Governor Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant for Daniel Owen Conahan Jr. Image is courtesy of the Florida Department of Corrections.
STARKE, Fla. - Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant Tuesday for Daniel Owen Conahan Jr., known as the "Hog Trail Killer," who was convicted of a 1996 murder and kidnapping in Charlotte County.
Execution Set for September
What we know:
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the death warrant on Tuesday for 72-year-old Daniel Owen Conahan Jr.. Conahan is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Sept. 10 at Florida State Prison in Starke. The warrant sets the execution window between noon on Sept. 10 and noon on Sept. 17.
Conahan was convicted in 1999 for the 1996 murder and kidnapping of 21-year-old Richard Allen Montgomery. Jurors unanimously recommended the death sentence after hearing how Conahan, an unemployed nurse, lured Montgomery into northern Charlotte County woods under the pretense of taking nude bondage photos for money. Montgomery’s body was discovered wrapped in carpet padding a day later by investigators who were in the woods after county workers found another man's decomposing remains.
Law enforcement arrested Conahan in February 1997, accusing him of raping Montgomery, strangling him and cutting off his genitals. Detectives tied Conahan to the victim through a police report filed in Fort Myers by Stanley Burden. Burden reported being assaulted in 1994 after accepting $150 to pose nude while tied to a tree. Matching fibers linked Conahan to both Burden and Montgomery. Authorities originally charged Conahan in July 1996 with the attempted murder of Burden, but prosecutors dropped that charge when they charged him with Montgomery's murder.
Defense Claims and Suspicions
What we don't know:
Conahan has contested the murder charges against him. During his trial, his attorney tried to discredit Burden by pointing out that Burden was a convicted pedophile.
Authorities also investigated Conahan in connection with the deaths of five other men found in wooded areas from North Port to Fort Myers between 1993 and 1996, but officials never charged him in those cases. Hog hunters found the first of those bodies in 1994 in northern Charlotte County.
Capital Punishment Pace
By the numbers:
The warrant for Conahan is the 15th death warrant DeSantis has signed this year. Florida carried out 12 executions this year following a modern-era record of 19 executions last year.
Two other inmates face execution ahead of Conahan. William Frances Silvia, 61, is scheduled to die Aug. 18 for fatally shooting his estranged wife at her mother’s home near Casselberry in 2006. Harold Gene Lucas, 74, is scheduled for execution Sept. 1 over the death of his 16-year-old former girlfriend in Bonita Springs nearly 50 years ago.
Addressing the Florida Sheriffs Association Summer Conference at Trump National Doral on July 28, DeSantis argued capital punishment brings needed justice to waiting families. "It doesn't take away what happened," DeSantis said. "I don't know if closure is the right word, because you'll probably never get full closure. But at least knowing justice was served is something that was very important to a lot of people."
The Source: The information in this story was gathered from a court record summary and official statements made by Gov. Ron DeSantis at the Florida Sheriffs Association Summer Conference, as well as law enforcement reports.