Carolyn Monfort let a man stay in her home so she could drive him to work every morning.
He beat her to death with a hammer and stole her car before her body was even found.
But Ron DeSantis just signed the death warrant – and the man who did it has one month left to live.
The Woman Who Trusted Him
Curtis Beasley was nobody special to Carolyn Monfort.
She knew him through her daughter's former husband.
He needed a place to stay while he did pressure washing and painting at some apartments she managed in Dundee, Florida.
So she let him sleep in her guest room.
She drove him to the job site every morning.
That's who Carolyn Monfort was.
On August 21, 1995, she wrapped up a full day of work – a morning meeting, two afternoon appointments with a prospective tenant, collecting $900 in rent money.
She came home.
She fixed herself a vodka tonic with a lime twist, the same drink she had every evening between six and eight.
Beasley was there.
She never made it to dinner.
She Fought Back
Court records describe what detectives found in that laundry room as "brutal and savage."
Monfort had a fractured skull.
Her hands showed defensive wounds.
The blood trail extended from the laundry room into the adjoining dining room – she had tried to run.
The hammer head was broken off its handle and found near her body, wrapped in dish towels.
He pocketed the $900 in cash, took her car, and drove to a friend's house that same night.
He told the friend the car belonged to "a lady friend he was working for."
He was at a Miami bus station the next morning.
Three days passed before Carolyn Monfort's daughter drove to check on her mother.
Newspapers had piled up outside the door, still unread in their wrappers.
She found her mother's body in the laundry room.
Police tracked Beasley to Alabama, where he had grown a beard and was living under a false name.
When they found him, he told officers he had gone back to Monfort's house but spotted FBI agents surrounding it and fled.
He knew exactly what he had done.
Florida Is Done Waiting
A Polk County jury convicted Beasley of first-degree murder, robbery, and grand theft.
Ten of twelve jurors recommended death.
The trial court agreed.
That was 1998.
For 28 years, Beasley worked the appeals system – state courts, federal courts, constitutional challenges, procedural claims.
Every single one failed.
He is now 77 years old.
DeSantis signed his death warrant on August 27, 2026.
The execution is set for September 29 at Florida State Prison.
Beasley is Florida's 16th scheduled execution this year – and the state isn't slowing down.
In 2025, DeSantis oversaw 19 executions, more than double the previous Florida record of eight in a single year.
Forty-seven people were executed across the U.S. in 2025 – the highest national total in over a decade – and Florida alone accounted for more than a third of them.
DeSantis has been direct about why.
"Some of these crimes were committed in the '80s," the governor said. "Justice delayed is justice denied."
He's right.
Tom Sheridan, whose brother was murdered in 1989 and whose killer was finally executed in February, described the decades-long wait as excruciating and, in his family's view, completely unnecessary.
Carolyn Monfort's family waited 31 years.
September 29 is the end of that wait.
Sources:
- Sierra Rains, "Execution date set for man who bludgeoned Polk County homeowner to death with hammer," WFLA, August 26, 2026.
- Melanie Kalmanson, "NEW WARRANT: Curtis Beasley's Execution Scheduled September 29," Florida Death Penalty Newsletter, August 26, 2026.
- "Florida set a record for executions in 2025. What to know," USA Today, 2026.
- "Victim-driven: Florida ramps up executions of its longest-serving death-row prisoners," The Washington Times, July 2026.
- "Florida's first execution of 2026 was man convicted of horrific 1989 murder," USA Today, February 2026.
