Florida
Killer cop or the wrong man? DNA halts Florida execution. For now.
Ex-officer James Duckett had been set to be executed by lethal injection on March 30 for the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl while he was on duty in Florida. But DNA testing has stopped it.
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When 11-year-old Teresa Mae McAbee was kidnapped, raped, strangled and drowned in the small Florida city of Mascotte nearly 40 years ago, a surprising suspect emerged: a rookie cop named James Duckett.
The one undisputed fact of the case is that Duckett was on duty on May 11, 1987, when he encountered Teresa at a convenience store. The little girl had walked there to buy a pencil.
Duckett maintains that he told Teresa that she needed to go home, and that’s the last time he saw her. Prosecutors argue that Duckett was a monster in disguise who abused the badge and brutally raped and killed Teresa before dumping her body in a lake.
Jurors accepted the state’s narrative, convicting Duckett of murder largely based on circumstantial evidence and recommending the death penalty.
Now nearly 40 years later, DNA in the case stands to either save Duckett’s life or seal his fate.
Duckett, 68, had been set to die by lethal injection at a Florida state prison on Tuesday, March 31. But with less than a week to go, the Florida Supreme Court issued a rare stay of execution pending the results of the DNA testing. And on Monday, March 30, the court upheld the stay, effectively stopping any chance that the execution would happen as scheduled.
Though the execution is on hold for now, it’s not on hold for good.
As Duckett awaits his fate, USA TODAY is looking deeper at the case, the recent court actions and why the DNA hasn’t been tested until now.
What happened to Teresa Mae McAbee?
On May 11, 1987, the fates of 29-year-old rookie cop James “Jimmy” Duckett and 11-year-old Teresa Mae McAbee became intertwined.
Teresa had walked to her local Circle K convenience store to buy a pencil around 10 p.m. in Mascotte, Florida, a rural city just west of Orlando that had fewer than 2,000 residents at the time.
Duckett was on patrol for the Mascotte Police Department. The married father of two sons, who had been on the force for seven months, was making his regular rounds and stopped at Circle K, spotting Teresa talking with a 16-year-old boy outside the store, according to court records.
Duckett has always maintained that he talked to Teresa and the teen, telling each to go home. But the boy and his uncle later said that Duckett put Teresa in his patrol car and drove off.
Teresa’s mother arrived at the Circle K around 11 p.m. looking for her daughter. The store clerk told her that Teresa may have gone with Duckett, and the mother began searching the area. When she couldn’t find Teresa, she contacted police and later filed a missing persons report with Duckett, the only officer on patrol at the time.
The next morning, less than a mile from the Circle K, a fisherman found Teresa’s body in Knight Lake. A medical examiner later found that she had been raped, strangled and was still alive when her attacker drowned her. Bodily fluid, presumably from the killer, was found on her underwear − DNA that was saved.
Duckett became a suspect when a sheriff’s investigator, Sgt. Chuck Johnson, thought the officer was acting nervous at the scene of the body recovery, “was not curious about the death,” and told a “rehearsed-sounding story” about his interaction with Teresa and the events of the night before. Duckett was charged with murder five months later.
What happened at James Duckett’s trial?
At trial, prosecutors called James Duckett a “cold-blooded killer” and said that unlike him, Teresa didn’t have a judge or jury.
“She had a police officer named Duckett pick her up and put her in the car and take her down to Knight Lake, and he sentenced her to be raped, and he sentenced her for threatening to tell on him and taking away his power, his almighty power of the badge,” they told jurors, according to court records. “She threatened to tell when she was hurt … so he sentenced her to die. He served as executioner.”
Among the state’s evidence: a pubic hair found on Teresa that an FBI analyst said was consistent with Duckett’s, Teresa’s fingerprints on the hood of Duckett’s car, tire tracks at the scene of the murder that police say matched Duckett’s patrol car, and a key witness who testified that she saw Duckett drive off with a small person in his patrol car shortly after he spoke with Teresa.
Prosecutors also put three young women on the stand who testified that they were underage when Duckett sexually harassed or abused them.
Duckett’s attorneys have been working to poke holes in the trial evidence, saying that Teresa’s fingerprints were on the car hood because she sat on it at the Circle K, that a second hair found on the girl’s body was inconsistent with Duckett’s, and that Duckett’s tire tracks were at the scene because drove there after the body was found.
They also argue that the state’s key witness agreed to give bogus testimony in exchange for getting out of jail early and that there was no evidence to corroborate the stories of the three young women who testified that Duckett had been inappropriate with them.
Duckett’s attorneys also argue that there were far likelier suspects in the case, including the teen Teresa was talking to before she vanished and various men who were boyfriends or friends of her mother’s.
“For reasons beyond his control, James Duckett was chosen as the suspect, and other more likely suspects were allowed to walk away,” his attorneys argue in court records. “Rather than find the real perpetrator, the state chose to proceed with a circumstantial evidence case against Mr. Duckett.”
Just before he was sentenced to death, Duckett pleaded with the judge in the case to spare his life.
“I did not do this,” he said, according to court records. “When the person who did this repeats it, I want to see the face of the person telling the victim’s mother, father, sister or brother, ‘I am sorry. We thought we had the right one before.’”
