POLK COUNTY, Fla. – Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd will brief the media at 10:00 a.m. today regarding the 1987 cold case homicide of 14-year-old Jeanifer Weldon, two days after the state of Florida executed convicted killer James Duckett.
The press conference will take place at the Sheriff’s Operations Center in Winter Haven. Weldon’s sisters, Amy Weldon and Hope Limansah, along with her childhood best friend Mindy Oakley, are scheduled to attend. Detectives have worked to solve Weldon’s murder since October 2, 1987, when her body was found in Fort Meade. She had been reported missing the previous month after leaving a friend’s house in Lakeland.
Duckett, a former Mascotte police officer, was long suspected in Weldon’s death alongside other unsolved cases in the region. On Tuesday, July 28, the state executed the 68-year-old by lethal injection at Florida State Prison for the May 1987 rape and murder of 11-year-old Teresa McAbee.
Following Duckett’s execution at noon on Tuesday, State Attorney Bill Gladson issued a statement saying that justice had been delivered for McAbee and her family. Gladson stated that physical evidence—including tire tracks matching Duckett’s patrol car, McAbee’s fingerprints found on his vehicle’s hood, and eyewitness testimony—established his guilt throughout nearly four decades of appeals and reviews.
Duckett’s legal team maintained his innocence until his death, releasing a statement criticizing state officials for selecting a DNA testing process that fully consumed a critical biological sample from the victim’s clothing without producing a conclusive genetic profile.
Defense counsel also pointed to discredited microscopic hair comparison testimony used during his original 1988 trial. The Florida Supreme Court rejected Duckett’s final appeals on July 24, ruling that the sample consumption occurred as an expected byproduct of court-approved testing requested by the defense.
Duckett’s execution was the first part of a same-day double execution at the prison. Six hours later, state officials executed 80-year-old Dominick Occhicone for the 1986 murder of Martha Artzner in Pasco County.
Occhicone’s execution went forward after the state Supreme Court denied final appeals concerning his advanced age, severe medical issues, and non-unanimous 7–5 jury recommendation. Following his death, defense representatives issued a statement noting Occhicone’s age, physical decline, and family reconciliation, while pointing out that a 7–5 jury vote would not permit a death sentence under current Florida law or anywhere else in the country.
Occhicone became the oldest person executed in modern Florida history. Tuesday’s dual executions marked the first time Florida carried out two death sentences on the same calendar day since 1964.
READ: Florida Man Kills Estranged Wife During Call With Son Before Dying In Pursuit, Police Say
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