Florida signs order to execute man for 1992 bank robbery police killing

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed an execution order on Friday for Ricardo Gonzalez.

Gonzalez, 56, is scheduled to die by lethal injection on December 1 at the Florida State Prison. He killed North Miami Beach Police Officer Steven Bauer during a bank robbery in 1992.

Court records show Gonzalez fired the weapon that killed Bauer on January 3, 1992. Bauer was walking bank tellers to the drive-through windows when Gonzalez and three other men approached. The bullet struck Bauer in the chest. Gonzalez claimed he shot downward and thought he only injured Bauer's leg.

Police arrested Gonzalez at his home more than two weeks after the crime. He made both recorded and unrecorded confessions. He was convicted of first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer, armed robbery, aggravated battery, two counts of grand theft, and two counts of burglary.

Judge Robert Scola Jr. signed the death sentence on September 19, 1998. The order notes that Gonzalez picked up the cash tray from the floor immediately after shooting Bauer. He later received $1,500 as his share of the robbery proceeds.

The Florida Department of Corrections carried out 19 executions last year. That was the highest annual total since the U.S. Supreme Court ended the moratorium on executions in 1976. This year, 32 prisoners have been executed across six states: Florida, Texas, Alabama, Tennessee, Oklahoma, and Arizona. Texas has executed seven prisoners so far this year.

Two of Gonzalez's co-defendants, Leonardo Franqui and Pablo San Martin, remain on Florida's death row. The Department of Corrections listed 235 people on the roster as of Monday. A clinical neuropsychologist testified that Gonzalez acted under extreme mental or emotional disturbance due to marital stress, educational deficits, and a history of brain damage from boxing.