Scheduled Execution (02/10/26):Ronald Heath – Florida Death Row –Killed Again After 10 years In Jail
On February 10th, 2026, after spending 36 years on death row, 64-year-old Ronald Palmer Heath is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at the Florida State Prison in Raiford. Heath was convicted of a brutal 1989 Gainesville murder in which he and his brother killed traveling salesman Michael Sheridan. In this video, we will examine the crime Heath committed, the trial that sent him to death row, and the final events leading up to his scheduled execution.
Florida State Prison in Raiford, Florida, is home to Florida’s death row and execution chamber. Ronald Heath, now 64, was convicted in 1990 of first-degree murder and related crimes for the May 24th, 1989 slaying of Michael Sheridan. He is set to die there by lethal injection on February 10th, 2026, after more than 30 years behind bars.
To understand how Ronald Heath ended up on death row, we need to go back to a spring evening in 1989 to a popular Gainesville bar called the Purple Porpoise Lounge. It was the kind of place where locals and travelers alike could grab a drink, share stories, and unwind. On May 24th of that year, a 30-year-old traveling salesman named Michael Sheridan walked into the Purple Porpoise after a long day on the road. Michael was the kind of guy people described as friendly and approachable. He struck up conversations easily, trusted people quickly, and saw the good in those around him.
That night, he was simply looking to relax with a meal and a few drinks before heading back to his hotel. He had no way of knowing that the two men who would soon approach him had something far more sinister in mind. Ronald Heath and his younger brother Kenneth were also at the bar that evening. Ronald was 28 years old at the time, though his life experiences had aged him beyond his years. He’d already served time for murder, a decade behind bars for a 1977 killing. He’d been released just six months earlier, supposedly reformed, supposedly ready to rejoin society.
But prison hadn’t changed Ronald Heath. If anything, it had hardened him. Kenneth, four years younger than Ronald, looked up to his older brother. In the dynamic between them, Ronald was clearly the leader, the one who made decisions and called the shots. Kenneth followed, whether out of loyalty, fear, or some combination of the two. The Heath brothers noticed Michael Sheridan sitting alone, and they saw an opportunity. They struck up a conversation, keeping it casual at first.
They talked about nothing in particular, building rapport, gaining trust. Then the conversation turned to marijuana. In 1989, cannabis was illegal in Florida, but it was common enough that the topic didn’t raise immediate red flags. The brothers suggested they had some quality product and asked if Michael wanted to smoke with them. It seemed harmless enough, just three guys looking to have a good time. Michael agreed. He paid his tab, left the warmth and safety of the Purple Porpoise Lounge, and climbed into a vehicle with the Heath brothers.
Kenneth drove with Ronald in the passenger seat and Michael in the back. They headed out of Gainesville away from the streetlights and the people, south toward the rural areas where homes became sparse and woods would stretch for miles. The conversation continued as they drove deeper into the darkness. Michael probably didn’t notice when the mood shifted, when the friendliness became something colder. He probably didn’t realize he’d been marked as a victim from the moment the brothers approached him at the bar.
Kenneth turned onto a dirt road, driving until they were surrounded by nothing but trees and shadows. When the car finally stopped, Michael must have sensed something was wrong. The casual atmosphere had evaporated. Kenneth pulled out a handgun and suddenly the night turned into a nightmare. “Give us everything you’ve got,” Kenneth demanded. The gun pointed directly at Michael. Michael’s mind must have raced. He was alone, miles from help, with two armed men in the middle of nowhere.
He hesitated, perhaps calculating whether he could run, whether he could fight, whether there was any way out of this situation. He moved, maybe instinctively, as if to escape. Kenneth fired. The bullet struck Michael in the chest, and he collapsed to the ground. On the ground, wounded and terrified, Michael began to beg. He reached for his jewelry, his wallet, anything the brothers wanted. His hands shook as he tried to remove his watch, to pull bills from his pocket. He was giving them everything, cooperating fully, hoping that if he just gave them what they wanted, they might let him live. He might have promised not to tell anyone, to forget this ever happened.
But Ronald Heath had other plans. While his brother Kenneth stood with the gun, Ronald pulled out a hunting knife. He moved toward Michael, who was still struggling on the ground, still pleading for his life. Ronald saw that Michael’s movements were becoming weaker, that the gunshot wound was doing its work, but it wasn’t happening fast enough. Ronald raised the knife and plunged it into Michael’s neck. Michael’s pleas turned to gurgles as blood filled his throat.
