A death row inmate who murdered a woman while on the run after breaking out of prison has been executed in Florida.
Donald Dillbeck, 59, stabbed Faye Vann, 44, more than 20 times and slit her throat during a carjacking while she waited for her family in the parking lot of a Tallahassee mall in 1990.
Her children, Tony and Laura, released a statement after the execution, saying: ‘11,932 days ago, Donald Dillbeck brutally killed our mother.
‘We were robbed of years of memories with her, and it’s been very painful ever since.’
Dillbeck was pronounced dead at 6:13 pm on Thursday after receiving a lethal injection at Florida State Prison.
The execution was the first in Florida in nearly four years and the third under Republican Governor Ron DeSantis.
By comparison, his immediate predecessor, incumbent Republican Senator Rick Scott, oversaw 28 executions.
The curtain between the burial chamber and the viewing room was opened at 6 pm.
When asked if he had any last words, Dillbeck said: ‘I know I hurt people when I was young. I really messed up.
‘But I know Ron DeSantis has done a lot worse. He took a lot from a lot of people. I speak for all men, women and children.
‘He put his foot on our necks. Ron DeSantis and others like him can suck our dicks.’
He was just 15 years old when he stabbed a man in Indiana while trying to steal a CB radio.
Dillbeck fled to Florida, where Lee County Representative Dwight Lynn Hall found him in a Fort Myers Beach parking lot.
As Hall frisked him, Dillbeck hit the officer in the groin and fled. Hall tackled him, and as the two struggled, Dillbeck grabbed Hall’s gun and shot him twice.
He was sentenced to 11 years to life in prison for killing the deputy when he walked away from a work layoff assignment serving a meal for a senior event.
Dillbeck then bought a knife and walked to Tallahassee.
Vann was waiting for his family when Dillbeck approached his car with the knife and demanded a ride, saying he had forgotten how to drive.
She honked her horn, tried to flee and struggled, but Dillbeck stabbed her over 20 times and slit her throat. He crashed his car a short time later and was captured.
Earlier this month, the Florida Supreme Court denied appeals claiming he should not be sentenced to death because he suffers from fetal alcohol syndrome and it was cruel and unusual to keep him on death row for more than 30 years before his death sentence. be signed.
The US Supreme Court denied his appeals on Wednesday.
Please contact our news team by emailing webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this one, check out our news page.