TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a death warrant for Edward J. Zakrzewski II, a former Eglin Air Force Base airman who strangled his wife and hacked his two young children to death with a machete inside their Mary Esther home in 1994.
His execution is set for July 31, just two weeks after the one that is set for death row inmate Michael Bell on July 15. Most recently, the state put to death Thomas Gudinas on June 24. The latest warrant for Zakrzewski was signed July 1.
His death, assuming it is not stopped by the courts, would be the ninth the governor has ordered in 2025, a modern-era record for the number of executions approved by a Florida governor in one year. In 1984 and 2014, the governors at the time – the late U.S. Sen. Bob Graham and current U.S. Sen. Rick Scott – each signed eight death warrants.
According to previous reporting, Zakrzewski was given the death penalty for killing his wife, Sylvia, his 7-year-old son Edward and 5-year-old daughter Anna. Sylvia had asked for a divorce not long before the killings.
She was beaten and strangled, while the children were butchered with a machete. Zakrzewski fled to Hawaii and lived there until his case aired on the “Unsolved Mysteries” television program.
He then turned himself in and confessed. He eventually pleaded guilty and was sentenced to death for all three murders.
Zakrzewski has been on Florida’s death row in Florida State Prison in Starke since his conviction and exhausted all state and federal appeals of his sentence, according to court records.
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Jim Rosica is a member of the USA TODAY Network – Florida Capital Bureau. Reach him at jrosica@tallahassee.com and follow him on X: @JimRosicaFL.
This article originally appeared on Northwest Florida Daily News: Florida to set record with 9 executions in 2025 under DeSantis; latest is Okaloosa killer
Reporting by Jim Rosica, USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida / Northwest Florida Daily News
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