Who is James Dennis Ford? Florida man to be executed in double murder

WARNING: This story contains details of a disturbing crime.

Florida Death Row’s inmate, James Dennis Ford, was so overwhelmed by the pain after his father’s death, his ex -wife says he would find him in the cemetery at night, lying in his father’s tomb and crying.

Described as severely delayed mentally in judicial records, Ford resorted to alcohol after the loss and, finally, the murder.

Florida is scheduled to run Ford by lethal injection For the murders of 1997 of Gregory, 25, and his wife Kimberly Malnory, 26,. If the execution progresses, Ford will be the first inmate executed in Florida this year and the Fifth in the United States

Ford lawyers have argued in judicial presentations that the death penalty should not be applied to it due to their development problems. Prosecutors say that the case was particularly horrible and that Ford’s execution will be justice.

As the execution approaches, USA Today is looking back in the crime, who is Ford and who were his victims.

What was convicted to James Ford?

On April 6, 1997, judicial records say Ford invited his co -worker Gregory Malnory and Malnory Kimberly on a fishing trip to the grass farm of the grass of southern Florida in Punta Gorda, a city of the southwest of Florida, just north of Fort Myers. They brought their daughter Maranda of 22 months.

Police believe that Ford first attacked Gregory, shooting him on the back of the head, although that did not kill him. The researchers believe that Gregory staggered the middle of a nearby field, where Ford hit him and cut his throat “from ear to ear”, the judicial records say.

Kimberly, who was injured during the initial attack, managed to save Maranda by looking at her in the back seat of the couple’s truck. But the judicial records say that Ford returned, then raped her and hit her before shooting her dead.

Approximately 18 hours later, an employee of the lawn farm found the Malnoryys bodies. Maranda survived but the 22 -month -old boy was dehydrated, full of insect bites and covered with her mother’s blood.

Ford told the Police that he went to fish with the family and that they were alive when he left them to go hunting, according to the records.

Witnesses of the grass farm told the police that they had seen Ford with blood on the face, hands and clothes, and that they had great scratches on their body. Prosecutors say that DNA tests showed that Ford Semen was inside Kimberly Malnory, and that other articles connected it with the crime scene, including their own weapon.

In the trial, Ford’s lawyers argued that he was drunk at the time of crime and could not have committed the murders. Later, Ford said he did not agree with that argument of the trial because he could involve his guilt.

Linda Griffin, Kimberly Malnory’s mother, said during the trial she had lost not only a daughter but a friend, according to news articles at that time.

“She was my life, my laugh and my tears,” he said.

A jury condemned Ford of murder.

A life changed by death and alcohol

Ford had no significant criminal record before the murders, and his friends and family said he never showed signs of violence.

Ford had an childhood with problems with an alcoholic father and a mother who left when he was 14 years old, according to judicial records.

Rodney McCray, a close friend of the family, said that in the last years of his life, Ford’s father was “drinking almost all day,” according to judicial records.

Even so, Ford was close to his father. He left school because he preferred to spend time with his father in his work as a caretaker of the cemetery in Arcadia.

Ford and his father shared a “very close” link, said Ford’s first wife, resorting to that they were “closer than any of the two people he had met in his entire life.”

Ford was just over 20 years old when his father died at the age of 52.

“He was devastated to have lost his best friend,” Ford’s defense lawyers wrote in the judicial records. “There were times when Paige Ford (his first wife) found him missing at night, and she found him in the cemetery lay in his father’s tomb.”

This loss aggravated Ford’s decline. He had begun to drink in his adolescence and finally opened up to 24 beers in one day, according to the records.

What has Ford’s family said about crime?

One of Ford’s daughters said that his father’s crime had a great impact on his life, according to an article from Englewood Sun.

“People didn’t want to have anything to do with me,” said Peggy Ford. “It’s hard for me to get a job. It is difficult for me to maintain a job. It was difficult for me to have a relationship. It was difficult for me to have friends. “

When he was 15 years old, when the murders occurred, he was ridiculed and intimidated by his classmates at Charlotte High. In the article, he said he was still trying to discover why his own father could have done what he did.

“There is something in my heart that tells me where it needs to be,” said Peggy Ford. “I feel very bad (for the Families of the Malnoryys).”

Ford lawyers say their mental age should stop their execution

Ford lawyers have recently argued that their death sentence should be expelled, pointing out a decision of the 2005 Supreme Court that prohibited executions for minors. Although Ford was 36 years old at the time of crime, his lawyers argued that Ford’s development was much younger, more like 14, according to a psychologist who evaluated Ford.

Lisa Porter circuit judge annulled that appeal.

“The argument that the death penalty is unconstitutional as applied to people with a mental and development age of less than 18 years is a legal problem, not a factual problem, for which the defendant has not provided a jurisprudence of Support, “he said.

Ford has few options for a respite: the United States Supreme Court and Florida Ron Desantis Republican Governor. The Florida Supreme Court rejected its last attempt to stop its execution on Friday.

Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trend news reporter for USA Today. Communicate with him at [email protected] and follow him at x @Fern_Cerv_.