STARKE, Fla. — Florida officials are preparing to execute a 65-year-old man Tuesday evening for the brutal murder of a grocery store owner nearly four decades ago.
Melvin Trotter is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke, marking the state’s second execution of 2025. Trotter received his original death sentence in 1987 after being found guilty of first-degree murder, though the state’s highest court later determined errors were made regarding aggravating circumstances. A new sentencing hearing in 1993 resulted in another death penalty verdict.
This execution continues Florida’s unprecedented pace under Governor Ron DeSantis, who oversaw a record-breaking 19 executions in 2024 — more than any Florida governor since capital punishment resumed nationwide in 1976. The previous state record stood at eight executions in 2014.
Court documents reveal that Trotter attacked Virgie Langford at her Palmetto grocery store in 1986, strangling and stabbing the store owner during a robbery. A truck driver discovered Langford still alive following the assault, and she managed to provide investigators with a description of her assailant before succumbing to her injuries at the hospital.
Langford’s testimony proved crucial to the case, as she told police her attacker wore a Tropicana employee identification badge bearing the name “Melvin.” Investigators later discovered additional evidence linking Trotter to the crime, including a shirt stained with blood matching Langford’s type found at his residence and his handprint recovered from a meat cooler inside the store.
Defense attorneys recently challenged the execution through multiple appeals to the Florida Supreme Court, which rejected their arguments last week. Trotter’s legal team contended that state corrections officials had violated proper death penalty procedures and argued his advanced age should disqualify him from execution.
As of Tuesday, Trotter’s lawyers were still pursuing final appeals with the U.S. Supreme Court.
Florida dominated the nation’s execution statistics in 2024, leading all states with 19 death sentences carried out after DeSantis signed numerous death warrants. Alabama, South Carolina, and Texas each executed five individuals, tying for second place. The United States conducted 47 total executions last year.
Three states have already performed executions in 2025: Texas, Oklahoma, and Florida have each carried out one death sentence.
Earlier this month, Florida executed its first person of the year when 64-year-old Ronald Palmer Heath received a lethal injection on February 10. Heath had been convicted of first-degree murder and additional charges for killing traveling salesman Michael Sheridan in 1989 after meeting him at a bar with his brother.
State officials have already scheduled two additional executions for next month. Billy Leon Kearse, 53, is set to die on March 3, followed by Michael Lee King, 54, on March 17.
Florida’s execution protocol involves administering three separate drugs through injection: a sedative, a paralytic agent, and a medication that stops the heart, according to the state Department of Corrections.
