STARKE, Fla. (AP) — A man convicted of stabbing a woman to death during a home invasion robbery more than 30 years ago is scheduled to be executed Tuesday evening in Florida.
Mark Allen Geralds, 58, is set to receive a lethal injection starting at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke. Geralds was convicted of murder, armed robbery, burglary and stealing a car and was sentenced to death in 1990. The Florida Supreme Court later vacated the sentence but affirmed the conviction, and Geralds was resentenced to death in 1992.
It would be Florida’s 18th death sentence carried out in 2025, further extending the state record for total executions in a single year.
According to court records, Tressa Pettibone’s 8-year-old son found his mother beaten and stabbed to death on the kitchen floor of their Panama City home in February 1989. Geralds was a carpenter who had previously done remodeling work at the home.
Investigators found that Geralds pawned jewelry with traces of Pettibone’s blood on it, and plastic ties used to bind Pettibone matched ties found in Geralds’ car.
After a death warrant was signed last month and his execution date set, Geralds told a judge he did not wish to pursue any further appeals. The judge signed off on that decision.
A total of 44 men have died by court-ordered execution so far this year in the U.S., and several more executions are scheduled for the remainder of the year. Florida has executed more people than any other state this year, with another execution planned for next week. Florida's lethal injections are carried out using a sedative, a paralytic, and a drug that stops the heart.
