{"id":195724,"date":"2026-03-18T01:24:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T01:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/195724\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T01:24:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T01:24:08","slug":"florida-executes-michael-lee-king-for-2008-murder-of-denise-amber-lee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/195724\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida executes Michael Lee King for 2008 murder of Denise Amber Lee"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!\n  <\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">Florida executed a man Tuesday evening for the brutal 2008 rape and murder of a married mother of two young sons who called 911 and begged for help while tied up in her car after she was abducted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">Michael Lee King, 54, was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m. following a lethal injection at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/us-regions\/southeast\/florida\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Florida State Prison<\/a> near Starke, authorities said. He was sentenced to death for first-degree murder, sexual battery and kidnapping for the January 2008 killing of 21-year-old Denise Amber Lee.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. Supreme Court denied King&#8217;s appeal on Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/news\/nation\/2026\/03\/17\/michael-king-florida-execution-denise-amber-lee\/89199889007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">FLORIDA EXECUTES RICHARD BARRY RANDOLPH CONVICTED OF RAPING, KILLING FORMER CONVENIENCE STORE MANAGER<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/michael-lee-king-florida.jpg\" alt=\"Michael Lee King, 54, and an image of Florida State Prison. \" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Clouds hover over the entrance of the Florida State Prison in Starke, where Michael Lee King was executed Tuesday for the 2008 killing of Denise Amber Lee.\u00a0 (AP; Florida Department of Corrections)<\/p>\n<p>Lee was abducted by King while leaving her North Port home, where her children were inside. King spotted Lee while driving earlier outside the house with her two sons, a toddler and an infant at the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As she trimmed her 2-year-old son Noah\u2019s hair on the back porch, she had no way of knowing that a predator was driving through her neighborhood, searching for a victim,&#8221; the Denise Amber Foundation, which was created by Lee&#8217;s husband, Nathan Lee, states on its website.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>King took Lee to his home where he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/crime\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">raped her<\/a>, prosecutors said. Later that day, he drove to a relative&#8217;s house to borrow a flashlight, shovel and gas can while Lee was tied up in his vehicle, according to prosecutors.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Despite being tied up, Lee managed to get King&#8217;s cellphone and call 911 where she begged for her life, saying she wanted to see her children and husband again.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/florida-continues-extend-record-execution-year-man-put-death-killing-wifes-family\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">FLORIDA CONTINUES TO EXTEND RECORD EXECUTION YEAR WITH MAN PUT TO DEATH FOR KILLING WIFE&#8217;S FAMILY<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/texas_death_row.jpg\" alt=\"death row\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Michael Lee King, 54, was executed Tuesday for the murder of Denise Amber Lee.\u00a0 (AP Photo\/Pat Sullivan, File)<\/p>\n<p>King eventually shot her in the face and buried her. He was pulled over a short time later by a state trooper because his green 1994 Chevrolet Camaro matched the description of another 911 call.<\/p>\n<p>A caller said she heard screams coming from the vehicle at a traffic light. Lee&#8217;s hair and belongings were later found in King&#8217;s vehicle and home.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Denise Amber Lee Act, a law passed months after her death, provides better training for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/crime\/police-and-law-enforcement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">911 operators<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>At least four other 911 calls, not including Lee&#8217;s call, were made the day of her abduction. One came from her husband, as well as others who saw parts of the crime unfolding.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/florida-execution-1990-killings-record-fox-news-002.jpg\" alt=\"Florida State Prison in Starke, Florida\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Clouds hover over the entrance of the Florida State Prison in Starke, where Michael King was executed Tuesday for the 2008 killing of Denise Amber Lee.\u00a0 (AP Photo\/Curt Anderson, file)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/foxnews.onelink.me\/xLDS?pid=AppArticleLink&amp;af_dp=foxnewsaf%3A%2F%2F&amp;af_web_dp=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxnews.com%2Fapps-products\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP<\/a><\/p>\n<p>However, communication failures and other issues prevented help from being sent.<\/p>\n<p>The Associated Press contributed to this report.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! Florida executed a man Tuesday evening for the brutal 2008&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195725,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7106,28,30,29,6180,628],"class_list":["post-195724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-crime-world","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-sex-crimes","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}