A man convicted of raping and killing a woman near a central Florida bar was executed Tuesday evening. Thomas Lee Gudinas, 51, was pronounced dead at 6:13pm after receiving a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke, said Bryan Griffin, a spokesman for Gov. Ron DeSantis. Gudinas was convicted in the May 1994 killing of Michelle McGrath. Griffin said there were no irregularities with the procedure and that Gudinas made a brief last statement in which he repented and made a reference to Jesus, the AP reports.
McGrath was last seen at a bar called Barbarella's shortly before 3am on May 24, 1994. Her body, showing evidence of serious trauma and sexual assault, was found several hours later in an alley next to a nearby school. Gudinas had been at the same bar with friends the night before, but they all later testified that they had left without him. A school employee who found McGrath's body later identified Gudinas as a man who was fleeing the area shortly beforehand. Another woman also identified Gudinas as the person who chased her to her car the previous night and threatened to assault her. Gudinas was convicted and sentenced to death in 1995.
Attorneys for Gudinas filed appeals with the Florida Supreme Court and the US Supreme Court but they were rejected. Officials said Gudinas had one visitor, his mother, on Tuesday and did not meet with a spiritual adviser. Gudinas was the seventh person put to death in Florida this year, with an eighth scheduled for next month. The state also executed six people in 2023, but only carried out one execution last year. Florida has executed more people than any other state this year, while Texas and South Carolina are tied for second place with four each. (More Florida stories.)
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