Glen Ocha was executed by the State of Florida for the murder of Carol Skjerva
According to court documents Glen Ocha and Carol Skjerva met at a bar and went home together. Following sex they would get into an argument an Ocha would attempt to strangle the woman. When that did not work he would get a rope and hang her from a kitchen door causing her death
Glen Ocha would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Glen Ocha would be executed by lethal injection on April 5 2005
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When Was Glen Ocha Executed
Glen Ocha was executed on April 5 2005
Glen Ocha Case
An engraver who hanged a woman he met at a bar from his kitchen door after sex and drank beer while she died was executed Tuesday, three years after firing his attorneys and dropping the legal appeals to his death sentence.
Glen Ocha’s execution by lethal injection came hours after Gov. Jeb Bush said he thought about postponing the death sentence out of respect for Pope John Paul II but decided against it because of sympathy for the victim’s family. Bush is a Roman Catholic and the pope, who died Saturday, opposed capital punishment.
Ocha, 47, apologized to the victim, Carol Skjerva, and her family before an anonymous executioner injected a lethal cocktail of three chemicals to stop his heart and his breathing. ”This is the punishment that I deserve,” Ocha said in his final statement from the death gurney. After the statement he closed his eyes, he breathed heavily for about a minute and then there was no further movement. He was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m., Bush’s office said.
JURY TRIAL – Ocha had waived a jury trial and pleaded guilty to the Oct. 5, 1999 killing. Skjerva, 28, a convenience store employee had given Ocha a ride home from the Kissimmee bar where he engraved beer mugs. He was drunk and high on Ecstasy and they had sex. Skjerva told him she was going to tell her boyfriend and made disparaging remarks about his anatomy. Ocha became enraged, choked her three times until his arms got tired and then hanged her from a kitchen door.
HIDING BODY – After hiding her body inside a home entertainment system in his garage, Ocha took Skjerva’s car and drove to Daytona Beach. He confessed to the killing when he was arrested for disorderly intoxication. Ocha, who changed his name in prison to Raven Raven, received a final meal Tuesday morning of a fried chicken breast, potato salad, kernel corn, two biscuits and a large glass of Pepsi. He received final visits from two Catholic priests, the Rev. Dale Recinella of Macclenny and retired Bishop John Snyder from Jacksonville, plus a visit with his brother, Martin Ocha, said Sterling Ivey, a spokesman for the state Department of Corrections.
PREPARED TO DELAY – Bush, a convert to Roman Catholicism, told reporters earlier Tuesday in Tallahassee that ”I actually was prepared to delay the execution out of courtesy for and respect for the pope’s passing.” But he also said he has a duty to state law and has sympathy for the victims. Bush’s decision drew criticism from Abe Bonowitz, director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. He had said Ocha’s execution would be suicide by governor.'' Greg L. Hill, who was appointed as a backup attorney for Ocha, met with his client Monday evening at the prison and said it was Ocha's desireto accept responsibility for his actions.”
PUBLIC DEFENDER – Ocha would not let a public defender present evidence to avoid execution. After the state Supreme Court affirmed his conviction in 2002, Ocha filed a motion with the trial court to drop his appeals and dismiss his attorneys. In May, the Supreme Court ordered the trial court to hold a hearing on his mental competency. Ocha fired his state lawyer, Mark Gruber, when he was ruled competent June 11. Ocha had warned that he will kill again if he did not receive the death penalty.
Of the 16 inmates executed under death warrants signed by Bush, seven did not fight their execution. Ocha was the 60th person executed in Florida since the 1976 reinstatement of the death penalty and the first since May 26, when John Blackwelder who was so intent on being executed that he killed a fellow inmate and pleaded guilty.
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