On February 18, 1994, a brother-sister pair were attacked by two men at a camping site in Ocala National Forest, Florida, United States. The 21-year-old sister, Pam Edwards, was raped twice by the attackers, but the 18-year-old brother, John Timothy Edwards (John T. Edwards), was murdered by the same two perpetrators of the attack. During the same month, the two killers, William Christopher Paul and Loran Kenstley Cole, were arrested and charged with kidnapping, robbery, rape and murder.[1]
Out of the two, Paul pleaded guilty to the murder, kidnapping and robbery charges, a decision that ultimately spared him the death sentence, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment. On the other hand, Cole, who was deemed to have played a bigger role in the murder, was sentenced to death after a state jury found him guilty of murdering Edwards and other charges that include the rape of Edwards's sister.[2] Cole was executed by lethal injection on August 29, 2024, at the Florida State Prison in Raiford, Florida.[3]
Murder
On February 18, 1994, a brother-sister pair, John Timothy Edwards and his sister Pam Edwards, were attacked at a camping site in Ocala National Forest, Florida.
John Edwards, a Florida State University student, and his sister Pam, a Eckerd College student, met in Ocala for a camping trip. John had driven from Tallahassee while Pam arrived from St. Petersburg at their meet-up point, and they both headed to Ocala National Forest. While they were setting up camp in the Hopkins Prairie, the Edwards siblings met a man who stopped by and lent a helping hand to get the siblings settled. The man, who introduced himself as "Kevin", befriended the siblings and he left the campsite briefly before he returned with another man while the siblings were eating dinner, and introduced his companion as "his brother". Both men sat with the Edwards siblings around the campfire until 10.45pm, when the four decided to leave and take a walk to the pond to photograph alligators. The four walked for a while but never found the pond.[4]
At one point during the walk itself, Kevin jumped Pam, handcuffed her and threw her onto the ground. John retaliated but he was overpowered by both men, and he was thrown onto the ground next to Pam. Kevin's brother took Pam up the path while Kevin stayed back with 18-year-old John Edwards, slashing his throat and battering him severely on the head. Edwards died that night as a result of the neck wound and skull fractures he sustained.[5]
Meanwhile, Pam was taken back to the campsite by her captors, and Kevin threatened to kill her if she did not have sexual intercourse with him, and Pam was raped thereafter by Kevin. The next day, Pam was raped a second time before she was gagged and tied to a tree by both Kevin and his brother, before they took off in one of the sibling's cars. They also stole the siblings' jewelry, money, checkbooks and credit cards.[6]
Two days after the attack, Pam was able to free herself by chewing through the rope, and tried to search for her brother but failed to find him. She then flagged down a motorist, who helped her to make a police report. Later on that same day, the body of John Edwards was found by law enforcement officers.[7] At the time of his death, Edwards was a chemical engineering major in his first year of college and his parents, who were in the military, were based in Okinawa, Japan. Edwards's friends and fraternity brothers from Phi Gamma Delta were shocked to hear about his murder as they remembered him as a good-looking, fun person who loved athletics and aspired to be a chemical engineer.[8] Edwards's father Timothy Edwards also described his son as the best child he could get in the world, and the Edwards family also set up a trust fund in the name of Edwards, and hoped to set up a scholarship with the money from the fund.[9]
Investigations and arrest
After the police report was lodged, the police released composite sketches of the two killers and appealed for witnesses to assist in investigations. After receiving a tip-off from a man who saw two men resembling the police sketches of the suspects in the Ocala area, the police were able to arrest the two murderers at Tuscawilla Park.[10] Kevin's real name was Loran Kenstley Cole, a 27-year-old Iowa-born man who resided in the Florida city of Orlando, while Kevin's accomplice was 20-year-old William Christopher Paul, a resident of Knoxville, Tennessee who was actually not Cole's brother and therefore unrelated to him by blood. Furthermore, apart from the motive of robbery, police uncovered that Cole was previously charged and convicted between 1985 and 1991 for various offences, and he was wanted in Cincinnati on a 1990 counterfeiting charge, while Paul had no previous antecedents.[11] Marion Sheriff Ken Ergle condemned the crime in a media statement pertaining to the men's capture, stating that they were "damnable animals" for committing such horrific crimes.[12]
Both Cole and Paul were charged with one count of murder, two counts of kidnapping, two counts of armed robbery and two counts of rape. If found guilty of the most serious charge of first-degree murder, both Cole and Paul would either be sentenced to death or life imprisonment under Florida law.[13][14]
Both Paul and Cole were detained without bail at Marion County Jail in Ocala. The two men allegedly tried to escape from judicial custody in May 1994, and were seen digging at mortar around the cinder blocks in their cells, but they denied doing so.[15]
William Christopher Paul (William C. Paul), who was born on April 19, 1973, came from Knoxville, Tennessee. Paul, who was an only child, reportedly loved camping and would collect wildflowers for his mother.
