Florida | Young Hungarian accused of targeting, killing elderly gay men could face death penalty under new law

A Hungarian national accused in the murders of two elderly, disabled men in South Florida faces second-degree murder charges.

While some reports have discussed the potential for capital punishment, Florida law currently restricts the death penalty to first-degree murder convictions, and federal constitutional law prohibits automatic death sentences for any class of person, including undocumented immigrants.

Zsolt Zsolyomi, 26, a native of Hungary, entered the United States on a 90-day visa waiver in 2022 but overstayed, rendering him an undocumented immigrant according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

In the summer of 2024, he was arrested in Miami Beach on charges including petit theft and strong-armed robbery. ICE issued a detainer for his deportation, but he was released under supervision with an ankle monitor instead of immediate removal. He subsequently disabled the monitoring device and became a fugitive.

Elderly gay men

Zsolyomi allegedly altered his appearance and began seeking out elderly, retired men in Florida’s gay bars. Investigators linked him to at least two victims with a similar modus operandi: engaging them in intimate encounters before robbing them. When discovered or confronted, he allegedly killed them. The first victim was strangled in his apartment; a second victim was also found strangled in his vehicle.

Police linked Zsolyomi to two separate homicide cases in late 2024. The first occurred around Nov. 21, 2024, in Miami Beach, where 66-year-old Carlos Villaquiran was found dead in his apartment.

Authorities described Villaquiran as an elderly, disabled man. Evidence—including surveillance video, fingerprints, and texts—indicated Zsolyomi had been in an intimate relationship with him. Police stated the victim was strangled.

The second case involved a homicide in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood, where another elderly, disabled man was killed by strangulation. Both victims were members of the LGBT community, and investigators concluded Zsolyomi targeted elderly gay men, robbing them to fund his flight from authorities or to cover up the crimes.

Miami police described the suspect’s actions as predatory and noted that his arrest likely prevented additional murders.

DNA, fingerprints, surveillance footage

Zsolyomi was arrested in downtown Miami on Feb. 19, 2025, following a joint investigation by Miami and Miami Beach police. He faces two counts of second-degree murder. Evidence cited in arrest warrants includes DNA, fingerprints, and surveillance footage showing him at crime scenes (at one point with dyed blonde hair). He has pleaded not guilty; his attorney entered the plea on his behalf during a 2025 arraignment.

Regarding his immigration status, ICE confirmed Zsolyomi was slated for deportation months before the murders but was not removed in time. Reports indicate he changed his appearance multiple times to evade detection after absconding from supervision.

Sentencing and the Law

Florida allows the death penalty for first-degree murder convictions, provided a jury finds that aggravating factors outweigh mitigating ones. However, Zsolyomi is currently charged with second-degree murder, a felony that carries a maximum of life in prison but is not a capital offense.

In early 2025, Florida enacted a controversial provision under which undocumented immigrants (referred to in the law as "unauthorized aliens") convicted of capital felonies could be sentenced to death.

While Florida enacted Senate Bill 4-C in February 2025—which sought to mandate the death penalty for "unauthorized aliens" convicted of capital felonies—the law’s application remains in legal limbo.

In April 2025, a federal court issued a preliminary injunction blocking the measure, citing conflicts with the U.S. Constitution's prohibition on mandatory death sentences.

Because Zsolyomi currently faces second-degree murder charges—which are not capital-eligible—and because of these ongoing federal stays, the "automatic" death penalty provision does not currently apply to his proceedings as they move toward trial in 2026.

While some media outlets have speculated on the impact of Florida’s strict immigration stance, there is no enacted law that mandates an "automatic" death penalty for undocumented immigrants. Under the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Woodson v. North Carolina, mandatory death sentences are unconstitutional, as the Eighth Amendment requires an individualized sentencing process.

Any potential death sentence—should charges be upgraded to first-degree murder—would involve lengthy appeals, potentially lasting a decade or more.

As of February 2026, the case remains in the pretrial phase. Zsolyomi is held without bond in Miami-Dade County corrections.

In Hungary, where capital punishment was abolished in 1990, the case has drawn attention in media like Daily News Hungary and Blikk.

Zsolyomi's mother expressed shock but stated that if guilty, he should face consequences. While Hungarian officials cannot intervene in the U.S. judicial process, diplomatic discussions often occur if a foreign national faces the death penalty, as the European Union remains a staunch opponent of the practice.

Source: DPN, Daily News Hungary, JohnWoods, Staff, AI, February 26, 2026

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

Death Penalty News For a World without the Death Penalty

Oklahoma | Richard Glossip on Life After Decades on Death Row

In an exclusive interview at home in Oklahoma City, Glossip describes his first days of freedom in a world he hasn’t experienced for nearly 30 years. For three decades, Richard Glossip lived on concrete. First at the Oklahoma County jail, after his arrest for murder in 1997, and then in the underground bunker housing death row inmates at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. As with the rest of his surroundings, he eventually got used to the hard, unforgiving floors, although recently he’d developed painful swelling in his legs.

US | Federal judge upholds constitutionality of nitrogen gas executions

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday ruled that execution by nitrogen gas does not violate the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment, rejecting an Alabama inmate’s claim that it causes excessive suffering. The ruling came after the first bench trial in the country to examine the constitutionality of the execution method that has now been used to put eight people to death, seven in Alabama and one in Louisiana. The ruling clears the way for Alabama and other states to continue with the method and is a setback for critics who hoped a fuller examination of Alabama’s protocol would halt its use.

