A Florida man was executed Tuesday night for the grisly murder of a married mom who he raped and shot in the face after her 911 call went unanswered.<\/p>\n
Michael Lee King, 54, was sentenced to death for the 2008 murder, rape and kidnapping of Denise Amber Lee, a 21-year-old married mother with two sons. <\/p>\n
King was pronounced dead at at 6:13 p.m. Tuesday following a lethal injection at the Florida State Prison. <\/p>\n
Michael Lee King, 54, was executed via lethal injection on Tuesday. Florida Department of Corrections\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cSince finding Jesus in prison, I have tried to live as His disciple obeying the Two Great Commandments: To love God with all my heart, my mind and all my being, and to love my neighbor to include everyone \u2014 my family, Denise Lee\u2019s family, everyone in the gallery,\u201d King said moments before he was executed.<\/p>\n
King did not apologize or ask for forgiveness. <\/p>\n
King kidnapped, raped and murdered 21-year-old mother Denise Amber Lee in 2008. Denise Amber Lee Foundation<\/p>\n
Lee\u2019s father, her widowed husband, and her eldest son watched on from the gallery. They all wore pink shirts\u2014Lee\u2019s favorite color.<\/p>\n
Lee was abducted from her North Port home on Jan. 17, 2008 while her toddler and infant son were inside. <\/p>\n
King took Lee to his home, where he bound and raped her, investigators detailed during his speedy trial. <\/p>\n
Later that day, King drove to his cousin\u2019s house to borrow a flashlight, shovel and gas can. While Lee waited, bound in King\u2019s car, she managed to reach his cellphone and call 911, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n
Her call and similar ones made by her husband and witnesses to her kidnapping all went unanswered. In the chilling voice message, Lee could be heard begging for her life so that she could see her family again.<\/p>\n
Lee\u2019s husband, Nathan, established the Denise Amber Lee Foundation to advocate for better 911 operator training. Denise Amber Lee Foundation<\/p>\n
Not long after, Lee was shot directly in the face and buried in a remote part of North Port.<\/p>\n
King was arrested that same day when a state trooper recognized his 1994 green Chevrolet Camaro from a description given by a 911 caller who heard screams coming from his car at a traffic light. The caller initially reported it as a possible child abduction.<\/p>\n
Lee\u2019s hair and belongings were located in King\u2019s home and vehicle, authorities said.<\/p>\n
The Florida Legislature later passed the Denise Amber Lee Act, which provides amplified training for 911 operators. Lee\u2019s husband, Nathan Lee, also established a foundation in her name aiming to promote operator training and public awareness. <\/p>\n
\u201dI\u2019m just super blessed that I got to know Denise, let alone marry her and have two amazing kids with her,\u201d Nathan said.<\/p>\n
King is the fourth person to be executed in Florida this year. AP<\/p>\n
Lee\u2019s father, Richard Goff, hailed his daughter as a hero and scoffed at King\u2019s lack of remorse.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you can\u2019t say something from your heart, don\u2019t say it,\u201d Goff said.<\/p>\n
Noah Lee, who was just 2 years old when his mother was killed, said he still feels her loss daily, even though he \u201cdidn\u2019t get the opportunity to know her and be raised by her.\u201d<\/p>\n
King is the fourth person to be executed in Florida this year. The state has two more executions set for March 31 and April 21.<\/p>\n
With Post wires<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Florida man was executed Tuesday night for the grisly murder of a married mom who he raped…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[408,4537,28,30,29,49915,4538,4278],"class_list":["post-195835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-death-penalty","tag-executions","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-moms","tag-murders","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195835","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=195835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}