When Paul attended Gibbs High School, he was originally a good student, but when he was in seventh grade, Paul became addicted to marijuana, and although he stopped doing so at one point after he met his first girlfriend, he fell back into his old habits after they broke up. Paul dropped out of school at 11th grade as a result of his drug addiction. Paul went to work at a nursing home, where his mother also worked, but he spent 18 months on this job and left after he "got into trouble", according to his mother, who believed her son's drug addiction was the main cause of his problems and legal troubles. Paul went to Georgia after this, although he returned to Florida and would commit the murder sometime after.[16]
Plea of guilt and sentencing
On June 30, 1995, Paul pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree of murder, two armed robbery charges and two kidnapping charges. With his plea of guilt and correspondence between the prosecution and defence, the death penalty was taken off the table in Paul's case and he was given five concurrent life sentences for all the charges he was convicted of. The family of Edwards accepted this plea deal, since it prevented his sister from having to testify in two separate trials about how she was raped. The prosecution also agreed that Paul did not directly kill Edwards despite being an accomplice to murder.[17][18]
During his sentencing, it was decreed that Paul would not be eligible for parole until he completed a minimum period of 25 years behind bars, based on the plea bargain.[19] As of 2024, Paul remains incarcerated at Cross City Correctional Institution.[20]
Loran Kenstley Cole (Loran K. Cole), alias Laran Cole, K. C. Cole and David Bryant, was born in Iowa on November 11, 1966. Cole reportedly had an unhappy childhood full of both physical and emotional abuse, and his parents Don and Ann Cole were reportedly addicted to alcohol and substance abuse, neglecting him and his sisters. According to Cole's two step-sisters Ann Marie Powers and Andrea Jane Headlee, Cole was sent to foster care more than once in his childhood and his mother had gone to prison, and that Cole's father would get violent whenever he became intoxicated with alcohol and would have physical altercations with his wife during arguments.[21] At the time of his arrest, Cole was divorced with one son, who resided in Ohio.[22]
In 1984, when Cole was 17, he went to live at the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys, where he reportedly underwent severe physical and sexual abuse by the staff during his six-month stay. Regularly, Cole was beaten at least twice a week and on one occasion, he was raped by a guard, and on another occasion, Cole had both of his legs broken by staff after trying to escape the school.[23]
Prior to the murder of John Edwards in 1994, Cole had a criminal record of offences from 1985 to 1991 and arrested for a total of 13 times. Among these antecedents, Cole was involved in three cases of theft and burglary in 1986 and jailed for these above offences. Cole was given a 5+1⁄2-year jail term for grand theft in 1991 but he was released on parole after serving only one year out of his sentence, partly due to prison overcrowding and Cole being assessed for having a low risk of re-offending.[24][25][26] This decision was controversial given the violent nature of the murder, which Cole committed just three years after his release and it was realized that without Cole's early release, the murder of Edwards would never have happened in the first place.[27] Since then, there were public calls against releasing dangerous offenders too early before they complete their sentences.[28][29]
Trial and sentencing
On September 18, 1995, a jury selection commenced before the trial of Loran Cole, which was scheduled to begin in the following week. A motion from Cole's lawyer Don Gleason to hold separate trials for the murder charge and lesser charges of rape, abduction and robbery was denied.[30] Cole's trial began on September 26, 1995.[31] The prosecution had earlier confirmed they would be seeking the death penalty for Cole.[32]
During the trial, which was presided by a 12-member jury, the prosecution argued that both Cole and his accomplice William Paul had deliberately approached the Edwards siblings, planning to rob them under the pretext of befriending the siblings, before Cole used a wood and brass folding knife to slit the throat of John Edwards and later raped his sister. Edwards's sister, Pam Edwards, testified in court that she grew suspicious as she heard Paul and Cole using new names with each other and behaved differently on the trail from before at the campsite. She testified that she tried to leave by taking a different path before Cole grabbed her from behind and slammed her down the ground, and her brother was also down moments later after he hit Paul. Pam said she saw the men tying up her brother and while Paul was leading her away, she heard her brother grunting as though he was being assaulted, with Cole screaming why did Edwards hit his "brother" (referring to Paul). A serologist Karen Barnes testified that she found bloodstains on the knife, which matched Edwards's DNA, but Cole's lawyers attempted to argue that the knife was found on Paul when the arrest of both men was made, meaning that Cole did not slit the throat of Edwards.[33][34]
