Ronald Palmer Heath, aged 64, is poised to be the first individual executed in Florida in 2026.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A man found guilty of murdering a traveling salesman during a robbery is slated for execution as Florida’s first in 2026. This follows a death warrant signed on Friday by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, who authorized a record-setting 19 executions last year.
Heath is scheduled to face lethal injection on February 10 at Florida State Prison. In 2025, Governor DeSantis presided over more executions in a single year than any Florida governor since the death penalty’s reinstatement in 1976. The previous high was set in 2014 with eight executions.
In 1990, Heath was convicted of first-degree murder, robbery with a deadly weapon, and several forgery offenses.
Court documents reveal that Heath and his brother, Kenneth, encountered traveling salesman Michael Sheridan at a Gainesville bar in May 1989. After spending time at the bar, the trio decided to relocate to smoke marijuana.
Investigators reported that at some point, the Heath brothers conspired to rob Sheridan. Ronald Heath drove them to an isolated location, where Kenneth Heath brandished a handgun at Sheridan. Despite initially resisting, Sheridan was shot in the chest by Kenneth Heath.
As Sheridan emptied his pockets, Ronald Heath began kicking the man and stabbing him with a hunting knife, prosecutors said. Kenneth Heath then shot Sheridan twice in the head.
The brothers dumped Sheridan’s body in a wooded area and returned to the Gainesville bar to take items from his rental car. The brothers made multiple purchases with Sheridan’s credit cards the next day at a Gainesville mall.
Ronald Heath was arrested several weeks later at his Douglas, Georgia, home after investigators connected him to the stolen credit cards. Officers recovered clothing purchased with the stolen cards, as well as Sheridan’s watch, according to court records.
Kenneth Heath was also charged with Sheridan’s murder, but he was sentenced to life in prison as part of a plea agreement.
Attorneys for Ronald Heath are expected to file appeals to the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court.
A total of 47 people were executed in the U.S. in 2025. Florida led the way with a flurry of death warrants signed by DeSantis. The state’s final execution of 2025 was the Dec. 18 lethal injection of Frank Athen Walls, who was convicted of fatally shooting a man and his girlfriend during a home invasion robbery.
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