On July 7, 2022, the Florida Supreme Court issued an opinion affirming the conviction and death sentence of Thomas H. Fletcher.
In September 2018, while serving a life sentence for the 1994 First-Degree Murder of Milton Grossman, Fletcher strangled his cellmate, Kenneth Davis to death in their cell at the Blackwater River Correctional Facility. Fletcher, who confessed to killing Davis to a Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) special agent and in letters he wrote to the trial court, was indicted for First- Degree Premeditated Murder in March 2019.
Following Fletcher’s guilty plea, the case proceeded to a penalty phase. On June 18, 2020, the Court confirmed Fletcher’s waiver of a penalty-phase jury and his wish for his appointed counsel not to present evidence in mitigation. However, in compliance with the law, the Court did appoint special counsel to present mitigation on Fletcher’s behalf.
At the final hearing, the State presented the testimony of several witnesses and introduced several exhibits in support of the following aggravators it sought to establish: (1) “capital felony was committed by a person previously convicted of a felony and under a sentence of imprisonment”; (2) Fletcher “was previously convicted of another capital felony”; (3) “capital felony was especially heinous, atrocious or cruel” (HAC); and (4) “capital felony was a homicide and was committed in a cold, calculated and premeditated manner without any pretense of moral or legal justification” (CCP).
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement handled the investigation. Assistant State Attorney Matt Gordon prosecuted the case in Santa Rosa County on behalf of Ginger Bowden Madden, State Attorney for the First Judicial Circuit.
