DeSantis signs death warrant in Palmetto grocery store murder, records show
.jpg "Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant setting the Feb. 24 execution of Melvin Trotter, 65, convicted in the 1986 robbery and killing of Palmetto grocery store owner Virgie Langford, according to court records.")
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant scheduling the execution of a man convicted in the 1986 murder of a Manatee County grocery store owner.
The warrant, signed Friday, sets a Feb. 24 execution date at Florida State Prison for Melvin Trotter, 65, who was convicted of first-degree murder in the strangling and stabbing death of 70-year-old Virgie Langford during a robbery at her Palmetto grocery store, according to court records.
Prosecutors said Trotter killed Langford on June 16, 1986, after going to her grocery store with the intention of robbing it. According to an arrest report, he went behind the counter and began taking money from the cash register.
Langford confronted him while holding a knife, and a struggle followed, prosecutors said. Trotter took the knife from her and stabbed her multiple times before fleeing the store with about $100, according to an arrest report.
Convicted murderer set to be executed
A truck driver later found Langford bleeding inside the store, the report says. According to court documents, Langford suffered “a total of seven stab wounds,” including a “large abdominal wound that resulted in disembowelment. Langford died hours later after going into cardiac arrest following surgery .
Investigators said several witnesses saw Trotter run from the store and later identified him in a photo lineup. Detectives said at the time that Trotter also gave a recorded confession admitting to the robbery and killing.
In the years since the killing, Trotter has been sentenced to death twice.
According to court records, a jury convicted Trotter of first-degree murder in 1987, and a judge sentenced him to death following the jury’s recommendation. However, the Florida Supreme Court later ordered a resentencing after finding errors in how the trial court weighed aggravating factors.
After a second sentencing proceeding in 1993, a judge again sentenced Trotter to death. The Florida Supreme Court upheld that sentence in 1996, court records show.
Appeal efforts in Palmetto murder case
In the years that followed, Trotter filed multiple appeals in state and federal court, including claims that he was intellectually disabled and therefore ineligible for the death penalty under Florida law. Prosecutors disputed those claims, citing evaluations that described his intelligence as average. Courts ultimately denied the appeals, filings show.
With the execution date now set, court records show Trotter filed a new appeal Monday, just days after the governor signed the death warrant.
As the case enters its final stages, an advocacy group, Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, has also launched an online petition urging DeSantis and the Florida Board of Executive Clemency to halt the execution. The petition had collected more than 1,100 signatures as of Friday, according to the group’s website.
“This is not about excusing violence. It is about whether Florida will continue treating executions as routine, despite the risk of irreversible error and the deep harm this system causes to victims’ families, corrections staff, courts, and communities,” the group said on its website.
As of Tuesday, 251 people were listed on Florida’s death row, according to the Florida Department of Corrections. The state carried out 19 executions in 2025.
