Florida inmate could become state’s oldest person executed after DeSantis signs death warrant

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday signed a death warrant for a man who killed his former girlfriend’s parents four decades ago, a day after the state carried out its ninth execution of the year.

Dominick Anthony Occhicone, 80, is scheduled to die by lethal injection on July 28 at Florida State Prison near Starke, according to the warrant DeSantis signed on Friday. The window to carry out the sentence runs from noon, July 28, through noon, August 4.

The warrant is the 12th DeSantis has signed this year and follows last week’s execution of Dusty Ray Spencer. Spencer, at 74, became the oldest inmate put to death by the state since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976 after a U.S. Supreme Court decision halted executions.

Dennis Sochor, 74, is set to surpass Spencer in age at the time of execution by seven days if there is no delay in his scheduled July 14 execution. Sochor was convicted of killing an 18-year-old woman he met at a New Year’s celebration in a Broward County bar 44 years ago.

Age was brought up in Spencer’s defense.

On June 18, the Florida Supreme Court rejected the argument that the execution would constitute cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment given Spencer’s age.

The Florida Supreme Court noted, “The only age-based exemption from execution recognized by the United States Supreme Court is for individuals under the chronological age of eighteen when they committed the offense.”

According to court records, Occhicone went to the Pasco County home of Raymond and Martha Artzner, where his former girlfriend was living with her child on June 10, 1986.

Occhicone initially knocked on a sliding glass door, but his former girlfriend refused to talk and threatened to call the police. Occhicone appeared to leave, only to return a brief time later armed with a handgun. He cut the telephone lines to the home and was confronted outside by Raymond Artzner.

Occhicone shot and killed Artzner and then broke into the home. While his former girlfriend was able to flee with her child, Occhicone fatally shot Martha Artzner four times.

Charged with two counts of first-degree murder, Occhicone received a life sentence for Raymond Artzner's death and a death sentence for killing Martha Artzner.

The jury voted 7-5 to recommend death in September 1987.

Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty quickly requested that DeSantis stay the execution.

“Five jurors voted to spare Dominick’s life, and even the sentencing court recognized that he was acting under extreme mental and emotional disturbance,” the group stated in a petition. “His case reflects the devastating consequences of untreated addiction, emotional crisis, and human failure --- not a problem that another execution can solve.”