Florida Man Executed for the Murders of 8-Year-Old Girl and Her Grandmother

STARKE, Fla.—A man from Florida who murdered an 8-year-old girl and her grandmother after a night of heavy drinking and drug use was executed Thursday evening.

Prison officials reported that Edward James, 63, was declared dead at 8:15 p.m. following a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. He received the death penalty after pleading guilty to the murders committed on September 19, 1993, of Toni Neuner, aged 8, and her grandmother, Betty Dick, aged 58.

While awaiting the injection, James chose not to make a final statement. As the drugs were administered, he was observed breathing heavily, his arms twitching, before becoming still.

Jared Pearson, brother of Neuner, shared afterward that the family felt they found some semblance of peace through the execution process.

“However, we lost generations because of him,” Pearson stated. “That night was pure evil and horrific.”

This week, three other executions took place in the U.S., including the lethal injection of an Oklahoma man for fatally shooting a woman during a home invasion. Additionally, a man was executed in Arizona via injection on Wednesday, and Louisiana carried out its first execution using nitrogen gas on Tuesday, ending a 15-year break from executions.

The U.S. Supreme Court denied James’ final appeals earlier that day, allowing for the execution to proceed, marking the state’s second execution of the year. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis had signed James’s death warrant earlier this year along with another warrant for an execution scheduled for early April.

At the time of the incident, James was renting a room in Dick’s house in Casselberry, located about 10 miles north of Orlando, where Neuner and three other children were sleeping that night.

Court documents reveal that James consumed up to 24 beers at a party, along with gin and LSD, before returning to his room in Dick’s house. Toni was raped and strangled to death, but the other children were not harmed.

James, who admitted guilt, was also convicted of the girl’s rape, and he faced charges for stealing Dick’s jewelry and car after stabbing her 21 times. Documentation shows that he drove the stolen vehicle across the country, selling pieces of jewelry along the way until his arrest on October 6 of that year in Bakersfield, California.

Authorities obtained a videotaped confession from James, who was sentenced to death based on an 11–1 jury recommendation, despite his guilty pleas.

James’ legal team pursued multiple appeals in both state and federal courts, all of which were rejected. Most recently, the Florida Supreme Court turned down an argument that his long-standing substance abuse, a series of head injuries, and a heart attack in 2023 had caused mental decline that made execution a form of cruel and unusual punishment.

The justices affirmed a lower court ruling determining that “James’s cognitive issues do not exempt him from execution.” They also dismissed an assertion from his attorneys that a heart attack he experienced in prison resulted in oxygen deprivation affecting his brain and should be considered new evidence to halt his execution.

According to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center, Florida utilizes a three-drug combination for lethal injections: a sedative, a paralytic agent, and a drug that induces cardiac arrest.

Earlier this year, James Ford faced execution for the 1997 murder of a couple in Charlotte County—an attack witnessed by their young daughter, who survived.

Florida officials are also preparing for the scheduled execution of Michael Tanzi on April 8 for the 2000 murder of a woman in the Florida Keys.

By Curt Anderson