Death Warrant Signed for 2000 Florida Double Murder

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant on April 23, 2026, for Richard Knight, convicted in the brutal stabbing deaths of a mother and her young daughter in Coral Springs. Knight faces lethal injection on May 21, 2026, at Florida State Prison, marking a significant step toward accountability in a case that shocked Broward County over two decades ago.

Crime Details

The killings occurred on June 28, 2000, in an apartment at 8409 Forest Hill Blvd., where 28-year-old Odessia Stephens lived with her 4-year-old daughter, Hanessia Mullings, and her boyfriend Hans Mullings—Knight’s cousin. Stephens, a hospital clerk, model, and Broward Community College student, had asked Knight, who had stayed with them for three months, to leave after an argument. Enraged, Knight stepped outside briefly, returned to grab kitchen knives, and attacked Stephens in the bedroom as she lay with her daughter; she suffered 21 stab wounds—mostly to the neck—plus strangulation marks and defensive injuries from a fierce struggle.

Knight then turned on Hanessia, stabbing her in the chest, neck, and hand until the blade snapped, cutting his own hand. The child showed multiple defensive wounds and strangulation bruises. Police, responding to a 911 call about noises, found the locked apartment undisturbed—no signs of robbery—with the victims’ bodies; Knight, bloodied and cut, had showered and changed but fled through a window before quick capture nearby.

ADVERTISEMENT

Legal Proceedings

Knight was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder in April 2006. Evidence included his DNA under Stephens’ fingernails, her blood on his clothes, and his jailhouse confession to another inmate. In March 2007, a unanimous jury recommended death; the judge imposed it, citing aggravators like prior violent felonies (including a sexual abuse conviction delaying his indictment), the heinous nature of the crimes, and one victim’s age under 12. Appeals, including to the Florida Supreme Court and U.S. Supreme Court, upheld the verdict and sentence in 2011 and beyond.