A man convicted of killing a traveling salesman during a robbery is set to become Florida’s first execution of 2026 after a death warrant signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Ronald Palmer Heath, 64, is scheduled to die by lethal injection Feb. 10 at Florida State Prison, according to the warrant signed Friday.
DeSantis signed off on a record 19 executions in 2025, according to the Associated Press, overseeing more executions in a single year than any other Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The previous record, AP reported, was set in 2014 with eight executions.
Heath was convicted in 1990 of first-degree murder, robbery with a death weapon, and multiple forgery charges.
Court records cited by AP say Heath and his brother, Kenneth Heath, met traveling salesman Michael Sheridan at a Gainesville bar in May 1989. After spending time at the bar, the three men agreed to go somewhere else to smoke marijuana, the records say.
Investigators said the brothers plotted to rob Sheridan. Court records cited by AP say Ronald Heath drove the group to a remote area, where Kenneth Heath pulled a handgun on Sheridan. When Sheridan initially refused to give the brothers anything, Kenneth Heath shot Sheridan in the chest, AP said.
AP said that as Sheridan emptied his pockets, Ronald Heath began kicking him and stabbing him with a hunting knife. The records also say Kenneth Heath then shot Sheridan twice in the head.
AP reported that the brothers dumped Sheridan’s body in a wooded area and then returned to the Gainesville bar to take items from Sheridan’s rental car. The next day, AP said, the brothers made multiple purchases with Sheridan’s credit cards at a Gainesville mall.
AP reported that 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 and Sheridan’s watch, AP said, citing court records.
AP said Kenneth Heath was charged with Sheridan’s murder as well, but that he was sentenced to life in prison as part of a plea agreement.
Defense attorneys for Ronald Heath are expected to file appeals to the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court, AP reported.
Across the country, AP said 47 people were executed in the U.S. in 2025, with Florida leading through multiple death warrants signed by DeSantis. AP also said 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.