30 October 2024 :
October 28, 2024 - Florida. Joseph Ables, 75, White, sentenced to death
A jury has unanimously recommended the death penalty for Joseph Ables, who was convicted last week for shooting deputy William J. Gentry Jr. in May 2018. Deputy Gentry, 40, was responding to a dispute in Lake Placid when a woman called about someone shooting her cat dead. When the deputy approached then-69-year-old Ables, he shot him multiple times, killing him. Ables, a Marine, claimed he was a Vietnam veteran with PTSD. He told the courtroom in closing arguments last week that he didn’t realize Gentry was a deputy and had acted in self-defense. Ables had been arrested on May 6, 2018.
The final sentence from the judge will be sometime in the future once pre-sentence court hearings are completed.
