Michael Tanzi was sentenced to death by the State of Florida for the murder of Janet Acosta
According to court documents Michael Tanzi would carjack Janet Acosta who was driven to a remote location and murdered
Michael Tanzi would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Tanzi was executed on April 8 2025
Michael Tanzi Photos
Michael Tanzi Now
| DC Number: | K04389 |
|---|---|
| Name: | TANZI, MICHAEL A |
| Race: | WHITE |
| Sex: | MALE |
| Birth Date: | 02/27/1977 |
| Initial Receipt Date: | 04/11/2003 |
| Current Facility: | UNION C.I. |
| Current Custody: | MAXIMUM |
| Current Release Date: | DEATH SENTENCE |
Michael Tanzi Case
A jury has recommended the death penalty for a Massachusetts drifter who strangled a Miami Herald employee and dumped her body into some mangroves in the Florida Keys.
Monroe Circuit Judge Richard Payne will ultimately decide the sentence but is expected to give significant weight to the 12-0 vote by the jury on Wednesday.
Michael Tanzi, 25, has confessed to strangling Herald paper makeup department supervisor Janet Acosta, 49. Tanzi pleaded guilty Jan. 31 to first-degree murder, carjacking, kidnapping and robbery charges without a plea bargain from prosecutors.
Tanzi cried silently as the decision was read. Jurors deliberated for about 2 1/2 hours after they were shown a courtroom portrayal of Acosta’s last moments.
Defense attorneys had pleaded for jurors for life in prison, saying Tanzi was marred in childhood by sexual abuse, institutionalization and mental problems.
“Michael’s damaged, but he’s not trash,” said William Kuypers, on of Tanzi’s public defenders. “He does not deserve to be put to death by lethal injection.”
Prosecutors pushed for the death penalty, arguing that the April 25, 2000 murder was calculated and part of a string of felonies.
Tanzi said he forced Acosta into her van during her lunch break, drove her to the Florida Keys and used her ATM card to withdraw money. He then killed Acosta and dumped her body on Cudjoe Key.
He was caught two days later in Key West and made confessions to police.
Tanzi said he tied up Acosta, covered her face with a towel and put her in the back of her van while he made ATM withdrawals. He said he then strangled her with a rope after turning up the van’s radio so no one would hear.
The judge will hold a hearing on March 3 to review state and defense memorandums and hear evidence that may not have been presented to jurors. He also will set a sentencing date.
Tanzi also faces charges in the killing of Caroline Holder in Brockton, Mass., more than three years ago. He also was caught last year repeatedly hacking into a jail computer system, destroying files and going onto the Internet.
https://www.gainesville.com/article/LK/20030221/News/604152031/GS
Michael Tanzi Execution
Florida on Tuesday executed a death row inmate described by one local detective as a “fledgling serial killer” for the murder of a beloved Miami Herald employee
Michael Tanzi, 48, was executed by lethal injection at the Florida State Prison in Raiford and pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. ET, becoming the third inmate to be put to death by the state in 2025 and the 11th this year.
Tanzi was on death row for more than two decades for the 2000 murder of 49-year-old Janet Acosta, who was attacked in broad daylight on her lunch break, kidnapped, raped and strangled. The brutal crime came a few months after another woman’s murder that Tanzi acknowledged committing in Massachusetts.
“What we have here is a fledgling serial killer,” Miami police Detective Frank Casanovas said at the time, according to an archived story in the Miami Herald.
In the months leading up to the execution, Tanzi’s lawyers argued that the death penalty should not have applied to him due to his developmental issues, as well as health problems from being morbidly obese. But prosecutors said Tanzi didn’t deserve mercy and that Acosta’s murder could “only be described as horrific.”
Here’s what you need to know about Tanzi’s execution
On April 25, 2000, Tanzi attacked Acosta while she was sitting in her car eating lunch, according to court records.
He raped her 30 miles south of Miami in Florida City before continuing to drive south, forcing Acosta to help him withdraw money using her ATM card, he confessed to police.
“I told her I’d slice her neck,” he told police. “”I told her that I’d cut her from ear to ear.”
When they reached Cudjoe Key, about 20 miles shy of Key West, he strangled Acosta and buried her in a secluded place.
Tanzi spent the next two days shopping, buying a new wardrobe, marijuana and food. Police officers arrested Tanzi after seeing him get into Acosta’s van in downtown Key West.
Police recovered Acosta’s body after Tanzi confessed to the murder and showed them where he buried her.
After Tanzi’s arrest for Acosta’s murder, police say he also confessed to killing Caroline Holder in the Boston suburb of Brockton just a few months earlier, according to court records.
Holder was stabbed to death and beaten while she was working at a laundromat, according to reporting from the Tampa Bay Times.
Tanzi never faced extradition for Holder’s killing because of his death sentence for Acosta’s murder.