Dominick Occhicone was sentenced to death by the State of Florida for a double murder
According to court documents Dominick Occhicone would go over to talk to his ex girlfriend and when she refused to talk to him he would murder her parents Raymond and Martha Artzner.
Dominick Occhicone would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Dominick Occhicone was executed on July 28 2026
Dominick Occhicone Photos
Dominick Occhicone Now
| DC Number: | 226426 |
|---|---|
| Name: | OCCHICONE, DOMINICK |
| Race: | WHITE |
| Sex: | MALE |
| Birth Date: | 08/29/1945 |
| Initial Receipt Date: | 11/10/1987 |
| Current Facility: | UNION C.I. |
| Current Custody: | MAXIMUM |
| Current Release Date: | DEATH SENTENCE |
Dominick Occhicone Case
In the early morning hours of June 10, 1986 Occhicone awakened his former girlfriend by knocking on the sliding glass door to her bedroom in a house she shared with her children and her parents. The woman refused to talk with him and he left. He returned an hour or so later, armed with a handgun, and cut the telephone lines and roused the household. When the woman’s father confronted him outside the house, Occhicone shot him. The woman and her daughter fled the house while Occhicone was breaking into it through a locked door. Once inside Occhicone shot the woman’s mother four times.
Occhicone v. State, 570 So.2d 902, 904 (Fla.1990). At trial, Occhicone asserted a voluntary intoxication defense claiming that his level of intoxication on the night of the murders, as well as his documented drinking habit, prevented him from having the requisite mental state to premeditate the murders. However, the jury found him guilty and recommended the death penalty for both murders by a seven-to-five vote.
Although the trial judge sentenced Occhicone to life in prison for the murder of his ex-girlfriend’s father, he sentenced him to death for the murder of her mother. In support of the death sentence, the trial judge found three aggravating factors: (1) previous conviction of a violent felony; (2) murder committed during a burglary; and (3) murder committed in a cold, calculated, and premeditated manner. As statutory mitigation, the trial judge found that the murder was committed while Occhicone was under the influence of extreme mental and emotional disturbance. Finally, as nonstatutory mitigation, the judge found that Occhicone was a good prisoner and had acclimated to his custodial environment
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/fl-supreme-court/1391028.html
Domick Occhicone Execution
Two men on death row in Florida were executed on July 28, marking the first time in six decades that the state has conducted more than one execution on the same day, according to the Associated Press.
James Aren Duckett, 68, and Dominick Anthony Occhicone, 80, both died by lethal injection at Florida State Prison. Duckett was declared dead at 1:19 p.m., followed by Occhicone at 6:13 p.m., Florida Department of Corrections confirmed in a news release.
The former police officer was put on death row for the killing of 11-year-old Teresa Mae McAbee in 1987, Florida court records show. Prosecutors said Duckett abducted McAbee from a convenience store where she’d gone to buy a pencil, according to USA Today, and left her strangled body to be found in a nearby lake.
Duckett was found guilty of first-degree murder and sexual battery in 1988 and sentenced to death the following year. He had maintained his innocence and has filed several unsuccessful appeals, per the Washington Post.
Meanwhile, at the time of Duckett’s conviction, Occhicone was already on death row for the 1986 murders of his ex-girlfriend’s parents. As the state supreme court outlined in court documents, prosecutors said the then-40-year-old arrived at his ex’s house with a handgun and shot her father, then her mother four times as they tried to flee.
At his trial, Occhicone “asserted a voluntary intoxication defense,” according to court records, “claiming that his level of intoxication on the night of the murders, as well as his documented drinking habit, prevented him from having the requisite mental state to premeditate the murders.” However, a jury found him guilty of two counts of first-degree murder, leading to his death sentence.
Both men remained on death row for more than three decades and filed motions for stays of execution. In Occhicone’s motion, his attorneys argued his execution “would constitute cruel and unusual punishment” because of his “physical deterioration due to his advanced age,” according to Florida Supreme Court documents reviewed by Oxygen.com. As an octogenarian, Occhicone became the oldest person to be executed on Florida’s death row.
Duckett, meanwhile, recently sought additional DNA testing in his case in an effort to exonerate himself, but the results came back inconclusive, per court documents.
The Florida Supreme Court ultimately denied each of their motions for stays of execution earlier in July, court documents viewed by Oxygen.com show. On July 28, the U.S. Supreme Court also denied each of their applications for stays of execution, per the court docket.
A double execution is a rare event. The last time a U.S. state conducted two death sentences on the same day was in 2017 in Arkansas, according to the Associated Press.
Oxygen.com has reached out to Duckett’s and Occhicone’s attorneys for comment but did not receive an immediate reply.
Florida Carries Out Rare Double Execution of James Duckett, Dominick Occhicone