But Ronald wasn’t finished. He began sawing at Michael’s neck, trying to cut his throat completely, trying to end this quickly. The knife was dull, and the task proved more difficult than Ronald had anticipated. The blade dragged across skin and muscle, but it wouldn’t cut deep enough to finish the job. Frustrated, covered in Michael Sheridan’s blood, Ronald turned to his younger brother. “Kill him!” Ronald commanded. “Shoot him in the head.” Kenneth, who had already fired once, raised the gun again. He aimed at Michael’s head and fired twice.
The bullets tore through Michael’s skull and his suffering finally ended. The woods fell silent except for the ringing in the brothers’ ears and the sound of their own breathing. They stood there for a moment looking at what they’d done. Michael Sheridan, a man who’d simply wanted to have a drink and relax, lay dead in the dirt, his blood soaking into the Florida soil. His eyes, which had been full of life and hope hours earlier, now stared at nothing.
The Heath brothers got to work. They dragged Michael’s body deeper into the woods, concealing it as best they could among the trees and undergrowth. They took his wallet, his jewelry, his watch, everything of value. Then they returned to his rental car, which sat parked and waiting, the keys still inside. Rather than lay low or flee the area, the brothers decided to go shopping. They drove back to Gainesville to the Oaks Mall and began using Michael’s credit cards like they’d just won the lottery. New clothes, jewelry, electronics—they loaded up on whatever caught their eye. For a few hours, they felt invincible, like they’d pulled off the perfect crime.
But criminals rarely are as smart as they think they are. At one store, when they tried to purchase an expensive car stereo, the transaction was declined. The credit card company had flagged the suspicious activity and store security took notice. They called the police. Investigators began tracing the credit card transactions, following the trail of purchases back through the day. Security camera footage from the mall showed the Heath brothers clearly. Witnesses from the Purple Porpoise Lounge remembered seeing Michael Sheridan with two men matching their descriptions. The pieces came together quickly.
A few weeks after Michael’s murder, hunters stumbled upon his decomposing remains in the woods south of Gainesville. The discovery confirmed what police already suspected. This wasn’t just credit card fraud. This was murder. Detectives traveled to Douglas, Georgia, where they found Ronald Heath at home, probably thinking he’d gotten away with it. When they arrested him, they found Michael’s watch and some of the clothing purchased with the stolen credit cards.
The evidence was overwhelming. Kenneth was arrested shortly after, and both brothers faced first-degree murder charges. What made this case particularly disturbing to investigators and prosecutors wasn’t just the brutality of the crime. It was Ronald Heath’s history. This wasn’t his first murder. In 1977, 12 years before Michael Sheridan’s death, Ronald Heath had killed someone else. He’d been convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison. He’d served only 10 years before being released.
Think about that for a moment. Ronald Heath had taken a life, spent a decade behind bars, and within six months of his release, he’d taken another life. The criminal justice system had given him a second chance, and he’d used that chance to kill again. This revelation would haunt the proceedings and shape everything that followed.
The trial began in 1990 in Alachua County Circuit Court. The prosecution’s case was methodical and damning. They presented the credit card records, the security footage, the physical evidence found in Heath’s home. They brought witnesses who’d seen the brothers with Michael at the bar. They detailed the crime scene, the wounds on Michael’s body, the brutality of his final moments. The defense had little to work with. There was no credible alternative explanation for the evidence. Heath’s attorneys couldn’t deny he’d been with Michael that night or that he’d used the victim’s credit cards.
Their only real strategy was to try to minimize Ronald’s role, to suggest Kenneth had been the primary aggressor. But the evidence told a different story. The jury heard testimony about how Ronald had stabbed Michael while he lay wounded and helpless. They heard about the attempted throat cutting, about Ronald ordering his brother to fire the fatal shots. They learned about his prior murder conviction, about the fact that he’d been free for only six months before killing again.
