Murderer dies amid appeals
By Jessica Vander Velde, Times Staff Writer
Published Saturday, September 5, 2009
TAMPA — Patricia Anderson waited 23 years for Alphonso Green to die.
Green stabbed Anderson's parents to death in 1986 while high on crack, and although it took a jury only two hours to find him guilty — and just 10 minutes to recommend the death penalty — 23 years later he was still alive.
All of his direct appeals were exhausted, but Green, 58, was seeking to be released on the grounds that his attorney had been ineffective, said Assistant State Attorney Chris Moody. An execution date had not been set.
But on Friday, Anderson, 70, answered the phone at her Tampa house and was shocked when a state official told her Green had passed away.
He died of natural causes early Thursday at the Union Correctional Institution in Raiford, according to the Florida Department of Corrections.
Spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger wouldn't discuss Green's medical history because of privacy laws, but Moody and Anderson said Green had been suffering from pancreatic cancer.
Anderson was relieved to hear that Green died.
"It was something I wanted to hear for a long time," she said.
Late on the night of Oct. 10, 1986, Green, then 35, went to the Tampa house of Robert J. Nichols, 77, and Dora V. Nichols, 72, to take back a $250 check from his landlords. He wanted the money to buy more crack. He used a butcher knife to murder the couple as they tried to escape. Neighbors could hear the couple pleading, "Please, don't do this."
"I'm going to try to just put that chapter behind me and get him out of my life," Anderson said. "But I can never get over losing my parents."
Times researcher Carolyn Edds contributed to this report.
By Jessica Vander Velde, Times Staff Writer
Published Saturday, September 5, 2009
TAMPA — Patricia Anderson waited 23 years for Alphonso Green to die.
Green stabbed Anderson's parents to death in 1986 while high on crack, and although it took a jury only two hours to find him guilty — and just 10 minutes to recommend the death penalty — 23 years later he was still alive.
All of his direct appeals were exhausted, but Green, 58, was seeking to be released on the grounds that his attorney had been ineffective, said Assistant State Attorney Chris Moody. An execution date had not been set.
But on Friday, Anderson, 70, answered the phone at her Tampa house and was shocked when a state official told her Green had passed away.
He died of natural causes early Thursday at the Union Correctional Institution in Raiford, according to the Florida Department of Corrections.
Spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger wouldn't discuss Green's medical history because of privacy laws, but Moody and Anderson said Green had been suffering from pancreatic cancer.
Anderson was relieved to hear that Green died.
"It was something I wanted to hear for a long time," she said.
Late on the night of Oct. 10, 1986, Green, then 35, went to the Tampa house of Robert J. Nichols, 77, and Dora V. Nichols, 72, to take back a $250 check from his landlords. He wanted the money to buy more crack. He used a butcher knife to murder the couple as they tried to escape. Neighbors could hear the couple pleading, "Please, don't do this."
"I'm going to try to just put that chapter behind me and get him out of my life," Anderson said. "But I can never get over losing my parents."
Times researcher Carolyn Edds contributed to this report.
Rest in Peace Alphonso. I will love you forever and always.
ReplyDeleteYour Wife in God's eyes.
He had many many wives by Gods eyes
ReplyDeleteYou could count the countrys and you,ll find wives in Als eyes in them all.I almost married him.
ReplyDelete