An execution scheduled, then stopped
After spending nearly 40 years on death row, James Duckett’s execution was scheduled for March 31 after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed his death warrant last month.
Duckett’s attorneys fought to stop the execution so that DNA testing could be conducted on the semen collected from the crime scene. On March 26, the Florida Supreme Court agreed to issue a stay of execution pending results from the testing.
The results, which came in on March 27, were inconclusive, possibly because so little of the DNA collected was left to be analyzed. But Duckett’s attorneys had argued that a different lab would be more likely to extract useable results.
The Florida Supreme Court could have lifted its stay because the initial results were inconclusive. Instead, the court decided to uphold it on March 30 in a 6-1 ruling, stopping Duckett’s execution for now.
Duckett’s attorney, Mary Wells, told USA TODAY that the stay was “a significant step toward preventing the irreversible harm that will result if the State of Florida executes an innocent man.”
“DNA testing … has the potential to conclusively establish Mr. Duckett’s innocence,” she said. “When the outcome of the results is whether a man lives or dies, there is no valid scientific basis for prohibiting a second examiner to analyze the results.”
The state’s Attorney General’s Office had argued in court that the stay should be lifted because the DNA results were inconclusive and that Duckett sought DNA testing far too late.
“Duckett waited until after a warrant was signed to seek DNA testing for a murder he committed over 38 years ago where he knew about the (DNA) slide at least since the relinquishment in 2003,” they wrote. “But he did not seek DNA testing as soon as the science was sufficiently advanced. A truly innocent man would have sought … DNA testing as soon as it was available.”
What happens now?
In its order upholding the execution stay, the Florida Supreme Court ordered Lake County Circuit Judge Brian Welke to provide the higher court with a status report by the end of day on April 2
Welke is expected to decide whether there should be further testing of the DNA. Welke is the judge who initially granted Duckett’s request to test the DNA.
In his dissenting opinion to uphold the stay, Florida Supreme Court Justice Adam Tanenbaum wrote that Duckett’s DNA fight amounts to “a Hail Mary pass” and that given the inconclusive test results, there is “nothing further for (Welke) to do at this point.”
“Indeed, as has been the case for decades, there is no exonerating evidence at all to justify any further delay in the defendant’s execution, which has been a long time coming,” Tanenbaum wrote. “Justice for the victim and her family has been delayed far too long. The defendant’s time is up.”
Amanda Lee Myers is a senior crime reporter who covers cold case investigations and the death penalty for USA TODAY. Follow her on X at @amandaleeusat.
A 53-year-old Key West man was arrested on DUI and drug charges after deputies say he crashed an e-bike into a tricycle while intoxicated.
According to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, the crash happened around 10:26 p.m. on Wednesday, April 1, near South College Road and U.S. 1 in Key West. Deputies said there were no serious injuries reported.
Authorities identified the man as Christian Everett Madrid. He faces charges of driving under the influence, possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia, and smuggling contraband into a detention facility.
Investigators said Madrid was riding an e-bike when he collided with an adult riding a tricycle. The other rider told deputies that Madrid ran into him and appeared to be intoxicated.
Deputies said Saturday that Madrid was taken into custody after failing field sobriety exercises at the scene.
While being booked into jail, authorities said approximately three marijuana cigarettes were found in his possession, leading to the additional contraband charge.
What Florida law says about riding an e-bike while intoxicated
Under Florida law, electric bicycles are generally treated like traditional bicycles, meaning riders are not required to have a driver’s license and are not subject to the same registration rules as motor vehicles. However, when it comes to impairment, the law still applies.
Florida’s DUI statute makes it illegal to operate any vehicle while under the influence of alcohol or drugs to the extent that normal faculties are impaired. Courts in Florida have interpreted “vehicle” broadly, and that can include bicycles and e-bikes in certain cases, according to law firm The Ticket Clinic.
A first-time DUI conviction in Florida can carry penalties including fines ranging from $500 to $1,000, up to six months in jail, probation, and mandatory substance abuse education. Additional charges, such as drug possession or bringing contraband into a jail, can increase potential penalties.
SUNRISE, Fla. — Maybe the end for the Florida Panthers came when Brad Marchand was shut down for the season last month. Or maybe it was when Seth Jones broke his collarbone and wound up missing 26 games. Or, maybe it was 20 minutes into training camp, when captain Aleksander Barkov blew out his knee.
Nobody knows when the season was officially doomed.
Doesn’t matter now. The Panthers are out.
Games remain, but the Panthers were mathematically eliminated from playoff contention on Saturday with a 9-4 loss to Pittsburgh. For the first time since 2022, a team other than Florida will represent the Eastern Conference in the Stanley Cup Final and for the first time since 2023, a team other than the Panthers will be the one hoisting the greatest chalice in sports.
They’ve known this was coming for a while. It’s just official now.
“Obviously, no one’s happy about the situation,” Panthers forward Sam Bennett said. “But it’s about really just sticking together as a team and going through this as a team. We’re all sticking together. It’s not fun sometimes. But we’re just trying to make the best of it.”
