Reaves, 77, a former Gifford resident in Indian River County who’s been on death row for 38 years, is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Oct. 20 at 6 p.m. His execution will fulfill a sentence of death imposed for the 1986 fatal shooting of Indian River County Sheriff’s Cpl. Richard “Raz” Raczkoski outside a Zippy Mart store on State Road 60 west of Vero Beach.
Then 37, Reaves confessed to killing the 29-year-old Raczkoski around 3 a.m. on Sept. 23, 1986, during an armed scuffle outside the store, records show.
A Vietnam veteran who had a history of drug abuse, Reaves claimed the shooting happened after he’d spent the night smoking cocaine and his tussle with Raczkoski triggered a PTSD episode.
He later told police, “I panicked, I panicked . . . all I remember is I started shooting.”
Two trials, same outcome
Retired State Attorney Bruce Colton, who prosecuted Reaves during his first capital murder trial in 1987, still recalls being told to head to the Zippy Mart the night Raczkoski died.
“I remember being out there at the crime scene that next morning, vividly,” said Colton, who served as State Attorney from 1985 until he retired in 2021.
“I remember the heartbreak of having to meet with his parents and getting to know his parents and his brother during the whole process of that case going to trial,” he said.
Raczkoski’s death—the first Indian River County officer killed in the line of duty—was a “real blow” to his family, law enforcement, and local residents, Colton said.
“He was just a really nice guy. I mean, it's a shame for any law enforcement officer to get killed, but Raczkoski was really a good guy, and it really shook the community,” Colton recalled. “I was just happy we were able to get a conviction. We got a 12-0 recommendation for death, so it was a convincing case.”
After a jury in 1987 convicted Reaves of first-degree murder, he was sentenced to death in Sarasota County, where his trial was moved because of extensive publicity. But the Florida Supreme Court reversed the conviction because Colton, formerly with the Public Defender’s Office, had represented Reaves on an armed robbery charge in 1973.
Colton, though, never met Reaves during the 1970s, as his case with the Public Defender’s Office had been assigned to an intern attorney. That detail didn’t matter to the state’s high court, Colton said, because he had signed off on court documents filed on Reaves’ behalf.
“My name had to be the official attorney of record, even though I never met him,” said Colton, who’s opted not to attend the Oct. 20 execution.
Senior Indian River County Judge David Morgan, who in 1987 was a state prosecutor and helped Colton convict Reaves, said a new team of prosecutors secured a conviction during a second trial in 1992 held in Marion County.
That jury recommended death by a vote of 10 to 2, which a judge imposed, court filings show.
“It is justice delayed, but I don't believe it's justice denied,” Morgan said of Gov. Ron DeSantis signing Reaves’ death warrant Sept. 18.
“My interest in the case is solely to see the case through,” said Morgan, who also is not expected to be at Reaves’ execution.
Morgan prosecuted some of Indian River County’s most notorious murders, and he’s witnessed two state executions: serial killer David Alan Gore died by lethal injection in 2012 for the 1983 murder of Vero Beach resident Lynn Elliott, 17, and Billy Kearse was put to death in March for the 1991 murder of Fort Pierce Police Officer Danny Parrish.
“There were several of these cases that were on my plate back at that time as a prosecutor,” Morgan said. “I hope the Raczkoski family gets some closure … I knew Raz very well.”
The murder
Reaves had been out of prison five months after serving less than two years of a five-year sentence for selling cocaine and violating probation on robbery charges when he killed Raczkoski.
After a night of smoking cocaine, Reaves went to the Zippy Mart to call a cab, but when he didn’t connect, he dialed 911 but hung up before the call connected, according to court filings and trial testimony.
Raczkoski was dispatched to the store, and as the two spoke, a .38-caliber pistol slipped from Reaves’ waistband onto the ground. As Reaves attempted to retrieve the gun, the men struggled.
Reaves pushed Raczkoski’s knee and grabbed his throat. Reaves got the gun and declared he would not give it up. Raczkoski retreated as Reaves fired seven times, striking Raczkoski once in the arm and three times in the back.
He died at a hospital later that morning.
