Florida man who 'wanted to be a serial killer' gets fourth murder conviction, faces death penalty

Leo Boatman killed two college students on a camping trip in 2006, a cellmate in prison in 2010 and a second inmate in 2019.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Florida man who was convicted of killing two college students and an inmate in 2010 has now been convicted of a fourth murder -- the brutal stabbing of Billy Chapman in 2019.

This time, Leo Boatman could face the death penalty.

Boatman was convicted by a jury, but he has waived his right to have the jury decide his sentence. Instead, his lawyer has asked that a judge decide.

Boatman has not faced the death penalty before.

Boatman has said that he "wanted to be a serial killer."

Chapman was a fellow inmate of Boatman's. He was set to be released in less than a year when Boatman and William Wells, a killer who carries the moniker 'The Monster of Mayport,' strangled and stabbed him.

“I’ve never, never seen anything like that,” a state employee who saw the video of the attack told First Coast News at the time. “They had his body pinned up against the door. They were stabbing everywhere. They stabbed his torso multiple times.”

Wells, Boatman's accomplice, has been given a death sentence.

Prior to Chapman's death, he was convicted of killing five people at his home in Mayport, including his wife.

The first case Boatman was convicted in was in 2006, when he killed Sante Fe college students Amber M. Peck and John M. Parker with an AK-47 rifle while they were camping in the Ocala National Forest, as reported by news outlets at the time. Boatman has said that he "wanted to be a serial killer."

Source: firstcoastnews.com, Anne Schindler, Tobie Nell Perkins, August 29, 2022

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