By the time the regular season ends in a couple of weeks, the Panthers will have gone well past the 500 man-games-missed mark this season because of injury. Barkov, the captain who Panthers coach Paul Maurice believes is the best player in the world, missed the entire year and a chance to captain Finland at the Milan Cortina Olympics as well.
Jonah Gadjovich will wind up missing 72 games with an upper-body injury. Tomas Nosek missed 60 games with a knee injury. Dmitry Kulikov is up to 58 games missed, most with a shoulder injury and now a badly broken nose. Matthew Tkachuk missed 47 games while recovering from surgery to repair a sports hernia and torn adductor.
Cole Schwindt missed more than half of the season with a pair of injuries. Marchand will miss 29 games and Jones missed 26. Niko Mikkola, Evan Rodrigues, Sam Reinhart, Uvis Balinskis and Anton Lundell were all shut down for the season at least a couple of weeks ago. Aaron Ekblad broke a finger this week and he won’t play until next season.
And it was no laughing matter at the time, but Eetu Luostarinen missed nine games — after getting burned while barbecuing.
“I’d say we had some adversity,” Maurice said.
Add it all up, and Florida is likely going to finish the season with no more than eight players who dressed in last year’s Cup-clinching win against Edmonton on the ice. The Panthers bent, bent, bent all season and finally broke.
“They’ve been true to it,” Maurice said, speaking of the team’s culture. “And we’ve had some tough nights, but the bench has been right and they’re cheering for each other. They’re engaged in the game. They’re talking about the game. It’s just, you’re just not going to be able to produce, not going to be able to execute a whole bunch of things that you normally expect to.”
Put simply, the Panthers might just need a break.
They were in 67 playoff games over the last three seasons, the most in the NHL — and unbelievably, more than 17 other franchises played in that span combined. They’ve logged tons of miles, taken tons of hits and done it all with very short offseasons because their Cup runs kept stretching into June while non-playoff teams are done in April.
“I think we all know … how good this hockey team is,” Bennett said. “We know how good we’re going to be when we have everyone healthy and everyone back. So, there’s obviously a ton of excitement, I think, in anticipation for next year.”
With good reason. Hockey operations president and general manager Bill Zito has had the vast majority of the core under contract for some time: Barkov, Tkachuk, Reinhart, Bennett, Marchand, Carter Verhaeghe, Jones, Ekblad, Gustav Forsling, Lundell, Rodrigues, Mikkola, Kulikov, Balinskis, Reinhardt and Jesper Boqvist are among those who are signed. The biggest question is at goalie, where Sergei Bobrovsky will be a free agent, but one who is believed to want to remain with the Panthers.
All that talk can wait, at least for a couple of more weeks.
“We’re just focused on this year,” Jones said after the loss Saturday.
Things, if the Panthers are lucky, should look very different next season. Or put another way, things could look like how they were in June 2024 and June 2025, when Florida won the Cup. The celebrations started like this: NHL commissioner Gary Bettman would say a few words, then hand the Cup to Barkov, who would skate away and hoist.
The Panthers felt like that could have happened again this season. For about 20 minutes, anyway. It was at the 20-minute mark of the first full-team training camp practice where Barkov blew out the ACL and MCL in his knee.
“You know right away. Oh, you knew it was bad,” Maurice said. “He’s a tough one. He doesn’t go down lightly. It was as close to being at a funeral as there can be. The 19th minute, we are humpin’, up and down the ice. And I’m taking it all in thinking, ‘Oh, we’re right there. These guys are focused, they’re fit, they’re pushing themselves. I’m not even yelling at them anymore.’ And then that happens.
“The next three days were a prolonged funeral service. We didn’t know it was going to be for our season.”
If the Panthers were in the playoff chase, Barkov might be playing now. If there was a Game 1 of Round 1 sometime in the next couple weeks, the expectation is Barkov would have been ready. And now, the Panthers will pivot to Game 1 of next season.
They won’t be the defending Cup champions anymore. It might actually rekindle the desire to win it again.
“Bill Zito’s vision for this team has just been so bang on,” Maurice said. “We have full faith in the vision that he has for the group, and the core is going to be here next year. We’ll all be excited about that.”
Collier County deputies ended a daylong standoff with a Naples man accused of making terrorist threats.
Deputies arrested Peter Hooker, 60, at his home, Lago Apartments complex at the intersection of Livingston and Radio Roads on Friday, April 3, the sheriff’s office social media reported.
Hooker is charged with written threats to kill, do bodily injury or conduct a mass shooting or an act of terrorism, a felony.
Deputies received reports that Hooker had made written threats of violence. When deputies arrived about 9:25 a.m., Hooker refused to come to the door.
Concerned that Hooker may be armed, multiple units, along with fire and EMS, responded.
Throughout the day Hooker continued to ignore deputies’ commands to come to the door, the reports indicate.
Deputies evacuated areas of the complex and closed sections of Livingston and Radio roads.
“This was a complex and evolving situation, and our deputies addressed it with professionalism from start to finish,” Sheriff Kevin Rambosk said. “I also want to thank the public for their cooperation and patience as first responders worked to bring this to a peaceful conclusion.”
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