Reaves fled to the home of a friend, Eugene Hinton, and told him, “I think I shot an officer just now,” court records show.
Raczkoski begged Reaves not to shoot him, to which Reaves replied, "It's either me or you," Hinton told jurors at the 1987 trial.
Reaves escaped to a hotel in Melbourne, and the next morning he took a bus to Albany, Georgia, where he was apprehended.
He told police he killed Raczkoski to avoid being sent back to prison for possessing a firearm, a violation of his parole on a previous charge.
Raczkoski was posthumously awarded the Medal of Valor by the International Police Association.
He worked for the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office and the Vero Beach Police Department before joining the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office in 1983.
In 2010, the Florida Legislature renamed the portion of State Road 60 between 43rd Avenue and Interstate 95 the Richard Raczkoski Memorial Highway, the first Indian River County sheriff's deputy killed in the line of duty.
Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers, who plans to witness Reaves’ death, has said it’s “his duty as sheriff” to be present at the execution. The agency’s cold case coordinator Ed Glaser, who knew Raczkoski, is also expected to go, Flowers said.
“I believe that his brother Marc (Raczkoski) is going to attend. I think Marc is possibly taking his sons,” Flowers said. “We're reaching out to all these folks, trying to coordinate with the warden and the prison.”
Flowers said for decades Raczkoski was the agency’s only officer slain while on duty, until Nov. 21, 2025, when Sgt. Terri Sweeting-Mashkow, 47, was killed during an eviction that also resulted in the shooting death of locksmith David Long, 76.
“It was Nov. 21 that she was killed last year, and they're going to execute Reaves on Oct. 20. I’ve said before, but it helps us with closure in that case,” Flowers said. “I really feel like our agency is healing not just from Terri but from the death of Raczkoski, which none of our current employees experienced.”
His hope, Flowers said, is “this goes through on the 20th, and that we can really just have peace for Raz.”
Seeking a stay
On Oct. 14, Reaves lost his appeal before the Florida Supreme Court, which issued an order upholding a circuit judge's ruling on Oct. 2 that rejected his bid to stop the execution.
"Reaves has not demonstrated any basis for reversing the circuit court," the justices ruled, adding, "we also deny Reaves’ habeas petition."
A habeas petition is a civil lawsuit that questions the legality of a person's imprisonment.
"In light of these holdings, we decline to stay Reaves’ execution or grant his request for oral argument," the Oct. 14 order stated. "No motion for rehearing will be considered."
For more than 26 years, Reaves pursued post-conviction appeals in state and federal court, which concluded in 2018. DeSantis in 2023 denied his request for clemency, court records show.
Reaves’ attorneys, Brittney N. Lacy and Yiitsodirah Final, with the Capital Collateral Regional Counsel Office, had challenged his clemency proceeding and Florida’s lethal injection protocol—claims prosecutors in court papers rejected as “legally insufficient, procedurally barred, and meritless.”
“Reaves’s claims are insubstantial and unworthy of a stay of execution,” Senior Assistant Attorney General Leslie T. Campbell wrote in an Oct. 7 filing to the Florida Supreme Court.
What happens before, during Reaves' execution?
Executions by lethal injection are carried out in the execution chamber located at Florida State Prison in Raiford and involve a three-drug injection: A sedative, a paralytic, and a drug that stops the heart, according to the State Department of Corrections.
The executioner is a private citizen who is paid $200 and can remain anonymous.
Condemned inmates are typically moved to a holding cell near the death chamber on the day of their execution, where they are allowed final visits and a last meal. The food must be purchased locally and can't exceed $40.
Generally, witnesses from the victims’ families, news media, the state, and the condemned prisoner’s attorneys are escorted into viewing rooms shortly before the scheduled time. After prison officials read the death warrant and check for any last‑minute court orders, the lethal‑injection sequence begins, and a doctor pronounces death once the process is complete.
Afterward, state Department of Corrections officials will release the time of death and any last words Reaves may choose to give.
Source: tcpalm.com, Melissa E. Holsman, October 19, 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
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."
— Oscar Wilde
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