Dominick Anthony Occhicone has been executed four decades after he carried out a double-murder at an ex-girlfriend’s house
A Florida man has become the oldest person in the state’s history to be executed after he received the lethal injection at the age of 80. Dominick Anthony Occhicone was put to death for the 1986 double murder of Raymond and Martha Artzner.
The couple were the parents of Dominick’s ex-girlfriend Anita Gerrety. Occhicone became the 12th person to be put to death in Florida in 2026, and the second in one calendar day.
His death came almost four decades after his brutal crime, reports the Mirror. At around 3am on June 10, 1986, Occhicone knocked on the door at his ex-partner’s parents property in Pasco County, hoping to rekindle his relationship with Anita.
Court records say Occhicone left the property after Anita threatened to call the local sheriff. However, he returned an hour later with a lethal intent.
Raymond attempted to call the sheriff’s office but the phone line had been cut at the junction box, prosecutors said. Occhicone went on to shoot Raymond in the face.
According to the Herald-Tribune, Occhicone then broke through the door of the property and chased his ex through the house, but she managed to escape with her daughter, she testified.
A short while later she heard gunshots ring out behind her. Her mother, Martha, was later found dead at the property.
Prosecutors say Raymond lived long enough to tell deputies who shot him but died in hospital. Occhicone did not deny the incident but later argued it was not premeditated.
A jury of his peers didn’t believe his claim and he has been on death row ever since. Earlier this week the Florida Supreme Court unanimously rejected his final appeal, and his execution went ahead, 40 years after the brutal killings.
It meant Occhicone became the oldest person in modern history to be executed in Florida. He is also the second-oldest person to be put to death in the US after the execution of 83-year-old Walter Moody in 2018.
Occhicone was executed six hours after 68-year-old James Duckett. The former policeman died by lethal injection for the rape and murder of 11-year-old Teresa McAbee while he was working in central Florida in 1987.
He was the 11th inmate to be executed in Florida in 2026. He declined to make a final statement when asked, simply responding “no sir”.
Four minutes later, he was shaken by a prison warden who also shouted his name. Duckett was found to be unresponsive and confirmed dead shortly after.
He was given a lethal injection made up of three drugs at Florida state prison, near Starke. The deaths of Duckett and Occhicone were the first double execution in Florida since 1964, when Blake Emmett and Dawson Sie were both executed in the electric chair.
The last time any state carried out two executions in a day was back in 2017, when Arkansas held back-to-back killings. Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis has made his state’s death chamber the busiest in the US as the end of his final term approaches.
He has previously said too many families have waited too long to see justice, leading to an uptick in lethal injections. Across the United States, use of the death penalty has been in decline for more than two decades.
There has however been an upturn due to Florida. Since 2025, the state has carried out almost half of the executions across the whole of the United States.
Ensure our latest stories always appear at the top of your Google Search by making us a Preferred Source. Click here to activate or add us as your Preferred Source in your Google search settings.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login