New Mississippi billboard warns criminals: ‘Firing squad is legal’

DESOTO COUNTY, Miss. (WREG) — A billboard standing on Interstate 55 southbound as you cross the Tennessee state line and enter Mississippi from Memphis is sending a grim message to those coming into the state. DeSoto County District Attorney Matthew Barton recently announced the new billboard campaign, which features the sign reading, “WELCOME TO MISSISSIPPI. WHERE THE FIRING SQUAD IS LEGAL. THINK TWICE.” It references Mississippi’s law permitting execution by firing squad under certain circumstances for inmates sentenced to death. Barton says this campaign is aimed at deterring violent crime and sends a direct message to criminals entering Mississippi.

20 Minutes to Death: Witness to the Last Execution in France

The following document is a firsthand account of the final moments of Hamida Djandoubi, a convicted murderer executed by guillotine at Marseille’s Baumettes Prison on September 10, 1977. The record—dated September 9—was written by Monique Mabelly, a judge appointed by the state to witness the proceedings. Djandoubi’s execution would ultimately be the last carried out in France before capital punishment was abolished in 1981. At the time, President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing—who had publicly voiced his "deep aversion to the death penalty" prior to his election—rejected Djandoubi’s appeal for clemency. Choosing to let "justice take its course," the President allowed the execution to proceed, just as he had in two previous cases during his term: Christian Ranucci , executed on July 28, 1976 and Jérôme Carrein , executed on June 23, 1977. Hamida Djandoubi , a Tunisian national, was sentenced to death for killing his former lover, Elisabeth Bousquet. He was execu...

Tennessee | Questions Raised About the Doctor Who Was Overseeing Tony Caruthers’ Execution

Mark Fowler, according to a deposition, had not placed a central line in a patient for more than a decade when he attempted to put one in Carruthers Around 11 a.m. Thursday morning in the execution chamber at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, a medical doctor stepped in and attempted to place a central IV line in Tony Carruthers’ chest. By that point, the prison staff had spent some 30 minutes trying unsuccessfully to insert a backup IV line that would allow them to proceed with the lethal injection. According to Carruthers’ attorney Maria DeLiberato, who was in the room, after asking a staff member to attempt inserting a line through Carruthers’ jugular vein, the doctor moved on to the central line, which is identified as the last resort in Tennessee’s lethal injection protocol .

Florida | 2-time Jacksonville baby abuser is set for execution

Thirty years ago while on probation for fracturing an infant’s skull, Andrew Lukehart inflicted at least five blows to the head of another baby, then concocted a story that she was abducted before eventually leading authorities to her body in a swamp area. At 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 2, the 53-year-old from Jacksonville is set to become Florida’s eighth man on death row to be executed in 2026. He will become the 36th under Gov. Ron DeSantis after a record 19 inmates were executed by the state in 2025, including another from Duval County: Michael Bell.

Can the state execute a man who already survived? | Opinion

A second execution would be an unimaginable nightmare for Tony Carruthers and a moral horror for the rest of us. Tony Carruthers is not supposed to be alive . On May 21, Tennessee set out to execute him. It failed. Carruthers survived. He is not the first person to survive an execution in the United States, and he won’t be the last. For Carruthers, the question is: Now what? Will the state seek to arrange a second execution?

Iran executes Esma Zarei in Ardabil Prison after she gave birth in custody

Hengaw – Saturday, May 23, 2026. Iranian authorities have executed Esma Zarei, a 28-year-old Turkish woman from Parsabad in Ardabil Province, who had previously been sentenced to death on charges of “premeditated murder” in connection with the killing of her husband. She is the sixth woman executed in Iran since the beginning of 2026. According to information received by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Zarei was executed at dawn on Wednesday, May 20, 2026, in Ardabil Central Prison. She had been sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) after being convicted of her husband’s murder.

Florida | The Daily Routine of Death Row Inmates

The breakfast carts rattle through the concrete prison at about 5:30 am and as they approach Death Row the first sounds of morning repeat the last sounds of night - remote controlled locks clanging open and clunking closed, electric gates whirring, heavy metal doors crashing shut, voices wailing, klaxons blaring. A maximum security prison has no soft or delicate sounds. At the end of each corridor of death row cells a guard opens a heavy door of steel bars and a prison trusty pushes a breakfast cart inside. The door closes behind him and when it locks a second door opens and admits the trusty to the wing. He steers his cart along the wing stopping at each cell to pass a tray of powdered eggs and lukewarm grits through a small slot on the bars.

Iraq: German schoolgirl, 17, turned jihadi bride escapes death penalty and is jailed for six years

GERMAN Jihadi bride Linda Wenzel has been jailed for six years in Baghdad for her role as an Islamic enforcer with terror group ISIS. Wenzel, 17, who last year sobbed on TV “I have ruined my life,” could have faced the death penalty. German media reported that a German embassy representative in Iraq was in court yesterday to witness her sentencing. She received five years for joining IS and one year for entering Iraq illegally. Wenzel was found in the rubble of IS stronghold Mosul back in the summer of 2017. Charges were laid against her and three other German women captured with her. Schoolgirl Wenzel fled to Turkey then into Syria last year from her hometown of Pulsnitz in eastern Germany after being groomed online by a Chechen IS fighter who she married. He was killed in the savage fighting for Mosul while she was employed by the terror group enforcing the strict Islamic dress code on women in the city. She burst into tears after her capture and said s...

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog