A man is scheduled to die by lethal injection more than 25 years after he killed women he met in North Florida bars during a daylong crime spree.
Michael Zack III will die at 6 p.m. Tuesday for the murder of Ravonne Smith, a bar employee he befriended and then beat and stabbed with an oyster knife in June 1996. He was also convicted and sentenced for separated to life in prison for murdering Laura. Rosillo, whom he met at a bar in a nearby county.
Zack's nine-day crime spree began in Tallahassee, where he was a regular patron of a bar. When Zack's girlfriend called and said he was being evicted, the bartender offered to lend him her truck. Zack left with him and never returned, according to court records.
Zack drove to a bar in Niceville in the Florida Panhandle, where he befriended the owner of a construction company. The man found out that Zack lived in the truck and offered to let him stay at his house. Zack later stole two guns and $42. He pawned the weapons, according to court records.
At the house, Zack crushed her over the head with a bottle, slammed her head into the floor, raped her, and stabbed her four times in the center of the chest with the oyster knife. He then stole her television, VCR and purse and tried to pawn the electronics. The pawn shop suspected the items had been stolen and Zack fled and hid in a vacant house for two days before being arrested, according to court records.
Zack, now 54, admitted to killing Smith. He became angry and hit her when she made a comment about her sister's murder of her mother, Zack said. He said he thought Smith was going into another room to get a gun when he stabbed her in self-defense.
Zack's lawyers tried to stop the execution, arguing that he is a victim of fetal alcohol syndrome and post-traumatic stress disorder. The U.S. Supreme Court dismissed Zack's appeal to stay the execution Monday afternoon without comment.
Zack's execution would be the eighth under Gov. Ron DeSantis' tenure, dating back to 2019, and the sixth this year after no executions were carried out between 2020 and 2022. DeSantis has made death penalty laws stricter and a more far-reaching issue in his presidential campaign.
