Just in- 80 yr Florida Death row Inmate Executed-Murder Fiancée’s Parents as she watched- 40 yrs on

Dominic Anthony Okakone Jr. spent thirty-nine years on death row before his execution by lethal injection on July 28, 2026, at Florida State Prison.

He was eighty years old, frail, suffering from heart and kidney disease, and unable to care for himself.

Born on August 29, 1945, in Carmel, New York, he grew up in a close-knit Italian-American family.

His father, who shared his name, immigrated from Italy and worked in sanitation in New York City.

Dominic was raised in a traditional Catholic household centered around his father and Sunday family gatherings.

As he grew into a teenager and young adult, he developed a quick temper and a habit of getting into bar fights.

In the mid-1960s, he was called up for military service during the Vietnam War and failed to report.

He was arrested, court-martialed, and sent to a military prison at Fort Dix in New Jersey for two years.

Following his release, he worked ordinary jobs until his father retired and moved the family to Pasco County, Florida.

Dominic moved south with them, married a woman named Sharon, and had a son who also carried the family name.

During these years, alcohol consumption became a central and destructive structure of his daily life.

On the night of October 11, 1980, police responded to a domestic disturbance call at his home.

When Officer William Stoner arrived, Dominic shoved him toward the patrol car and retreated into his garage.

When Stoner knocked on the front door, Dominic struck him on the chest, leading to a violent struggle with two officers.

Dominic was convicted of resisting arrest with violence, a felony, while a separate battery charge resulted in an acquittal.

Shortly after, his wife Sharon fell ill with cancer and passed away, leaving Dominic a widower with a two-year-old son.

His father and sisters lived nearby, helping raise the boy while Dominic continued working and drinking heavily.

In 1982, he met Anita Gered, who lived in Holiday, Florida, with her parents, Raymond and Martha Artsner, and her two children.

The two began dating, combining their households in 1984 so that five people lived under one roof.

Although the living arrangement ended after six months, their relationship continued, and they became engaged in 1985.

Raymond and Martha watched the relationship closely, witnessing Dominic’s severe drinking and volatile temper.

Dominic grew physically and verbally abusive toward Anita, once kicking in a bedroom door while holding a knife.

In September 1985, two months before the scheduled wedding, Anita broke off the engagement due to his relentless temper.

Dominic refused to accept the breakup, convincing himself that her parents were responsible for turning her against him.

He began a campaign of harassment, sending daily flowers to her workplace and continuously calling her home.

He drove to her house late at night, knocking on her bedroom glass door and demanding she speak with him.

In October 1985, Anita visited his house, where Dominic pointed a pistol at a door frame and fired a shot.

He then handed the gun to her, asking her to shoot him, but she refused and managed to leave safely.

Despite the volatility, Anita occasionally let him into her home during the following months, fueling his false hope.

His daily routine revolved around Shooters Liquor Lounge, where he drank ten to fifteen vodka cocktails every morning.

Bartenders and acquaintances watched him deteriorate, noting that he sat on his barstool crying and talking exclusively about Anita.

He supplemented his heavy drinking with marijuana and tranquilizers while caring intermittently for his young son.

By May 1986, the situation had remained stagnant for eight months, with Dominic continuing his daily drinking and harassment.

In mid-May, Anita visited his house to inform him about an abortion and her new interest in another man.

When an acquaintance arrived shortly after and found Dominic sobbing, he declared he had nothing left to live for.

He began voicing explicit threats in local bars, stating he wanted to kill Anita’s parents and make her watch.

He told Anita directly that he would shoot her parents and children, starting at the kneecaps and leaving her until last.

Despite these alarming threats, regulars and bar owners dismissed his words as the ramblings of a chronic drunk.

On Sunday, June 8, the bar owner saw a pistol in Dominic’s waistband and ordered him to take it outside.

That same day, Dominic crashed his car into a tree while heavily intoxicated and still carrying his firearm.

On the night of June 9, he drank heavily once again before stopping briefly at Shooters Liquor Lounge around one in the morning.

He played sad songs on the jukebox, drank two vodka and cranberries, and asked the bartender if he should visit Anita.

He left the bar around two in the morning, leading the bartender to believe he had decided against visiting Anita.

Instead, he drove to her house in Holiday, arriving around three in the morning to pound on her bedroom door.

Anita woke up, refused to speak with him, and threatened to call the sheriff if he did not leave immediately.

Dominic drove home, received an angry phone call from Anita swearing at him, and finally hung up on him.

Enraged and despondent, he grabbed his pistol and decided to return to the house to kill himself or force Anita to do it.

The house was dark and asleep, housing Raymond, Martha, Anita, and her ten-year-old daughter.

Dominic knew the layout intimately, having lived there previously and spent months prowling outside its walls.

He parked down the street, walked to the house, and immediately tore the telephone junction box off the exterior wall.

This action severed all telephone lines inside, rendering every phone in the house completely dead.

He began pounding violently on Anita’s bedroom door, then shifted to her daughter’s window when Anita refused to answer.

Awoken by the noise, Anita woke her father, Raymond, who tried unsuccessfully to call the sheriff from multiple dead phones.

Realizing the phones did not work, Raymond, sixty-six years old, walked out to the garage and raised the overhead door.

Anita followed her father out onto the dark concrete driveway as Dominic staggered toward them reeking of alcohol.

Raymond shouted at Dominic to leave, holding a broomstick in his hands while demanding he get off the property.

Dominic ignored him, staring past Raymond at Anita and pleading to talk about their relationship.

Suddenly, Dominic raised his right hand, leveled a small pistol at Raymond’s face, and fired a single shot.

Raymond collapsed onto the concrete, and Anita turned and fled back into the house, locking the door behind her.

