DeSantis Signs Off on Execution of Convicted Flagler Murderer

For the second time under Governor Ron DeSantis’s tenure in office, a criminal will be executed for his crimes in Florida. This time, and for the first time in history, it’s for a murder that took place in Flagler County. Louis Bernard Gaskin is scheduled to be put to death on April 12th for the double-homicide of a married couple in Palm Coast’s R Section. The killings took place in 1989, before Palm Coast was even an incorporated city. Police say Gaskin came to the home of Robert and Georgette Sturmfels on December 20th, 1989, dressed as a ninja with a .22 caliber rifle. He’s said to have shot the two through the window. Afterward he moved on to another home nearby and began shooting into it similarly according to reports, but didn’t kill anyone inside. The houses were both robbed. Gaskin was arrested on December 30th and later confessed to the killings, saying they were both random. He went to trial in July 1990, and was convicted on two counts each of first degree murder and attempted murder. When the execution takes place next month, Gaskin will become the 101st person executed by the state since the death penalty was affirmed in 1976. He will be given lethal injection. It’s set to be the second execution in Florida this year, following the February 23rd killing of Donald David Dillbeck, a convicted killer of two, including a Lee County deputy. Prior to that, there were no executions since 2019.