Man convicted of killing a grocery store owner during set to be executed in Florida
STARKE, Florida — A man convicted of killing a grocery store owner during a robbery was expected Tuesday night to become the second person executed in Florida this year.
Melvin Trotter, 65, is scheduled to receive a three-drug injection starting at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke. Trotter was initially convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in 1987. However, the Florida Supreme Court found that the trial court erred in addressing the aggravating factors in Trotter’s case and ordered a resentencing, and Trotter was again sentenced to death in 1993.
The execution scheduled for Tuesday and another earlier this month in Florida follow a record 19 executions in the state last year. As of 2025, Governor Ron DeSantis has overseen more executions in a single year than any other Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in the United States in 1976. Florida’s previous record was eight executions in 2014.
According to court records, Trotter strangled and stabbed Virgie Langford at her Palmetto store in 1986. A truck driver found Langford alive after the attack, and she was able to describe her attacker before ultimately dying at a hospital.
In addition to recalling Trotter’s physical appearance, Langford said his attacker wore a Tropicana employee badge bearing the name “Melvin.” Police later found a T-shirt with Langford’s blood type at Trotter’s home and the man’s handprint on a meat cooler at the grocery store, according to court records.
Last week, the Florida Supreme Court rejected appeals filed by Trotter. His lawyers had argued that Florida prison officials mismanaged their own death penalty protocols. The attorneys also argued that Trotter’s advanced age, 65, should exempt him from execution.
Trotter’s final appeals were still pending before the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday.
A total of 47 people were executed in the United States in 2025. Florida led the way with a wave of execution orders signed by DeSantis. Alabama, South Carolina and Texas tied for second with five executions each last year.
So far this year, Texas, Oklahoma and Florida have each carried out one execution.
On February 10, a man convicted of killing a traveling salesman he and his brother met at a bar became the first person executed in Florida this year. Ronald Palmer Heath, 64, was convicted of first-degree murder and other charges in the 1989 killing of Michael Sheridan.
Two other executions in Florida are already scheduled for next month: Billy Leon Kearse, 53, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection on March 3, and Michael Lee King, 54, on March 17.
All executions in Florida are carried out by injection of a sedative, paralytic and heart-stopping drug, according to the Department of Corrections.
