Ronald Heath was sentenced to death by the State of Florida for the murder of Michael Sheridan
According to court documents Ronald Heath was on parole for murder when he and his brother would rob and murder Michael Sheridan
Ronald Heath would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Ronald Heath was executed on February 10 2026
Ronald Heath Photos
Ronald Heath Information
| DC Number: | 065145 |
|---|---|
| Name: | HEATH, RONALD P |
| Race: | WHITE |
| Sex: | MALE |
| Birth Date: | 07/06/1961 |
| Initial Receipt Date: | 12/17/1990 |
| Current Facility: | UNION C.I. |
| Current Custody: | MAXIMUM |
| Current Release Date: | DEATH SENTENCE |
Ronald Heath Case
The Florida Supreme Court described the crime, thus:Heath and his live-in girlfriend, Penny Powell, traveled to the Jacksonville home of Heath’s grandmother. After an argument with Heath, Powell returned to Douglas, Georgia, where she and Heath lived.
Heath and his younger brother, Kenneth, drove to Gainesville to visit some of Heath’s friends. On May 24, 1989, the brothers went to the Purple Porpoise Lounge in Gainesville where two of Heath’s friends worked as waitresses. Sometime during the evening the brothers struck up a conversation with Sheridan, a traveling salesman who had come to the lounge for drinks and dinner. Sheridan bought the brothers a drink and inquired if they ever got high or had any marijuana. Heath suggested to Kenneth that they take Sheridan somewhere and rob him; Kenneth agreed.
The trio left the bar in Kenneth’s vehicle, which Heath drove to an isolated area of Alachua County. After parking on a dirt road, all three got out of the car and smoked marijuana. Heath made the hand motion of a pistol and asked Kenneth, Did you get it? Kenneth retrieved a small-caliber handgun from under the car seat, pointed it at Sheridan, and told him that he was being robbed. Sheridan balked at giving the brothers anything. Heath told Kenneth to shoot Sheridan.
When Sheridan lunged at Kenneth, Kenneth shot him in the chest. Sheridan sat down, saying it hurt. As Sheridan began to remove his possessions, Heath kicked him and stabbed him in the neck with a hunting knife. Heath attempted to slit Sheridan’s throat, but was unable to complete the task with the dull knife and could only saw at Sheridan’s neck. Heath then instructed Kenneth to kill Sheridan with the gun, and Kenneth shot him twice in the head. The brothers moved the body further into the woods. After returning to the Purple Porpoise, the brothers took Sheridan’s rental car to a remote area, removed some items, and burned the car.
The next day the brothers used Sheridan’s credit cards to purchase clothes, shoes, and other items at a Gainesville mall․ The brothers returned to Jacksonville and tossed the handgun into the St. John’s River. The handgun was never recovered. Heath eventually returned to the trailer which he shared with Powell [his girlfriend] in Georgia.Heath v. State, 648 So.2d 660, 662, 19 Fla. L. Weekly S540 (1994).
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/us-11th-circuit/1634499.html
Ronald Heath Execution
A man convicted of killing a traveling salesman he and his brother had met at a bar has become the first person executed in Florida this year.
Ronald Palmer Heath, 64, was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. Tuesday following a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. Heath was convicted of first-degree murder, robbery with a deadly weapon and other charges in the 1989 killing of Michael Sheridan.
When the curtain to the execution chamber went up at the scheduled 6 p.m. start time, Heath was already strapped down with an IV inserted in his arm. Asked by the warden if Heath had any final statement, he said, ”I’m sorry. That’s all I can say. Thank you.”
As the drugs were being administered, Heath showed little outward reaction, closing his eyes and then appearing to fall asleep before becoming motionless. A medic was called in about 8 minutes after the drugs began, and Heath was declared dead 2 minutes after that.
It was the state’s first execution of 2026 and followed a record 19 executions in Florida last year. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis oversaw more executions in a single year in 2025 than any other Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in the U.S. in 1976. The previous Florida record was eight executions set in 2014.
According to court records, Heath and his brother Kenneth Heath met Sheridan at a Gainesville bar in May 1989. After hanging out at the bar for some time, the three men agreed to go somewhere else to smoke marijuana.
At some point, the brothers plotted to rob the other man, investigators said. Ronald Heath drove the group to a remote area, where Kenneth Heath pulled a handgun on Sheridan. The man initially refused to give the brothers anything, and Kenneth Heath shot Sheridan in the chest.
As Sheridan emptied his pockets, Ronald Heath began kicking the man and stabbing him with a hunting knife, prosecutors said. Kenneth Heath then shot Sheridan twice in the head.
The brothers dumped Sheridan’s body in a wooded area and returned to the Gainesville bar to take items from his rental car, according to the court record. It said the brothers made multiple purchases with Sheridan’s credit cards the next day at a Gainesville mall.
Ronald Heath was arrested several weeks later at his home in Douglas, Georgia, after investigators connected him to the stolen credit cards. Officers recovered clothing purchased with the stolen cards, as well as Sheridan’s watch, according to court records.
Kenneth Heath was also charged with Sheridan’s murder, but was sentenced to life in prison as part of a plea agreement.
More than a dozen family members of victims of Heath’s crimes witnessed his execution.
When Heath was 16, he was convicted of killing teenager Michael Green, and served 10 years in prison.
Days after Sheridan’s death, authorities also found the body of Tony Hammett. Heath was charged with Hammett’s killing, but the case never went to trial.
Sheridan’s brother, Thomas Sheridan, said during a news conference following the execution that his family, as well as the families of Green and Hammett, had been waiting for this day for more than three decades.
“Tonight, Ronald Palmer Heath was released to the custody of his new parole officer. As far as I’m concerned, any forgiveness is between him and God,” Thomas Sheridan said.
The Florida Supreme Court denied appeals filed by Ronald Heath last week. His attorneys had argued that Florida corrections officials had mismanaged its own death penalty protocols, that the state’s secretive clemency process blocked due process, that Heath’s incarceration as a juvenile stunted his brain development and that jurors did not recommend the death penalty unanimously.
On Tuesday morning, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Heath’s appeal.
A total of 47 people were executed in the U.S. in 2025. Florida led the way with a flurry of death warrants signed by DeSantis. Alabama, South Carolina and Texas tied for second with five executions each that year.
Two more Florida executions have already been scheduled for later this month and next month. Melvin Trotter, 65, is scheduled to die on Feb. 24, and the execution of Billy Leon Kearse, 53, is set to follow exactly a week later on March 3.
All Florida executions are carried out via lethal injection using a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Department of Corrections.
Man convicted of killing traveling salesman is executed in Florida | AP News
