Dominick Occhicone
American convicted murderer (born 1945)
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Dominick Anthony Occhicone Jr. (born August 29, 1945)[1] is an American convicted murderer and death row inmate incarcerated in Florida. Occhicone was convicted of the June 10, 1986, murders of Raymond and Martha Artzner, his ex-girlfriend's parents, in Holiday, Florida. Occhicone purportedly shot the elderly couple to death inside their house because he blamed them for causing the breakup between him and his former girlfriend. Occhicone was sentenced to death for the murder of Martha, as well as life imprisonment for the murder of Raymond. He is currently awaiting his execution by lethal injection on July 28, 2026, and is set to be the oldest inmate executed in the state of Florida at the age of 80.
Dominick Anthony Occhicone Jr. | |
|---|---|
| |
| Born | August 29, 1945 Carmel, New York, U.S. |
Criminal status | Incarcerated on death row |
| Conviction | First degree murder (x2) |
Criminal penalty | Death[a] |
| Details | |
| Victims | 2 |
| Date | June 10, 1986 |
| Country | United States |
| State | Florida |
| Location | Holiday, Florida |
Date apprehended | June 10, 1986 |
| Imprisoned at | Florida State Prison |
Early life
Dominick Anthony Occhicone Jr. was born on August 29, 1945, in a three-generation Italian-American family in Carmel, New York, where he grew up. Occhicone's father was an Italian immigrant who worked as a sanitary worker in New York City, and was known to be a gentle and family-oriented man. Although Occhicone had a stable upbringing, he displayed an explosive temper from an early age. As a teenager and young adult, he was frequently involved in fights, often returning home with injuries from barroom brawls.[2]
During the Vietnam War period, Occhicone was drafted for war military service, but he failed to report for his conscription, and he was therefore arrested and tried in a court martial, and served approximately two years in a military prison at Fort Dix, New Jersey. After his release, he eventually moved with his family to Holiday, Florida, in 1977 following his parents' retirement.[2]
Occhicone first married his wife Sharon in Florida, and the couple had a son. However, Sharon died of cancer when their son was two, and the boy was subsequently placed under the care of relatives. After losing his wife, Occhicone spent much of his time drinking in bars. His alcohol abuse reportedly intensified over the years. Prior to his marriage with Sharon, Occhicone had a brief relationship with a woman in the 1970s when he was still residing in New York, and the woman became pregnant with their daughter, but Occhicone was unaware of this since they broke up at that point. Occhicone's daughter was likewise unaware of her parentage until her mother accidentally revealed it in 2011, leading to Occhicone and his daughter meeting for the first time while he was incarcerated on death row for the 1986 murders of his ex-girlfriend's parents.[2]
Third relationship and murders
Prior to his 1986 arrest for murder, Dominick Occhicone previously dated his girlfriend Anita Gerrety for three years, and the couple stayed together with Gerrety's two daughters and Occhicone's five-year-old son for about six months before they became engaged and planned to get married in 1985. However, two months before the scheduled wedding date, Gerrety broke up with Occhicone, due to the latter's violent temper and acts, and Occhicone was reportedly abusive toward her and the children, both verbally and physically.[3][4]
Even after the end of their relationship, Occhicone continued to contact Gerrety and also sent her flowers. In May 1986, Gerrety told Occhicone that she already had an abortion, but refused to tell him the father of the baby, and also informed him that she had started afresh with another man. However, Occhicone continued to harass Gerrety. Simultaneously, Occhicone also harboured resentment towards Gerrety's parents, 66-year-old Raymond Artzner and 62-year-old Martha Artzner,[b] under the belief that they were the reason why he and his former girlfriend broke up. Occhicone went as far as to express his thought of killing Gerrety's parents in front of her, and threatened Gerrety that he would harm her family members.[3][5]
On the early morning of June 10, 1986, in Holiday, Florida, Occhicone, then heavily drunk, once again arrived at the home of the Artzners and knocked on the door, hoping to see Gerrety and reconcile with her, but she threatened to call the police and it prompted Occhicone to depart from the house. However, Occhicone returned back to the house, this time he was armed with a handgun. He also removed the phone lines before he started to knock on the door again, and when Raymond tried to call the police, he was unable to do so since the phone wires were all disconnected from outside the house.[3][4]