Dominic smashed the glass pane of the garage door, reached inside, and unlocked it to pursue her.

Anita rushed her daughter and mother toward the front door, but Martha Artsner remained trapped inside.

Anita and her daughter escaped into the dark street, running toward a neighbor’s house to call the authorities.

Behind them, Dominic entered the hallway and shot sixty-two-year-old Martha Artsner four times, three times in the chest.

Leaving the victims behind, Dominic walked away from the subdivision on foot toward a nearby railroad bed.

Deputy Wayne Taylor arrived at the scene around four in the morning, finding Raymond conscious on the ground.

Raymond managed to whisper that Dominic had shot him before being rushed to the hospital, where he soon died.

Deputies discovered Martha dead inside the house and found the exterior telephone box ripped cleanly off the wall.

A tracking dog led deputies to a railroad bed three-quarters of a mile away, where they arrested Dominic around six in the morning.

He looked disheveled and half-asleep, though he claimed Raymond had struck him first with a broomstick.

Investigators gathered evidence from local bars, where multiple witnesses confirmed Dominic’s repeated threats against the Artsners.

Facing two counts of first-degree murder, Dominic was indicted by a grand jury in Pasco County on July 16, 1986.

His defense team initially filed an intent to plead not guilty by reason of insanity, arguing a severe mental disorder.

They also relied on his massive alcohol consumption to argue he was incapable of forming premeditated intent.

The trial opened on September 14, 1987, before Judge Lawrence Kenio in Pasco County Circuit Court.

During jury selection, defense motions for a mistrial due to a spectator loudly declaring the defendant’s guilt were denied.

Once the trial began, the defense unexpectedly withdrew the insanity plea, focusing entirely on the claim of intoxication.

Prosecutors presented extensive testimony from bartenders and Anita regarding Dominic’s months of explicit threats.

Anita testified about the abuse, the broken door, the fired pistol, and her clear view of Dominic grinning before shooting her father.

The defense called no witnesses of their own, gambling on securing the final closing arguments by relying on prosecution testimony.

On September 18, 1987, the jury found Dominic guilty on both counts of first-degree murder.

During the penalty phase, mental health experts testified about his severe depression, alcoholism, and emotional instability.

Dr. Albert Fireman argued that Dominic’s thinking was too disordered and hot-blooded for cold deliberation.

Other specialists suggested Dominic went to the house to manipulate the family, and the situation tragically escalated into a frenzy.

Dominic took the stand briefly to show photographs of his son, aiming to counter claims that he was an abusive father.

The jury recommended the death penalty by a vote of seven to five, meeting the state’s requirement for a majority.

On November 18, 1987, Judge Kenio filed his written findings, discarding the aggravating factor of extreme wickedness and cruelty.

However, the judge upheld three aggravating factors: a prior violent felony conviction, commission during a burglary, and premeditation.

Despite finding that Dominic suffered from extreme emotional distress and alcoholism, the judge ruled his functioning remained intact.

Judge Kenio sentenced Dominic to life in prison for the murder of Raymond Artsner.

For the murder of Martha Artsner, who was unarmed and killed after Dominic breached a locked door, the judge imposed death.

Dominic was forty-two years old when he arrived on death row, initiating decades of legal appeals and reviews.

His lawyers appealed to the Florida Supreme Court, raising numerous challenges regarding jury instructions and evidence.

In October 1990, the state supreme court rejected most claims, upholding the conviction and death sentence by a narrow margin.

Justice Kogan dissented on the sentence, arguing that extreme emotional distress made the death penalty disproportionate.

In May 1993, new defense counsel filed motions alleging ineffective assistance of trial counsel due to their failure to call witnesses.

Courts reviewed testimonies from bartenders and additional witnesses who could have detailed his extended bender before the murders.

However, courts ruled that the original trial strategy constituted a reasonable tactical decision rather than legal incompetence.

Subsequent appeals in federal court via habeas corpus petitions faced strict procedural bars and were ultimately rejected in 2005.

Legal challenges persisted as state laws regarding non-unanimous jury recommendations evolved over the following decades.

Although Florida eventually reformed its sentencing laws to require unanimous or near-unanimous jury votes, rulings were not retroactive.

Dominic’s seven-to-five death recommendation fell outside the window for relief, leaving his death sentence securely in place.

As the decades passed, Dominic adjusted to life behind bars, remaining entirely sober for the first time since his youth.

He deepened his Catholic faith, spent hours praying the rosary daily, and served as a representative for his cell block.

His family dynamic shifted when two adult daughters he never knew contacted him, eventually bringing his grandchildren to visit.

Conversely, his son struggled with the lifelong trauma of the murders, enduring bullying, addiction, and legal troubles of his own.

By his late seventies, Dominic’s physical health deteriorated significantly as heart and kidney failures left him frail and dependent.

In mid-2026, Governor Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant setting Dominic’s execution for July 28, 2026.

Florida had accelerated executions significantly, creating an unprecedented schedule that included two executions on the same day.

Dominic’s legal team filed emergency motions citing his advanced age, failing health, and lethal injection protocol concerns.

Both the Florida Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court declined to intervene or halt the execution.

On the morning of July 28, 2026, Dominic woke early, met with a spiritual adviser, and ate his final meal in peace.

By six in the evening, witnesses gathered behind the glass as straps secured the eighty-year-old man to the gurnie.

Given a final opportunity to speak, he thanked Christian brothers, apologized to his family, and addressed the Artsner children.

He stated that he was sorry and never meant to cause the tragedy that unfolded forty years prior.

The lethal injection began at 6:02 PM, and officials pronounced Dominic Anthony Okakone Jr. dead at 6:13 PM.

He became the oldest person ever executed by the state of Florida, closing a chapter that spanned nearly four decades.