TAMPA, Fla. – Forecasters are tracking a broad disturbance in the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida coast that could bring much-needed rain to parched communities this weekend.
Gulf tropical development potential
What we know:
Models continue to indicate there is a potential for an area of low pressure to form over the northeast Gulf off the west coast of Florida over the weekend.
The National Hurricane Center says an area in the Gulf has a 30% chance of tropical development over the next seven days.
Models a shifting away from the forecast of the system moving over the state and off the coast of the Carolinas. Models are now indicating a more likely scenario that it lingers in the Gulf over the weekend and may drift more to the northwest near the Florida Panhandle or Louisiana coast. Early next week conditions look like they will become less conducive and may prohibit much development. Regardless of whether it organizes, the system will bring tropical downpours and increased moisture across Florida and parts of the Southeast.
FOX 13 Meteorologist Jim Weber states we are close to 7.50″ below average on our rainfall in Tampa for the year. A weak area of low pressure or tropical system can be beneficial in helping to make up for the rainfall deficit we have been experiencing. Drought conditions continue over much of the state of Florida. If this system ends up drifting more westward, it would limit the total amount of rainfall and the highest totals would be along the immediate west coast.
Atlantic tropical development potential
A tropical wave southeast of the Cabo Verde Islands remains disorganized.
It is moving west-northwest and, according to the NHC, there is a chance for slow development over the next day or two. By the weekend it is expected to move into less conducive conditions and Saharan dust will begin to affect this wave, limiting its moisture. The time for this system to develop is very limited and will not develop after the weekend.
The NHC is giving it a 10% chance of developing.
Weather factors and storm names
What we don’t know:
Officials cannot yet confirm if the disturbance will overcome environmental hurdles like land interaction, wind shear and dry air. Computer models remain uncertain on how much this system will develop over the waters of the Gulf. If it stays over the warm waters of the Gulf longer, it may give it additional time to organize. Interactions with land and wind shear will likely pose obstacles in further development.
To become a tropical system, it must develop a defined circulation with organized thunderstorms. If it reaches maximum sustained winds of 39 mph, it will become a tropical storm and be named Bertha.
The Source: The information in this story was gathered by FOX 13Meteorologist Jim Weber, the National Hurricane Center tropical weather outlooks, as well as forecast computer models.
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