STARKE, Fla. (AP) — A man found guilty of fatally stabbing a woman during a home invasion over three decades ago is slated for execution on Tuesday evening in Florida.

Mark Allen Geralds, now 58, faces a lethal injection at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison, located near Starke. Convicted in 1990 for murder, armed robbery, burglary, and vehicle theft, Geralds initially received a death sentence. Although the Florida Supreme Court later overturned this sentence, the conviction stood, leading to a resentencing in 1992, reaffirming his death sentence.

This execution marks Florida’s 18th death sentence fulfilled in 2025, setting a new high for the state in a single year.

Court documents reveal that in February 1989, Tressa Pettibone’s 8-year-old son discovered his mother brutally beaten and stabbed on the kitchen floor of their Panama City residence. Geralds, who had previously worked as a carpenter on home renovations, was implicated in the crime.

In the days leading up to the murder, Geralds encountered Pettibone and her children at a mall, where Pettibone casually mentioned her husband was away on business. Geralds later approached her son in a video arcade, inquiring about the father’s return and the children’s school schedule, as detailed in court records.

Investigators found that Geralds pawned jewelry with traces of Pettibone’s blood on it, and plastic ties used to bind Pettibone matched ties found in Geralds’ car.

After a death warrant was signed last month and his execution date set, Geralds told a judge he did not wish to pursue any further appeals. The judge signed off on that decision.

A total of 44 men have died by court-ordered execution so far this year in the U.S., and a handful of executions are scheduled for the rest of the year.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court restored the death penalty in 1976, the highest previous annual total of Florida executions was eight in 2014. Florida has executed more people than any other state this year. Another execution is planned for next week in the state under death warrants signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Frank Athen Walls, 58, is scheduled for Florida’s 19th execution this year on Dec. 18. He was convicted of fatally shooting a man and woman during a home invasion robbery and later confessing to three other killings.

Florida’s lethal injections are carried out with a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the state Department of Corrections.