The verdict came swiftly. Guilty of first-degree murder, armed robbery, and related forgery charges. Kenneth Heath, who’d cooperated with prosecutors and pleaded guilty, received a life sentence. But for Ronald, the jury had a different recommendation. During the penalty phase, the jury weighed the aggravating and mitigating factors. On one side, the heinous nature of the crime, the fact that Michael had been helpless when Ronald stabbed him, the cold calculation involved in luring him from the bar, and Ronald’s prior murder conviction. On the other side, whatever mitigating factors the defense could muster, which proved insufficient against the weight of Ronald’s actions. The jury recommended death.
Judge Robert P. Cates, who presided over the trial, accepted the recommendation and formally sentenced Ronald Heath to death. In his written order, Judge Cates laid out the reasoning behind the sentence. He noted that Kenneth Heath had acted under Ronald’s power, that Ronald was clearly the dominant brother, the mastermind behind the crime. The judge described in detail how Ronald had escalated the violence, how he’d stabbed Michael and attempted to cut his throat, how he’d given the order for the final execution-style shots to the head. The message was clear. Ronald Heath deserved the ultimate punishment.
After sentencing, Heath was transported to Florida State Prison in Raiford to the maximum-security unit that houses death row inmates. Heath, like other death row inmates, pursued appeals. His case went to the Florida Supreme Court, which in 1994 unanimously upheld both his conviction and his death sentence. His attorneys filed a federal habeas petition arguing various constitutional violations. But in 2013, a federal appeals court denied relief. Time and time again, the courts reviewed his case and found no reversible error.
Inside prison, Heath earned a quiet reputation among other inmates. Some called him “Frog,” though the origin of the nickname remains unclear. He maintained contact with family members through occasional phone calls and visits. He wrote letters to supporters and continued working on his appeals, always searching for some legal argument that might save his life. The years passed slowly.
Heath watched as Florida’s death penalty system evolved around him. When he was convicted, Florida allowed death sentences based on a 10-to-2 jury vote. Not unanimous, but close enough. Later, the state would change its law to require unanimous verdicts, but that change came too late for Heath and others already sentenced. He also witnessed Florida’s execution chambers become increasingly busy. In 2025, Florida set a modern-era record by executing 19 inmates. The state was clearing its death row backlog, and Heath’s name was moving up the list.
By late 2025, it became clear that his time was running out. On January 9th, 2026, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed Ronald Heath’s death warrant, setting his execution for February 10th at 6 p.m. The warrant made it official. After 36 years, the state was ready to carry out his sentence. Heath’s legal team immediately filed emergency motions, exhausting every possible avenue. They challenged the constitutionality of Florida’s lethal injection protocol, argued about the secrecy of clemency proceedings, and raised various other legal issues.
On January 5th, a circuit judge rejected their claims. The appeals court likewise denied any stay. As of now, all of Heath’s appeals have been denied. His last hope is a clemency petition to the governor, but Florida governors rarely grant such requests. The odds are overwhelmingly against him.
And so on February 10th, 2026, unless something extraordinary happens, Ronald Heath will be escorted to the death chamber. He’ll be strapped to a gurney, IVs will be inserted into his arms, and a cocktail of drugs will be administered. He’ll have the opportunity to make a final statement if he chooses. A spiritual adviser can be present if he requests one. Witnesses will watch through glass as the chemicals flow into his veins. First, a sedative to render him unconscious. Then, a paralytic to stop his breathing. Finally, a drug to stop his heart. Within minutes, it will be over.
For Michael Sheridan’s family, who’ve waited nearly 37 years for this moment, it represents closure of a sort. Though no execution can truly heal the wound of losing someone you love. For death penalty opponents, it represents what they see as the fundamental flaw in a system that takes decades to carry out sentences, raising questions about whether justice delayed is justice at all. But for Ronald Heath, it represents the final consequence of choices he made on a spring night in 1989 when he chose greed over compassion, violence over mercy, and murder over humanity. He lured a friendly stranger from a bar, participated in his brutal killing, and showed no remorse as Michael Sheridan begged for his life.
As three and a half decades have passed since that night, Heath has aged from a 28-year-old man to a 64-year-old one. He spent more than half his life in a cell, knowing that one day this moment would come. Now it’s here. On February 10th, 2026 at 6 p.m., Ronald Heath will face the consequences of his actions. The story that began at the Purple Porpoise Lounge and ended in the woods will finally close in the death chamber at Florida State Prison. And Michael Sheridan, who died alone and terrified in the darkness 36 years ago, will have some measure of justice at last.
