Execution planned for convicted rapist and murderer in Florida prison: report

A 57-year-old Florida man convicted of sexual abuse and murder in Marion County has reportedly been sentenced to death by lethal injection.

July 30, 2024, 4:37 p.m. EDT | Updated July 30, 2024, 4:38 p.m. EDT

FLORIDA — For the first time since October, a Florida man who raped a 21-year-old woman and beat her 18-year-old brother to death in 1994 is scheduled to be executed next month, the Associated Press reported.

Florida Department of Corrections records show that 57-year-old Loran K. Cole was sentenced to death for first-degree murder in Marion County on February 18, 1994.

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Cole and a friend were accused of taking the siblings, who were in college at the time, to a pond after befriending them in the Ocala National Forest, the Associated Press reported.

While there, Cole and his friend were accused of assaulting and robbing the siblings. They left the brother beaten in the woods and took the sister to a campsite, the Associated Press reported, citing court documents.

They were then accused of tying up and raping the woman. The woman managed to escape and get help from a driver, the Associated Press reported.

“According to court documents, police found her brother’s body lying face down on the ground with head trauma and a slit throat,” the news agency reported.

In addition to his murder conviction, Cole was also found guilty of two counts of kidnapping, two counts of robbery with a firearm or deadly weapon and two counts of sexual abuse with a weapon or force and sentenced to life in prison, according to DOC records.

Cole’s death sentence was scheduled for Aug. 28 at the Florida State Penitentiary after Governor Ron DeSantis signed the death warrant on Monday, the Associated Press reported.

Michael Zack III, 54, who was convicted of murdering two women in 1996, was the last person to be executed in Florida, the news agency reported.