Paul Howell was executed by the State of Florida for the murder of State Trooper Jimmy Fulford
According to court documents Paul Howell built a bomb in order to eliminate a witness from a murder
After the bomb was built Paul Howell gave the bomb to another person who was to deliver it to the witness however the driver would be stopped by police and taken into custody on another matter. Soon the bomb would explode killing State Trooper Jimmy Fulford
Paul Howell would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Paul Howell would be executed on February 26 2014
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When Was Paul Howell Executed
Paul Howell was executed on February 26 2014
Paul Howell Case
Paul Augustus Howell, convicted in the 1992 pipe-bombing death of state trooper Jimmy Fulford, said he was sorry for his crime before he was executed Wednesday night at Florida State Prison.
“I would like to apologize to the Fulford family for what happened back in 1992,” Howell said during a more than two-minute statement. After giving the statement, Howell said prayers as he was given a series of lethal-injection drugs.
Howell, a Jamaican native who learned bomb-making skills in the Army, was a member of the violent Jamaican Posse, which was notorious for trafficking in crack cocaine and guns. He rigged a microwave oven with a pipe bomb to silence a Marianna woman who could tie him to the murder of a South Florida drug dealer.
Howell hired another man, Lester Watson, to deliver the bomb to the woman. On Feb. 1, 1992, Fulford stopped the car for speeding along Interstate 10 in Jefferson County. After examining the gift-wrapped package, the bomb exploded, killing Fulford instantly.
During his statement, Howell said he’d instructed Watson that no matter what, “Don’t let a cop get in the car.” He also said he originally was going to place the bomb inside a television set, but another woman, a cousin described in court documents as another potential witness, told him to put it in a microwave because the woman he intended to kill would be using it to heat up a bottle for her baby.
“So I’m sorry about that,” Howell said as he lay strapped to a gurney with an IV in his left arm.
The execution began about 6:18 p.m. About two minutes later, Howell closed his eyes. A couple of minutes later, the team warden conducted a consciousness check by touching his eyelash and pinching a neck muscle. He was pronounced dead at 6:32 p.m.
Howell visited earlier in the week with his wife and grown daughter at the prison. He asked that they not attend the execution. None of Fulford’s family members attended the execution, said Jessica Cary, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Corrections.
Fulford’s twin brother, Tim Fulford, said Howell’s apology brought “a little bit of comfort.” But he said the only thing that would bring him closure is “if my brother came walking through the door.”
“The main thing I want people to know is the system takes too long,” he said. “But I’m glad it’s finally over.”
Maj. Mark Welch of the Florida Highway Patrol gave a short statement after the execution.
“Twenty-two years ago this month, the patrol lost one of its most courageous and brave officers, trooper Jimmy Fulford,” he said. “And rather than reflect on the incident that happened this night, we prefer to use this opportunity to honor trooper Fulford and let this serve as a reminder of the dangers that law-enforcement officers face each and every day they put on their uniform and leave their homes and their families behind.”
State Attorney Willie Meggs, Jefferson County Sheriff David Hobbs and Wakulla County Sheriff Charlie Creel were among the witnesses at the execution.
“For the Fulford family, I hope it brings them closure,” Meggs said. “I think justice was done. And my basis for that was Paul Howell had the opportunity to not let this happen.”
Dispatchers contacted Howell during the traffic stop, and prosecutors have said he could have signaled to someone to stay away from the bomb but never did.
Creel, who served in the escort during Fulford’s funeral, said he attended the execution because, “Jimmy Fulford was a dear friend of mine.”
Howell’s attorneys, Sonya Rudenstine of Gainesville and Michael Ufferman of Tallahassee, had sought a stay from the U.S. Supreme Court on the grounds that Florida’s new lethal-injection cocktail, which includes the drug midazolam, would subject him to an agonizing death. Howell’s medical experts testified that midazolam wouldn’t render him fully unconscious before he was given a second drug to paralyze him and a third to stop his heart.
His attorneys cited recent executions in Florida in which inmates were seen to make movements after they were given midazolam, including William Happ, a convicted rapist and murderer who was executed Oct. 15, and Askari Muhammad, a convicted murderer executed Jan. 7. Happ could be seen moving his head and blinking his eyes during his execution, and Muhammad opened one of his eyes after a consciousness check, they said in U.S. Supreme Court filings.
Attorneys for the state of Florida, however, argued that the consciousness check, conducted after midazolam is administered, ensures that inmates are fully anesthetized. The consciousness check consists of a flick of the inmate’s eyelash, a “shake and shout” in which the inmate is physically shaken and his name is shouted out and a pinch to a muscle that spans the neck and shoulders.
Rudenstine, who also witnessed the execution, said that after Howell was given the second drug, a paralytic, he opened his eyes slightly for a full minute, closed them and then re-opened them until he died. She said this was a “strong indication” that Howell was conscious and able to feel pain but was unable to express it.
“The lawyers who represented Paul Howell are deeply saddened by the execution today,” Rudenstine said in an email. “Over the last 22 years, Mr. Howell has undergone a spiritual transformation into a deep Christian faith. He lived to write scrolls of God’s word and talk to others about Jesus.”
Cary said Howell had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for his last meal. She said he also met with a Catholic spiritual adviser.
“His demeanor was calm,” she said.
Gov. Rick Scott signed Howell’s death warrant in January 2013, but the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay. After the court lifted the stay late last year, Scott set a new execution date last month. Howell was the 15th Death Row inmate to be executed during Scott’s first term of office.
Fulford’s death shocked the small towns of Monticello, where he lived, Greenville, where he’d grown up, and Madison, where he was stationed as a state trooper.
He had just helped a woman who locked herself out of her car at a rest stop when he clocked a car going 80 mph west on Interstate 10 and stopped it near the Aucilla exit in Jefferson County.
Fulford questioned the driver of the rented car, Watson, and a passenger, neither of whom had identification. Dispatchers got in touch with Howell at his home in Sunrise, who said he’d given Watson and the other man permission to drive the car but that they weren’t supposed to be that far north.
Jefferson County deputies were called to pick up the men and take them to jail, and a wrecker was called to impound the rented car. Before it arrived, and while Fulford was alone at the scene, he began examining the contents of the car, setting off the explosion.
His friends and colleagues have said Fulford saved untold lives by intercepting the powerful bomb.
Fulford, who was 35 at the time, left behind a wife, Keith Ann, and a young son and daughter. His funeral at First Baptist Church in Monticello, where he’d been a deacon, drew hundreds of loved ones, including law enforcement from around the country and people who lined the streets outside to listen to the service on speakers.
His killing touched off a massive investigation at the crime scene in Jefferson County, where investigators found wire and other pieces of the pipe bomb and the microwave oven, and Sunrise, where Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents found pipe-bomb craters in Howell’s back yard and bomb-making materials.
Paul Howell and his brother Patrick Howell were charged with first-degree murder in Fulford’s killing. Patrick Howell later entered into a plea deal with prosecutors, agreeing to a life sentence and testifying against his brother during the trial, which had to be moved to Pensacola in 1994 because of pre-trial publicity.
Paul Howell was convicted of first-degree murder, and jurors recommended by a 10-2 vote that he be given the death penalty. Watson pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 40 years in prison. The two Howell brothers also were given life sentences in an earlier federal trial in Tallahassee.