Afterwards, Raymond came out with a broomstick to confront Occhicone and warned him to leave. In response, Occhicone wielded his gun and shot him in the face, and he broke through a locked door, and began to chase Gerrety through the house, but Gerrety escaped the house with her daughter. As for Martha, who was also inside the house, she was shot four times by Occhicone, including three gunshot wounds to the chest. As a result of the shooting, Martha died on the scene. Raymond was taken to the hospital, and he told the police the identity of the shooter, but he died from his gunshot injury at the hospital.[5][3] Occhicone was later arrested the same day after he killed the couple, and was therefore investigated and detained for the double murder.[6]
Charges and trial
On June 11, 1986, a day after his arrest, Dominick Occhicone was charged with two counts of murdering Martha and Raymond Artzner.[7]
On July 16, 1986, Occhicone was formally indicted by a Pasco County grand jury on two counts of first-degree murder.[8]
During his trial, which took place in 1987, Occhicone admitted that he indeed killed the Artzners, but he stated that the shootings were not premeditated, and revealed his severe alcoholism. The defence also argued that Occhicone struggled with alcoholism, as well as depression and emotional distress caused by the separation from his former girlfriend, and hence he should not be held fully culpable for the murders.[3][4] However, the defence did not call any witnesses to the stand to support their contention.[9] The prosecution, on the other hand, contended that the shootings were cold and premediated, and also summoned Occhicone's ex-girlfriend and two more female witnesses, who all testified about the defendant's resentment towards the Artzners.[10][11]
Later that same month, the jury found Occhicone guilty of the double murder, and during the penalty phase, the same jury recommended the death penalty for both counts of murder based on a 7–5 vote.[3][5]
On November 9, 1987, the trial judge formally sentenced Occhicone to life in prison for killing Raymond, but for the other charge of murdering Martha, Occhicone was also sentenced to death by the judge.[1]
Appeals and death row
On October 11, 1990, the Florida Supreme Court rejected Dominick Occhicone's direct appeal against his death sentence.[5][12] The following year, in 1991, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Occhicone's appeal against his death sentence.[3]
On April 8, 1993, Occhicone's second appeal to the Florida Supreme Court was turned down.[13]
On June 29, 2000, the Florida Supreme Court dismissed Occhicone's appeal against his death sentence.[14][15]
On July 14, 2006, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals denied Occhicone's appeal.[16]
As of December 2007, Occhicone was one of seven death row inmates from Pasco County, and Occhicone was the oldest of the seven at 62 years old.[17]
On January 30, 2018, in separate rulings, the Florida Supreme Court denied the petitions of Occhicone and nine other Florida death row convicts for re-sentencing. In all their cases, the court deemed that they were ineligible for re-sentencing under a new law because they exhausted their direct appeals and had their sentences finalized before 2002. This new law allowed the jury to sentence a defendant to death solely based on unanimous jury votes.[18] However, this particular law was only in effect for five more years before it was changed in 2023 to allow a person to be sentenced to death when at least eight jurors voted for a death sentence.[19]
As of May 2019, Occhicone was one of six inmates from Pasco County awaiting execution on Florida's death row.[20]
Based on media sources and official records, as of June 2026, Occhicone was one of five oldest inmates on Florida's death row and they were all born in the year 1945. Occhicone was the second-to-youngest of these five, and the oldest of them was Daniel Burns Jr.,[c] who was sentenced for the murder of a state trooper in 1987.[21][22]
Execution warrant
On June 26, 2026, Governor Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant for Dominick Occhicone, whose execution date was set a month later on July 28, 2026. Occhicone, who was 80 years old at this point, was the oldest inmate on Florida's death row to receive an execution order.[23]
