A Florida man convicted of brutally murdering a young couple in front of their toddler over two decades ago was executed this week. James Dennis Ford, 64, received a lethal injection at 6:19 p.m. on Thursday, February 13, at Florida State Prison in Raiford, according to state officials and multiple news reports, including the Associated Press, USA Today, and local station WWSB. Ford declined to speak any final words before his execution, but his written statement read, “Hugs Prayers Love!!! God Bless everyone.” His last appeal, which argued that he had an intellectual disability and should not face the death penalty, was denied by the U.S. Supreme Court on February 12.
Ford had been on death row for more than 25 years following the April 1997 murders of Gregory Malnory, 25, and Kimberly Malnory, 26. The couple was on a fishing trip at a remote farm in southwest Florida with their 22-month-old daughter when they were attacked. Authorities said Ford shot Gregory with a rifle, beat him, and slit his throat before raping and fatally shooting Kimberly. The couple’s toddler, Maranda Malnory, witnessed the horrific attack from the backseat of their truck. She was found 18 hours later by farm workers, still strapped in the car, covered in blood and bug bites, and suffering from dehydration.
Ford initially claimed the couple was alive when he last saw them, but DNA evidence and the discovery of his rifle in a nearby ditch linked him to the crime. A motive for the murders remains unclear. Maranda, now an adult, recently told WBBH that she has no memory of the incident and only learned the details of her parents’ deaths when she was 13. “Technically, my worst enemy is the person who did this,” she said. “But I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy.”
Gregory’s co-worker remembered him as an “all-American good ol’ boy” who loved hunting and fishing, while Kimberly was described by her stepmother as having a “vivacious, bubbly, talkative personality.” Maranda’s paternal grandmother, Connie Ankney, witnessed Ford’s execution and told reporters, “I hope he burns in hell.”
