OAN’s Abril Elfi
4:22 PM – Wednesday, October 4, 2023
A man convicted of killing two women just a day apart from each other in 1996 has been executed this week.
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On Tuesday, 54-year-old Michael Zack III, the man who killed two different women only a day apart at a separate Florida bars, was put to death.
Following a fatal injection at Florida State Prison in Starke, the convicted assailant was pronounced dead after 6:14 p.m.
Zack III reportedly refused a last meal and talked with his wife before the execution.
When asked if he wanted to say any final words, he responded with, “Yes Sir,” and “I love you all.”
He also released a statement prior to his death, where he said “I make no excuses, I lay no blame, but I do wish I could have a second chance, to live out my days in prison and continue to do all I can to make a difference in this world.”
In June 1996, Zack III was charged for the murder of Ravonne Smith, a bartender that he had originally befriended but who he later beat and stabbed with an oyster knife.
He was also found guilty and sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Laura Rosillo, whom he met at another Florida Panhandle pub.
Zack III began his nine-day criminal spree in Tallahassee, the state capital, where he was a regular at the pub.
According to court records, when Zack’s fiancée called to tell him that he was being evicted, the female bartender offered him her pickup truck, which he borrowed but never returned.
Later, records state that he drove to a tavern in Niceville, Florida, where he happened to meet the owner of a construction company.
When the man discovered Zack III was living in the pickup truck, he invited him to stay at his house where the convicted murderer went on to steal $42 and two pistols in order to pawn off the guns for money.
He reportedly encountered Rosillo at yet another pub and asked her to go with him to the beach so that they could do drugs together, according to the report. Soon after, he beat her, dragged her partially dressed into the dunes, and strangled her.
Zack III went to a Pensacola bar the next day and met Smith.
Him and Smith went to the beach to smoke marijuana, and she subsequently took him to her boyfriend’s house where Zack III reportedly smashed her over the head with a bottle, slammed her head into the floor, raped her, and then stabbed her four times in the center of the chest with the oyster knife.
He then reportedly stole the woman’s television, VCR, pocketbook, and attempted to pawn those items as well.
Records stated that Zack III escaped and hid in an empty house for around two days before being caught. The pawn shop owner had a suspicion that the items he was bringing in were stolen, so he alerted police.
The killer confessed to murdering Smith and claimed that he only became upset and attacked her after she had mentioned his mother’s murder, which his sister had committed.
He also claimed that he stabbed Smith in self-defense because he feared that she was going to another room to fetch a gun.
His execution was reportedly the 6th one in the state this year so far.
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