Death row inmate's chilling final words before he's executed 36 years after murdering mum
A man who brutally murdered a mother-of-two more than three decades ago made a cryptic statement as he was executed on Tuesday (9 December).
Mark Allen Geralds became the 18th person to face the ultimate punishment in Florida this year following his death via lethal injection.
He was pronounced dead at 6.15pm at the Florida State Prison yesterday after receiving the ultimate punishment for a crime he committed 36 years ago.
The 58-year-old was convicted of murder, armed robbery and a few other other charges in 1990, while eight of the 12 jurors recommending that he should receive the death penalty.
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It came one year after a woman named Tressa Pettibone was murdered in the Panama City Beach home she shared with her two children and husband - and horrifically, her body was found by her eight-year-old son.
He got back from school to find his mum's body lying on the kitchen floor after she had been savagely stabbed and beaten.
Around a week prior, Tressa had bumped into her killer at a shopping mall and fatefully informed him that her husband was away on business at the time.
Officials said that Geralds later struck up a conversation with her son in a video arcade and quizzed the boy about when his father would return and what time he left the house for school with his sister, The Guardian reports.
Prosecutor Jim Appleman described the killing as one of the ‘cruelest cases ever’ at the time, according to an archived Associated Press report, as he added: "The cruel beating he put on Tressa Pettibone is outrageous.
"She bled to death in her own home. A woman who was a caring person ... And in her own home, she took the last gasps of breath that she could and sucked blood into her lungs."
Police found that Geralds had pawned jewellery which had traces of the mum's blood on it on the day of the murder.
Zip ties that were found in the killer's car also matched the ones that had bound Tressa's hands, investigators said.
Geralds' sentence was vacated by the Florida Supreme Court at one point, although his conviction still stood - and he was resentenced to death in 1992.
His death warrant was signed last month before a date for his execution was set, and the death row inmate told a judge he did not wish to pursue any further appeals or fight his execution.
Prior to his execution on Tuesday, Geralds declined the opportunity to have a last meal and chose not to meet with any spiritual advisors.
However, when asked whether he had any final words to share, he reportedly tried to refer to someone by name, but those present couldn't comprehend who he was talking about.
Geralds said: "Im sorry that I missed you [inaudible]. I loved you every day."
The former carpenter - who had worked on his victim's home around a year before the murder - became still around four minutes after the lethal injection was administered.
In a statement shared in wake of Geralds execution, Tressa's family said: "Tomorrow, when we wake up, it will be the first time in nearly 37 years that we don’t have to worry about another appeal being filed or another law changing that could potentially thwart the justice we have been fighting so hard for for so long.
"Today we crossed the finish line for her, and we close this very painful chapter in our lives."
They described the mum as a 'faithful wife, loving mother, daughter, sister, aunt and dedicated friend', saying that her family was 'her world and everything she did centred around them'.
Olivia Burke