STARKE, Fla. (CBS12) — Florida had its first execution for the year of 2026, according to news partners, the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

Ronald Palmer Heath, convicted of killing a traveling salesman, was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. Tuesday following a three-drug injection at the Florida State Prison near Starke. The South Florida Sun Sentinel reports Heath was convicted of first-degree murder, robbery with a deadly weapon and other charges in the 1989 killing of Michael Sheridan.

The Sentinel reports Heath’s last words were “I’m sorry. That’s all I can say. Thank you.”

As the drugs were administered, Heath showed very little reaction, just closing his eyes and appearing to fall asleep before he became motionless, the South Florida Sun Sentinel says. The medic was called in eight minutes after the drugs were administered, and he was pronounced dead two minutes later, the Sentinel reports.

The first execution of 2026 followed 19 record executions in Florida last year. The South Florida Sun Sentinel says that Gov. Ron DeSantis oversaw more executions in a single year in 2025 than any other Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in the U.S. in 1976. The previous Florida record for execution was 8 back in 2014, the South Florida Sun Sentinel says.

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In May 1989, Heath and his brother, Kenneth Heath, met the victim, Sheridan, at a Gainesville bar. The South Florida Sun Sentinel reports that after hanging out at the bar, the three men agreed to go somewhere else to smoke marijuana.

The South Florida Sun Sentinel says at some point, the brothers got the idea to rob the man. The report says Heath drove the group to a remote area, where Kenneth Heath pulled a gun on Sheridan. The man initially refused to give the brothers anything, leading to Kenneth Heath shooting Sheridan in the chest, the South Florida Sun Sentinel said in its reporting.

According to the Sentinel, as Sheridan began emptying his pockets, Heath began kicking the man and stabbing him with a hunting knife, the report continues, Kenneth Heath then shot in Sheridan in the head.

The brothers then dumped Sheridan’s body in a wooded area and returned the car to a Gainesville bar to take items from Sheridan’s rental car, the South Florida Sun Sentinel says. Court records obtained by the South Florida Sun Sentinel stated the brothers made multiple purchases with Sheridan’s credit cards.

Several weeks later, Ronald Heath was arrested at his home in Douglas, Georgia, after investigators connected him to the stolen credit cards. Court records said that, in addition to the stolen credit cards they found a watch belonging to Sheridan.

Ronald Heath’s brother, Kenneth Heath, was also charged with Sheridan’s murder but was sentenced to life in prison following a plea agreement, the South Florida Sun Sentinel says.

The South Florida Sun Sentinel reporting says the Florida Supreme Court denied appeals filed by Ronald Heath last week. Heath’s attorneys argued that Florida corrections officials had mismanaged their own death penalty protocols, the state’s secretive clemency process blocked due process and that Heath’s incarceration as a junvenile had stunted his brain development and that jurors did not recommend the death penalty unanimously.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court denied Heath’s appeal, the South Florida Sun Sentinel says.

In U.S., 47 people were executed in 2025, but Florida led the way the number of death sentences signed by DeSantis. Alabama, South Carolina and Texas tied in second place for the five executions that year.

Two more Florida executions have already been scheduled for this month. Melvin Trotter, 65, is scheduled to die on February 24 and Billy Leon Kearse, 53. is scheduled to be executed on March 3.