Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a December 18 death warrant for Frank Athen Walls, convicted in the 1987 murders of an Eglin airman and his girlfriend and linked to three additional Okaloosa County killings.
Walls’ execution adds to a record-high year for Florida, which has scheduled more executions in 2025 than any year since capital punishment was reinstated.
Attorneys for Walls are expected to appeal to both state and federal courts as the execution date approaches.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a death warrant for Frank Athen Walls — the Okaloosa County man convicted of a string of brutal killings in the 1980s — according to reporting from the Associated Press. Walls, now 58, is scheduled to die by lethal injection on December 18 at Florida State Prison, marking yet another addition to what has become the most execution-heavy year in Florida’s modern history.
Walls’ case has haunted Okaloosa County for nearly four decades. The crimes that ultimately put him on death row began on a July night in 1987, when prosecutors say he slipped into the mobile home of Eglin Air Force Base Airman Edward Alger and his girlfriend, Ann Peterson. According to court records, Walls tied the couple up in what investigators later characterized as a robbery that escalated into extreme violence. Alger managed to free himself and fought back—forcing Walls to slash his throat, then shoot him in the head after the airman continued to resist. Peterson was shot moments later while struggling to defend herself.
Detectives found the couple’s bodies the next day. Within hours, suspicion turned toward Walls when his roommate contacted authorities about his unusual behavior. A search of the home uncovered property belonging to the victims, and Walls—who was already known to law enforcement for prior run-ins—eventually confessed to the killings.
He was convicted in 1988 on charges including two counts of murder, kidnapping, burglary, and theft, and sentenced to death. The Florida Supreme Court later overturned that conviction, ordering a retrial due to errors in the case. But the outcome remained the same: in 1992, Walls was again convicted and again sentenced to death.
The double murder, as horrific as it was, turned out not to be an isolated act of violence. Separate evidence later tied Walls to three other killings across Okaloosa County, all occurring between 1985 and 1987. DNA evidence linked him to the rape and murder of Audrey Gygi, a case that had long troubled investigators. Walls pleaded no contest in that case, avoiding a second death sentence. He also admitted involvement in the murders of Tommie Lou Whiddon in 1985 and Cynthia Sue Condra in 1986 as part of an agreement with prosecutors. All five victims were from Okaloosa County, where Walls lived and operated during that period.
Now, nearly 40 years after his killing spree, Walls is facing a final deadline. Attorneys representing him are expected to file appeals to the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court, hoping to halt the December execution. Such appeals have been common this year as Florida has accelerated its use of the death penalty.
In signing Walls’ death warrant, DeSantis continued a trend that has made 2025 a historic year for capital punishment in the state. If executions proceed as scheduled, Walls will be the nineteenth person put to death this year under DeSantis’ authority—the most executions overseen by any Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The previous record was eight.
Walls’ warrant comes just two days before the scheduled execution of Richard Barry Randolph, whose legal team has turned to the U.S. Supreme Court after failing to persuade the Florida Supreme Court to intervene. Another death row inmate, Mark Allen Geralds, is slated for execution on December 9. Florida’s most recent execution occurred on November 13, when the state put Bryan Frederick Jennings to death for the rape and murder of a neighbor in Brevard County.
Nationally, 43 people have been executed so far in 2025 — a number expected to climb as year-end death warrants across several states approach their scheduled dates.
For Okaloosa County, Walls’ case remains among the region’s most notorious. His upcoming execution, if carried out, would close a chapter that began with a string of violent crimes nearly four decades ago and reshaped public conversation around safety, sentencing, and the death penalty in Northwest Florida.
Pro Communi Bono
St. Francis De Sales, Ora Pro Nobis!
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