The Final Reckoning at Florida State Prison
A dark chapter in Florida’s criminal history has finally closed. After spending more than two decades on death row, Jamaican immigrant Richard Andrew Knight Jr. was executed by lethal injection at the Florida State Prison near Starke. The execution brings an end to a painful, 26-year saga that began with the unspeakable slaughter of a young mother, her unborn child, and her heroic 4-year-old daughter.
Knight, 47, was pronounced dead following the administration of a three-drug lethal injection sequence. His final 24 hours on earth were defined by total isolation and rejection. Prison officials reported that Knight woke up early, showered, and spent his remaining hours completely alone, with no family members or friends requesting to visit him. In a final display of defiance or detachment, Knight completely refused his requested last meal, rejected the standard prison food, and turned down the presence of a spiritual advisor.
When strapped to the execution gurney, his arms extended and IV lines inserted, Knight offered only a brief final statement when prompted by the warden: “I want to give thanks to Yahweh, the most high.” Minutes later, the lethal cocktail took effect, ending a life marked by violence, evasion, and a total lack of mercy for the innocent.
A History of Violence and a Desperate Situation
To understand the gravity of the execution, one must look back to the summer of 2000. Knight had arrived in the United States from Jamaica in 1998. Rather than building a legitimate life, he chose to overstay his welcome illegally, quickly spiraling into a lifestyle fueled by illicit drugs and robberies. Long before the fateful events in Broward County, Knight was already a known danger, facing severe accusations that included indecent sexual assault against a 16-year-old girl and physical assault against a 12-year-old child.
By June 2000, Knight found himself in a desperate, self-inflicted bottleneck. He was unemployed, entirely broke, and had nowhere to lay his head. It was then that he reached out to his cousin, Hans Mullins, who was living in a Coral Springs apartment in Broward County. Mullins lived with his 24-year-old girlfriend, Odessia Stevens, and their 4-year-old daughter, Hennessy. Odessia was also six weeks pregnant at the time.
Against her better judgment, Odessia allowed Knight to stay, though his presence created immediate, severe friction. Knight did not look for work and relied entirely on the young couple for financial survival. The tension in the small apartment grew heavier by the day, setting the stage for a catastrophic explosion of violence.
The Night the Screams Began
On the night of June 27, 2000, Hans Mullins was away at work, leaving Odessia and little Hennessy alone in the apartment with Knight. At approximately 9:00 p.m., Hans spoke with Odessia over the phone. She mentioned she was getting ready for bed, but noted how deeply uncomfortable she felt with Knight still lingering inside the home, especially given her pregnancy and the presence of her young daughter.
Driven by an instinct to protect her sanctuary, Odessia decided it was time to confront Knight and tell him he needed to leave the apartment. What began as a heated verbal argument quickly turned into a bloodbath. Without warning, Knight grabbed a heavy knife and lunged at the young mother.
What happened next remains one of the most heartbreaking aspects of the case. Seeing her mother being viciously assaulted, 4-year-old Hennessy did not run away. In a profound act of instinctual love and bravery, the tiny girl threw herself at Knight, attempting to shield her mother from the blade. Knight showed no mercy, turning the weapon on the toddler and stabbing her multiple times, ending her short life on the floor.
Odessia fled into the kitchen, desperately trying to grab another knife to defend herself. A fierce struggle ensued. Forensic evidence later revealed that Odessia fought like a lioness, leaving deep scratches on Knight’s body. However, he ultimately overpowered her, repeatedly stabbing her until she fell silent.
The Escape and Arrest
The sheer violence of the attack did not go completely unnoticed. A neighbor living on the floor directly above began hearing heavy banging noises, paired with the desperate, blood-curdling screams of a woman and a child. Sensing immediate danger, the neighbor dialed 911.
Officer Vincent Sachs arrived at the scene just eight minutes later. As he approached, screams could still be heard emanating from the unit. Sachs noted that the lights were illuminated in the master bedroom and hallway, and a window in one of the rooms was slightly open.
Sachs knocked forcefully on the door. No one answered. Instead, a chilling silence fell over the apartment. The officer walked around the perimeter of the building and realized that all the internal lights had suddenly been plunged into darkness. The window that had been cracked open was now thrown wide open, its curtains billowing outside—a clear sign that the killer had just fled.
Shining his flashlight through the window, Officer Sachs was met with a gruesome scene. Blood stained the dining room and master bedroom floors. Upon entering, he found little Hennessy Mullins curled up in a tragic fetal position next to a closet door. In the living room lay the lifeless body of Odessia Stevens. Because Odessia was carrying a six-week-old fetus, Knight’s rampage had claimed three distinct lives.
The killer did not make it far. Less than an hour after the slaughter, a backup officer spotted Knight trying to conceal himself in a cluster of bushes just 100 meters from the apartment building. When confronted, Knight was breathing heavily, wearing blood-stained clothes, and sporting fresh scratches across his chest and cuts on his hands. In a bizarre attempt to clear his name, Knight claimed he was simply out for a midnight jog and happened to live in the building, though he claimed he didn’t have his keys. Investigators quickly recovered the bloody murder weapons from the apartment, sealing his fate.
The Long Road to Justice
Though Richard Andrew Knight Jr. was formally charged on August 15, 2001, legal maneuvers and procedural delays pushed his trial back to 2006. The prosecution presented an airtight case, backed by DNA evidence under Odessia’s fingernails and the undeniable matching blood patterns on Knight’s clothing. In March 2007, the jury returned a unanimous verdict: guilty of first-degree murder, resulting in a death sentence.
For nearly twenty years, Knight used every legal avenue available, filing multiple appeals from his cell on death row while continuously maintaining his innocence despite the mountain of physical evidence against him. However, his appeals finally ran out amidst an aggressive wave of scheduled executions in the state of Florida.
With his death officially logged, the surviving members of the Mullins and Stevens families are finally left with a sense of legal resolution, knowing that the man who stole three lives under the cover of darkness was forced to face the ultimate consequence of his actions.
