Governor Ron DeSantis has signed a death warrant for William Reaves, the man convicted of gunning down Indian River County Sheriff's Deputy Richard Raczkowski outside a Zippy Mart near Vero Beach in 1986. Reaves is scheduled to die by lethal injection at Florida State Prison in Starke on October 20, 2026, closing out a case that has stretched across four decades of trials, reversals, and appeals.
According to News4JAX, Raczkowski was dispatched on September 23, 1986, after Reaves called 911 from a pay phone because he lacked money for a cab. The deputy phoned the dispatcher to order Reaves a cab and check for outstanding warrants, but according to court records cited by the outlet, Reaves retrieved a firearm that had fallen from his own shorts after a struggle and shot the deputy in the back four times. Raczkowski, 29, died a short time later — the first line-of-duty death in Indian River County Sheriff's Office history, according to Vero News.
Reaves fled to a friend's home after the shooting, where he reportedly confessed to shooting the deputy while high on cocaine and panicking, the friend later told police, per the same News4JAX report. He was arrested in Albany, Georgia, on September 24, 1986, two days after the shooting, and told authorities a gun had fallen out of his pants. He was returned to Florida on September 25. He was charged with first-degree murder, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and trafficking in cocaine, and pleaded not guilty.
A Conviction Overturned, Then Upheld Again
A jury found Reaves guilty of first-degree murder on August 25, 1987, and unanimously recommended the death penalty, the station's report noted. But in 1991, the Florida Supreme Court reversed both the conviction and sentence, ruling that the trial court erred by allowing a prosecutor who had previously defended Reaves in a criminal matter to help lead the case against him. The justices found that a prosecutor who once represented a defendant creates an impermissible appearance of impropriety, according to Florida Supreme Court case law. That conflict traced back to State Attorney Bruce Colton, who had represented Reaves in an earlier grand larceny case, per the same ruling.
Reaves faced a second jury in early 1992 and was again found guilty of first-degree murder that February. Jurors recommended a death sentence by a 10-2 vote, and Circuit Judge James Balsiger imposed the sentence in March 1992 after Reaves issued a formal apology to Raczkowski's family in court, according to Wikipedia. Years later, in September 2017, the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Reaves' federal habeas corpus petition, which raised ineffective-assistance claims involving the penalty and sentencing phases, according to Justia Law. Federal judges ruled that Reaves' attorneys had met constitutional standards during both the guilt and penalty phases of trial.
A Vietnam Veteran's Path to Death Row
Reaves, born December 30, 1948, is an honorably discharged U.S. Army veteran of the Vietnam War, according to the newsletter Tracking Florida's Death Penalty. His case included references to Vietnam-related defenses, cocaine use and other mitigating circumstances, though those arguments failed to overturn his conviction on appeal.
A County That Never Stopped Pushing
For Indian River County, the case has never faded from local memory. In November 2009, county commissioners formally supported designating a 5.5-mile stretch of State Road 60, from Interstate 95 to 43rd Avenue, as a memorial to Cpl. Raczkowski, petitioning state lawmakers to rename the roadway near where the shooting occurred, Vero News reported at the time. Sheriff Eric Flowers has pressed the issue more directly in recent years, publicly advocating for a death warrant.
Part of a Record-Setting Year for Florida Executions
Reaves' case is now the state's 18th death warrant of the year, according to News4JAX, and it lands amid an unprecedented acceleration of capital punishment under DeSantis. Florida has carried out 15 executions after 19 the previous year, giving the state the most executions in a single year since the U.S. Supreme Court ended the nationwide capital-punishment moratorium in 1976. Florida currently leads the nation in executions overall.
Reaves' scheduled execution comes as Florida continues to schedule capital cases. Another warrant, for 77-year-old Curtis Wilkie Beasley, is scheduled to be carried out September 29, 2026, for the 1995 bludgeoning death of a Polk County woman.
Whether Reaves' legal team will pursue any last-minute competency or medical appeals ahead of the October date remains an open question, one that has surfaced in other recent Florida death-watch cases. For now, the date stands: barring intervention, William Reaves will be executed at Florida State Prison on October 20, nearly 40 years after he shot Cpl. Richard Raczkowski four times in the back on a Vero Beach roadside.
