2 months ago
1
A Florida antheral was executed Tuesday (March 17, 2026) evening for the rape and execution of a young parent who frantically called 911 connected her attacker's cellphone portion she was tied up successful his car.
Michael Lee King, 54, was pronounced dormant astatine 6:13 p.m. pursuing a lethal injection astatine Florida State Prison adjacent Starke, authorities said. He had been convicted of first-degree murder, intersexual artillery and kidnapping successful the January 2008 sidesplitting of 21-year-old Denise Amber Lee.
Court records amusement the pistillate was extracurricular her North Port location with her 2 sons — a toddler and an babe — erstwhile King drove by, spotted her, and aboriginal abducted her portion leaving the children location alone.
King took Lee to his home, wherever helium bound and raped her, investigators said. Later that day, King drove to his cousin's location to get a flashlight, shovel and state can, according to prosecutors. While Lee was bound successful King's car, she managed to get King's cellphone and telephone 911, records showed. She tin beryllium heard connected a signaling of the telephone begging for her beingness truthful that she could spot her hubby and children again.
King yet drove Lee to a distant country of North Port, wherever helium changeable her successful the look and buried her, authorities said. A authorities trooper pulled King implicit a abbreviated clip aboriginal due to the fact that his 1994 greenish Chevrolet Camaro matched the statement of different 911 call. A pistillate had heard screams coming from the conveyance portion stopped astatine a postulation airy and called constabulary to study a imaginable kid abduction.
Investigators aboriginal recovered Lee's hairsbreadth and belongings from King's location and vehicle, authorities said.
Months aft the killing, the Florida Legislature unanimously passed the Denise Amber Lee Act, which provides amended grooming for 911 operators. The Denise Amber Lee Foundation, created by the woman's hubby Nathan Lee, continues to beforehand grooming and rise nationalist consciousness nationwide.
The instauration said that too the victim's 911 call, astatine slightest 4 different 911 calls were made the time of her abduction, including 1 from her hubby and others who saw parts of the transgression unfolding — but that connection failures and different issues prevented assistance from being sent.
Last week, the Florida Supreme Court denied appeals filed by King, whose attorneys argued that corrections officials had mismanaged the state's decease punishment protocols and that helium was denied owed process by not having entree to definite records.
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected King's last appeals without remark Monday.
King's execution was the 4th this twelvemonth successful Florida and the seventh wide successful 2026 including 2 executions successful Texas and 1 successful Oklahoma.
Two much Florida executions are scheduled this year. James Aren Duckett, a erstwhile constabulary serviceman convicted of sidesplitting an 11-year-old girl, is acceptable to dice March 31, and Chadwick Scott Willacy connected April 21 for sidesplitting a neighbour who recovered him burglarizing her location during her luncheon interruption from work.
A full of 47 radical were executed successful the U.S. successful 2025 including a grounds 19 executions past twelvemonth successful Florida.
All Florida executions are carried retired via the injection of a sedative, a paralytic and a cause that stops the heart, according to the Department of Corrections. (AP) HIG
