Tampa Area Killer Set To Die Thursday

Bolin is scheduled to be put to death at 6pm this evening for the murder of Teri Lynn Mathews in December 1986.

He’s scheduled for execution at 6 p.m. on Thursday at Florida State Prison in Starke. “It’s my release. My punishment’s over”.

“I hope to have a big bonfire in my pit out here when this is all over”, she said.

In a letter to the governor, Michael Sheedy, the director of the Florida bishops’ conference, said that the use of the death penalty has been “inconsistent, arbitrary, and too often applied in error”.

Those convictions were eventually overturned – twice – because Bolin’s confession to his wife should have been protected by spousal privilege, but he was found guilty and condemned to die at his third retrial for Matthews’ death. “They’re not getting any peace by executing me tomorrow”.

Matthews’ mother, Kathleen Reeves, age 78, attended all 10 of Bolin’s trials – usually in the close company of the mothers of Bolin’s other two victims, Stephanie Collins, age 17, and Natalie Blanche Holley, age 25.

Earlier in the year, Holley was taken after leaving work at a fast-food restaurant and Collins disappeared from a shopping center.

Rosalie Bolin declined an interview, but said in a statement that she is “heartbroken” and that the execution would create a set of “invisible victims”. During the trial, Bolin’s younger half brother said he watched Bolin beat Matthews and try to drown her with a garden hose.

“We should be able to have a meaningful examination of the evidence”, said defense lawyer Bjorn Brunvand.

The three Tampa-area killings went unsolved until someone called an anonymous tip line in 1990, when Bolin was already serving a 22- to 75-year prison sentence in OH for kidnapping and raping a 20-year-old waitress outside Toledo in 1987. Normally, we can’t file (an appeal) to the U.S. Supreme Court until we hear from the (lower court). The warrant is for the 1986 slaying of Teri Lynn Matthews.

“She was an exceptionally outgoing person”, Reeves said. Holley’s mother died in 2012.

“I did not murder these women”, Bolin said.

Prosecutors successfully argued that the alleged confession of another OH killer, Steven Kasler, who killed himself before a hearing could be held, was unlikely to lead to Bolin’s exoneration – in part because Kasler had falsely confessed to other crimes.

Though Reeves has hoped for an apology from Bolin in the execution chamber, she doubts that will happen.