As Occhicone's execution drew near, it came to increasing public attention that in midst of the state's increasing rate of executions, Florida had scheduled the executions of three extremely old prisoners: Dusty Ray Spencer, Dennis Michael Sochor and Occhicone. Spencer and Sochor were both 74 years old, six years younger than Occhicone, who is expected to become the oldest inmate and the first octogenarian put to death in Florida, as well as the second-oldest in the United States,[d] if his execution is actually carried out.[24][25] Spencer was executed for the 1992 murder of his wife on June 25, 2026, a day before Occhicone's death warrant was authorized by the governor,[26] while Sochor was executed for the 1982 rape and murder of 18-year-old Patricia Gifford on July 14, 2026, two weeks before Occhicone is slated to be executed.[27]
Advocates against capital punishment and religious figures called out Florida for scheduling the executions of very elderly prisoners, and stated that it was cruel and unusual punishment to execute frail and aging inmates who were weak and prone to dying naturally in prison. Some also alluded this issue to the prolonged appellate processes and systematic problems with the death penalty that caused the delay to the path of justice and indirectly perpetuated the increasingly ageing death row population who waited decades for their sentences to be carried out. In the case of Occhicone, he had suffered from multiple age-related health issues, including kidney and prostate problems, and even needed help with his daily tasks behind bars.[28][29]
On July 8, 2026, Occhicone's lawyers filed a motion seeking a stay of execution, submitting that their client was too old and ill to be put to death, and stated that it was "cruel and unusual punishment" to execute a frail and ailing old man suffering from poor health, and that the rapid rate of executions in the state might psychologically impact the welfare of the corrections staff in charge of death row and executions.[30]
On July 9, 2026, the Florida Court of Appeals denied the appeal of Occhicone for a stay.[31]
On July 14, 2026, the same date when Sochor was put to death, another death row inmate named James Aren Duckett,[e] a former Mascotte police officer sentenced to death for raping and murdering a 11-year-old girl, was scheduled to be put to death on July 28, 2026, the same date as Occhicone, although the two men were slated to be executed six hours apart of each other based on the scheduled timings listed in their respectively death warrants (12 noon for Duckett and 6pm for Occhicone). If executed, it will be the first double execution carried out on the same day in Florida since 1976.[32][33] Throughout Florida's history, the state carried out a total of 32 double executions between 1924 and 1964. The most recent took place on May 12, 1964, when Emmett C. Blake and Sie Dawson were both executed after being convicted of murder.[34][35] The last U.S. state to carry out a double execution in one single day was Arkansas, when two convicted murderers –Jack Harold Jones[f] and Marcel Wayne Williams[g] – were executed on the same day in April 2017.[36][37]
On July 21, 2026, the Florida Supreme Court dismissed Occhicone's appeal to stave off his execution.[38][39] Similarly, the Florida Supreme Court rejected Duckett's request for a stay of execution three days later, paving way for the pair's executions to proceed.[40]
On July 24, 2026, the defence counsels of both Duckett and Occhicone jointly filed a lawsuit to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, seeking to overturn their execution dates. The lawyers argued that scheduling the executions of both men on the same date could potentially constitute as cruel and unusual punishment as it might cause them pain and suffering and likely violate the Eighth Amendment. They also argued that scheduling a double execution may potentially increase the exponential risk of a botched execution due to reasons such as the risk of error in lethal injection procedures and the staff not being equipped to carry out two executions on the same day.[41] U.S. District Judge T. Kent Wetherell II rejected the lawsuit,[42] and the two men brought their case further to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.[43]
On July 25, 2026, Occhicone filed a final appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.[44]
Tentatively, at 6pm on July 28, 2026, 80-year-old Dominick Anthony Occhicone Jr. is slated to be put to death by lethal injection in Florida State Prison.[45] According to the Tampa Bay Times, Occhicone received a final prison visit from his daughter on the eve of his scheduled execution, and on the day of his scheduled execution, Occhicone woke up at 4:45am in his prison cell, and was served his last meal of eggplant parmesan, garlic bread, salad and a Pepsi.[46]