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Inmate To Die For ' 89 Murder

Originally published November 23, 2002

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Tribune file report

Published: June 22, 2009

CLEARWATER - Before a judge sentenced Franklin Delano Floydon Friday, she recalled photographs of his victim, Cheryl Ann Commesso, which were found in a truck Floyd had stolen.

In them, a badly beaten Commesso was posed in sexually explicit positions, bound, restrained and blindfolded.

Circuit Judge Nancy Moate Ley said Commesso must have been terrified.

"Perhaps she knew she was moments away from death," the judge said.

Then she sentenced Floyd, 59, to death.

"May God have mercy on your soul," said Ley, to which Floyd responded: "We don't need your mercy, judge."

So ended Floyd's contentious trial. At times during it, Floyd hurled insults and profanity at the judge, who in turn threatened to have him gagged. He was found guilty of first-degree murder in September.

On Friday, though, except for his response to the judge, Floyd showed no emotion during sentencing.

Afterward, Commesso's father, John, praised the prosecution and said he had waited a long time to find out what happened to his daughter.

"I am just glad it's over," said John Commesso, who earlier told the court he lamented not seeing his daughter married or having children. "I am glad he got his due justice."

Commesso's stepmother, Ellen, said she was thankful Ley levied the death penalty. "We hope that they don't take long to execute him," she said.

Cheryl Ann Commesso, an exotic dancer, was 18 when she disappeared in 1989.

Her skeletal remains were found alongside Interstate 275 in St. Petersburg in 1995, about the same time a mechanic discovered the photographs Ley referred to hidden above the gas tank of a pickup truck Floyd had stolen during a kidnapping the previous year.

When he was charged with Commesso's murder, Floyd was serving a 57-year federal prison term for a 1994 kidnapping in Oklahoma, where he had been living since leaving St. Petersburg a few weeks after Commesso disappeared.

A defense attorney said during Floyd's Pinellas County trial that Floyd's father died when Floyd was about 18 months old, and his alcoholic mother soon abandoned her children.

One of his first memories, Floyd has testified, was of being sexually molested by older boys at the Atlanta orphanage where he grew up. Other times, Floyd said, he would pray his mother would come back.

On Friday, Floyd's sister, Dorothea Leonard, said no good would come from the death sentence, as Floyd was already sentenced to prison.

"I am sure he did not commit this crime," she said. "At a later date, the person that did will be found guilty."

Floyd gave a rambling speech before the sentencing in which he continued to proclaim his innocence. He said he was convicted on circumstantial evidence, then blasted the death penalty system and pointed to others in Commesso's dangerous lifestyle as her killer.

"Did she strip once too often before the wrong customer?" asked Floyd, causing Ellen Commesso to reach out to comfort her husband.

Floyd's attorney, Michael Schwartzberg, who during the trial refused — then agreed — to participate in the jury's sentencing proceedings because of a disagreement with Ley's jury instructions, said he would appeal on a number of grounds.

One is whether Florida's death penalty is constitutional. He said a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling calls it into question.

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