Florida is set to execute Patrick Hannon, 53, at 6 PM today at Florida State Prison in Raiford. Hannon is scheduled to die by lethal injection for killing two men in 1991. If the United States Supreme Court rejects granting Hannon a stay of execution, he will be the state’s third Death Row inmate executed since Florida resumed exacting capital punishment in August.
Hannon was sentenced to die for his role in the murders of roommates Brandon Snider, 27, and Robert Carter, 28. On January 10, 1991, Hannon, accompanied by two more men, went to the roommates’ apartment.
The men went to Snider’s and Carter’s apartment. After Snider answered the door, Hannon’s friend, Jim Acker, stabbed Snider 14 times before Hannon slit Snider’s throat. When Carter tried to hide beneath a bed, Hannon followed him. He shot Carter six times.
After Hannon was convicted of two counts, first-degree murder for the roommates’ deaths, a jury voted unanimously that Hannon, age 26 when the murders happened, should receive capital punishment. Florida’s Governor Rick Scott signed Hannon’s death warrant in October.
Convicted killer nearly cut off victim’s head, fatally shot second victim
According to prosecutors, WFTV reported, Snider vandalized the apartment of Acker’s sister, which was the motive for the attack against Snider.
The effect of Acker’s stabbing attack “eviscerated” Snider, WFTV also relayed, based on court records. Reportedly, Hannon nearly cut off Snider’s head.
When Carter fled upstairs to escape the violence and tried to hide under a bed, the jury determined that Hannon pulled Carter out from beneath the bed and fatally shot him six times in the chest.
Hannon exempt from court ruling affecting death sentences after 2002
Last week, Florida’s high court denied granting Hannon a reprieve from execution. The legal challenge pivoted on a change to the state’s sentencing law affecting capital punishment cases, WLRN reported. The state’s law previously did not require a unanimous decision by jurors to sentence a convicted defendant to death.
Even with the change to Florida’s law in August, the high court ruled that Hannon’s sentence is not affected. Only case outcomes decided after to 2002 are open to possible relief under the Florida’s Supreme Court’s August ruling.
Victim’s brother says execution ‘should have happened’ long ago
Tony Snider, Brandon Snider’s half-brother, told the Tampa Bay Times, Hannon’s execution will mean a feeling of closure. He understands that the condemned inmate’s death will not bring his brother back, yet believes that the execution “should have happened a long time ago.” So far, Snider said, Hannon has “had 26 years” longer to live than did his brother, Brandon.
Two versions of killers’ motive for murdered man’s brother
While investigators have asserted that the motive for the attack against Brandon Snider evolved from a return trip he made to Indiana, where he reportedly threatened Jim Acker’s sister, Toni. Snider is alleged to have left a note threatening Toni after firing shots into her house.
That is not how Tony Snider remembers events leading to his brother’s murder, however. He relayed his account to the Times, stating that Acker’s sister told Brandon Snider that she was planning to celebrate his birthday with him. Snider learned that she went out with a different man, instead, and, then, did some damage to her bedroom.
Tony was on a layover in Atlanta, returning to Tampa during Christmastime.
His brother, Brandon, called Toni, at that point his former girlfriend, and he apologized, according to Snider. His brother also offered to cover the cost of the damages. As far as Tony Snider knew, “everything was alright,” the Times reported.
One accomplice took guilty plea; second accomplice serving life
Ivan Richardson was the third man, who accompanied Hannon and Acker, to Snider’s and Carter’s apartment located near the University of South Florida. Richardson brokered a deal with prosecutors, the Times wrote. He testified against Acker and Hannon and took a guilty plea, charged with accessory after the fact. He was sentenced five years to prison.
Acker was convicted following the murders of Snider and Carter.
He received two life sentences prior to being granted a new trial. In 2001, he was convicted, once again, and received a lifetime prison sentence, with 22 years tacked on to his sentencing. He is now 53-years-old and serving time at Cross City Correctional Institution, Dixie County.
Tony Snider said, Hannon “took my brother’s life, why shouldn’t the state of Florida take his?” the Times noted. “A tooth for a tooth, an eye for an eye.”
