Florida To Execute Man Convicted In 1989 Panama City Home-Invasion Murder

Mark Allen Geralds, 58, is scheduled to be executed Tuesday evening by lethal injection at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke for the 1989 stabbing death of Tressa Pettibone.

Geralds was convicted of murder, armed robbery, burglary and grand theft of a vehicle and was first sentenced to death in 1990. The Florida Supreme Court later vacated that sentence while affirming the underlying convictions; Geralds was resentenced to death in 1992.

According to court records, in February 1989 Pettibone’s 8-year-old son discovered his mother beaten and stabbed on the kitchen floor of their Panama City home. Geralds, a carpenter who had previously done remodeling work at the residence, had encountered Pettibone and her children at a shopping mall about a week before the killing. Court documents say Pettibone had told Geralds her husband was away on business; investigators say Geralds later asked the boy at a video arcade about the family’s comings and goings.

Forensic evidence cited at trial included jewelry Geralds pawned that contained traces of Pettibone’s blood and plastic ties used to bind the victim that matched ties found in Geralds’ car, according to prosecutors.

After a death warrant was signed last month and an execution date set, Geralds told a judge he did not wish to pursue any further appeals; the judge approved that decision.

If carried out, the execution would be Florida’s 18th in 2025, extending the state’s record for most executions in a single year. Nationwide, 44 men have been executed by court order so far this year, with several additional executions scheduled before year-end.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court restored the death penalty in 1976, Florida’s previous high for executions in a year was eight (2014). Florida has executed more people than any other state in 2025. Another Florida execution is scheduled for Dec. 18: Frank Athen Walls, 58, was convicted of shooting two people during a home-invasion robbery and later confessed to three additional killings.

According to the Florida Department of Corrections, the state’s lethal injections use a three-drug protocol: a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart.