For the second time, Johnny Mack “Skeeto” Calhoun was sentenced to death Friday for the brutal murder of Holmes County resident Mia Brown in 2010, State Attorney Larry Basford announced.
As prosecutors, defense attorneys, and members of the victim’s family watched, Chief Circuit Court Judge Christopher Patterson said he had reviewed all materials submitted and the arguments made by both sides. He then ordered Calhoun be put to death by lethal injection.
It is the second time Calhoun has been sentenced to death by Patterson for kidnapping Brown, keeping her in the trunk of his car overnight, and then burning her alive in it the following day. The first was in 2012, but the defendant was given a new sentencing hearing following a 2016 U.S. Supreme Court ruling affecting cases across the state. The jury at the new sentencing recommended death by a 9-3 vote in April.
“Justice in this case has been a long time in coming,” Basford said following sentencing “Now, 5,698 days have passed since Mia Brown was burned alive in her car by the defendant. This was a very cruel and horrific murder.”
Basford noted that this is the second time a jury as recommended death for Calhoun, the second time Judge Patterson has ordered the death sentence for him, and he has faith the Florida Supreme Court for the second time will affirm the sentence.
“When all is said and done, the defendant will be strapped to a gurney, a needle will be placed in his arm, he will be injected with a lethal dose of chemicals, and he will draw his last breath,” Basford said.
Basford and Prosecutor Peter Overstreet presented nearly 20 witnesses and evidence at the sentencing phase in April proving the victim was kidnapped, bound, gagged, and burned alive in her car in December 2010.
Basford and Overstreet proved the murder met two of the aggravating factors required by law: it was committed during a kidnapping that facilitated the murder, and it was cold, calculated and premeditated.
Basford thanked the Holmes County Sheriff’s Office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for their work and collaboration on the original case.
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In Friday’s 15-page sentencing order, Chief Judge Patterson outlined the facts and history of the case as well as the aggravating and mitigating factors.
“The Defendant is eligible for a sentence of death, and a careful review of the aggravating factors determined to exist beyond a reasonable doubt, which far outweigh the mitigating circumstances, established by a greater weight of the evidence, makes clear that a sentence of death is the only appropriate penalty in the present case,” Patterson wrote.
Basford thanked the Holmes County Sheriff’s Office and Florida Department of Law Enforcement for their handling of the case. He especially thanked the victim’s family “for their patience and faith.”
For more information or questions contact Mike Cazalas at mike.cazalas@sa14.fl.gov or call 850-381-7454.