STARKE, Fla. (AP) — A man convicted of killing his girlfriend, her mother and a man he claimed owed him $2,000 was put to death Thursday in a record 11th execution this year by the state of Florida.
Curtis Windom, 59, was pronounced dead at 6:17 p.m. following a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke, authorities said. He was sentenced to die for the Nov. 7, 1992, killings of girlfriend Valerie Davis, her mother Mary Lubin, and Johnnie Lee in the Orlando area.
Windom’s face was obscured by a sheet when the curtain was raised to the death chamber shortly before the injection was to start. Windom said something about being on death row but it was not intelligible. Then, as the drugs began flowing, he began taking deep breaths. His legs twitched several times, and then he was still.
Kemene Hunter, a sister of victim Valerie Davis, wore a T-shirt to a news conference after the execution that read, “Justice for her, healing for me.”
“All I want to say is, it took 33 years to get some closure,” Hunter said, adding “Vengeance is mine says the lord.”
Windom was the 30th person executed in the U.S. to date in 2025, with Florida leading the way behind a flurry of death warrants signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. A 12th inmate, David Joseph Pittman, 63, is scheduled to be put to death in the state on Sept. 17.
Court records show a friend told Windom the day of the killings that Lee — who supposedly owed Windom $2,000 — had won $114 at a greyhound racetrack. Windom told the friend that “you're gonna read about me” and that he planned to kill Lee.
Windom went to a Walmart to buy a .38-caliber revolver and a box of 50 shells, according to court testimony. Not long after, Windom drove to find Lee, located him and shot him twice in the back from his car, followed by two more shots standing over the nab at close range.
Then Windom headed to Davis' apartment and fatally shot his girlfriend “with no provocation” in front of a friend, court records show. Windom randomly shot and wounded another man before encountering Davis' mother, Mary Lubin, as she drove to her daughter's apartment. Lubin was shot twice in her car at a stop sign.
Windom received death sentences for the murders and a 22-year sentence for the attempted murder. Davis was the mother of one of Windom's children, a daughter who had campaigned to stop the execution from being carried out.
“Forgiveness comes with time, and 33 years is a long time. I, myself, have forgiven my father,” the daughter, Curtisia Windom, said in a statement from an anti-death penalty group that delivered more than 5,000 petition signatures to the governor this week, urging him to intervene.
The inmate's lawyers had filed numerous appeals over the years, including a claim that evidence of his mental problems should have been introduced at trial. But the Florida Supreme Court ruled that was not prejudicial against Windom because prosecutors then would have presented evidence that he was a drug dealer and the two women he killed were police informants.
Many of Windom's appeals had focused on claims that he was represented by an incompetent lawyer when it came to presenting mental health evidence.
His final appeal was rejected Wednesday by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Since the 1976 restoration of the death penalty in the U.S. by the Supreme Court, the highest previous annual total of Florida executions was eight in 2014. Florida has executed more people than any other state this year, while Texas and South Carolina are tied for second place with four each.
Before Thursday, the last execution in Florida took place Aug. 19 when Kayle Bates, 67, received a lethal injection for killing a woman he abducted from an insurance office.
Florida executions are carried out via a three-drug injection — a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the state Department of Corrections.
This image provided by the Florida Department of Corrections shows Curtis Windom. (Florida Department of Corrections via AP)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A South Korean court sentenced former President Yoon Suk Yeol to five years in prison Friday in the first verdict from eight criminal trials over the martial law debacle that forced him out of office and other allegations.
Yoon was impeached, arrested and dismissed as president after his short-lived imposition of martial law in December 2024 triggered huge public protests calling for his ouster.
The most significant criminal charge against him alleges that his martial law enforcement amounted to a rebellion, and the independent counsel has requested the death sentence in the case that is to be decided in a ruling next month.
Yoon has maintained he didn’t intend to place the country under military rule for an extended period, saying his decree was only meant to inform the people about the danger of the liberal-controlled parliament obstructing his agenda. But investigators have viewed Yoon’s decree as an attempt to bolster and prolong his rule, charging him with rebellion, abuse of power and other criminal offenses.
In Friday’s case, the Seoul Central District Court sentenced Yoon for defying attempts to detain him, fabricating the martial law proclamation, and sidestepping a legally mandated full Cabinet meeting and thus depriving some Cabinet members who were not convened of their due rights to deliberate on his decree.
Judge Baek Dae-hyun said in the televised ruling that imposing “a grave punishment” was necessary because Yoon hasn’t shown remorse and has only repeated “hard-to-comprehend excuses.” The judge also restoring legal systems damaged by Yoon’s action was necessary.
Yoon’s defense team said they will appeal the ruling, which they believe was “politicized” and reflected “the unliberal arguments by the independent counsel.” Yoon’s defense team argued the ruling “oversimplified the boundary between the exercise of the president’s constitutional powers and criminal liability.”
Prison sentences in the multiple, smaller trials Yoon faces would matter if he is spared the death penalty or life imprisonment at the rebellion trial.
Park SungBae, a lawyer who specializes in criminal law, said there is little chance the court would decide Yoon should face the death penalty in the rebellion case. He said the court will likely issue a life sentence or a sentence of 30 years or more in prison.
South Korea has maintained a de facto moratorium on executions since 1997 and courts rarely hand down death sentences. Park said the court would take into account that Yoon’s decree didn’t cause casualties and didn’t last long, although Yoon hasn’t shown genuine remorse for his action.
South Korea has a history of pardoning former presidents who were jailed over diverse crimes in the name of promoting national unity. Those pardoned include strongman Chun Doo-hwan, who received the death penalty at a district court over his 1979 coup, the bloody 1980 crackdowns of pro-democracy protests that killed about 200 people, and other crimes.
Some observers say Yoon will likely retain a defiant attitude in the ongoing trials to maintain his support base in the belief that he cannot avoid a lengthy sentence but could be pardoned in the future.
On the night of Dec. 3, 2024, Yoon abruptly declared martial law in a televised speech, saying he would eliminate “anti-state forces” and protect “the constitutional democratic order.” Yoon sent troops and police officers to encircle the National Assembly, but many apparently didn’t aggressively cordon off the area, allowing enough lawmakers to get into an assembly hall to vote down Yoon’s decree.
No major violence occurred, but Yoon's stunt caused the biggest political crisis in South Korea and rattled its diplomacy and financial markets. For many, his decree, the first of its kind in more than four decades in South Korea, brought back harrowing memories of past dictatorships in the 1970s and 1980s, when military-backed leaders used martial law and emergency measures to deploy soldiers and tanks on the streets to suppress demonstrations.
After Yoon's ouster, his liberal rival Lee Jae Myung became president via a snap election last June. After taking office, Lee appointed three independent counsels to look into allegations involving Yoon, his wife and associates.
Yoon's other trials deal with charges like ordering drone flights over North Korea to deliberately inflame animosities to look for a pretext to declare martial law. Other charges accuse Yoon of manipulating the investigation into a marine’s drowning in 2023 and receiving free opinion surveys from an election broker in return for a political favor.
A supporter of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol shouts slogans outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs and flags outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
A supporter of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol waits for a bus carrying former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs as police officers stand guard outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs and flags outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
A picture of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is placed on a board as supporters gather outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