Mary Gamble, another prosecution witness who had a one-night stand with Cole and lived with him in the past, testified that Cole admitted to her about raping a woman and murdering a man, who was none other than Edwards. She recalled that Cole and Paul drove a car to her house, and while Cole claimed it belonged to his new boss, she found a receipt with Edwards's name on it inside the car, and subsequently put two and two together when she saw the murder of Edwards hitting the news. Gamble stated that in order to find out the truth, she visited Cole several times and after doing so, she learnt from Cole that he raped Edwards's sister and he also slit Edwards's throat, but he was uncertain on how Edwards died.[35]
On September 29, 1995, a 12-member jury found Cole guilty of all seven charges, mainly one count of murder, two counts of kidnapping, two counts of rape and two counts of armed robbery.[36][37] The day after Cole's conviction, the same jury unanimously recommended that Cole should be given the death penalty for the murder of John Edwards.[38][39]
On December 21, 1995, Circuit Judge William T. Swigert formally sentenced Cole to death for murdering Edwards. Cole was simultaneously sentenced to life in prison for the other offences he committed. Cole's defence counsel reportedly urged the judge to consider Cole's troubled childhood during sentencing, but Justice Swigert aligned with the stance of the prosecution, who all described Cole as a "cold and indifferent killer".[40][41]
Cole was one of the three convicted murderers from Marion County sent to death row by Justice Swigert during his time on the bench from 1974 to 2004. Justice Swigert died at the age of 77 in 2014.[42]
Loran Kenstley Cole's appeals
After the end of his trial, Loran Kenstley Cole appealed against his conviction and sentence all the way to the Florida Supreme Court, but the appeals were dismissed, and his death sentence was finalized in 1998.[43]
Cole was one of the four death row inmates (the others include serial killer Daniel Conahan) to lose their respective appeals in January 2003 when the state Supreme Court rejected their appeals.[44]
In late 2003, Cole filed an appeal for post-conviction DNA testing, claiming that the DNA evidence could show that he was not the only one who raped Edwards's sister and that he was not the real killer of the case but Paul, who was still serving a life term at that point. His counsel also argued that it was unsafe to uphold either the death sentence or murder conviction, as the evidence implicating Cole in the murder was circumstantial and there was undue reliance on the testimony of Edwards's sister, who was the sole survivor in this case, to determine the guilt of Cole, as there were risks of doing so given the rate of clarity and accuracy of her recollection and memories in this case. The prosecution, however, argued that regardless of the results, it was undisputed that Cole indeed raped Edwards's sister and argued that his murder conviction and death sentence were safe to affirm.[45] The lower courts, as well as the Supreme Court of Florida, dismissed the appeal of Cole in relation to the DNA testing matter, after they found that any post-conviction DNA testing granted would not have prove that Cole was not guilty of murder or rape, and as corroborated by his admission to rape.[46][47][48]
Since 2004, for more than a decade until 2018, Cole would go on filing motions to vacate his death sentence or writs of habeas corpus (unlawful detention), but his motions were all thrown out by the courts, which all rejected his reasons to avoid the death sentence.[49][50][51]
On July 29, 2024, 30 years and five months after he murdered John Edwards, 57-year-old Loran Kenstley Cole was scheduled to be put to death via lethal injection on August 29, 2024, after the Florida state governorRon DeSantis signed his death warrant.[53][54]
Cole was reportedly the first inmate from Florida with his execution date set in 2024 and would be the ninth person slated for execution during DeSantis's tenure as governor of Florida;[55] the last execution in Florida occurred on October 3, 2023, when 54-year-old Michael Duane Zack III was executed for murdering two women in 1996.[56][57] After the execution date was set, the Florida Supreme Court has issued an order to expedite all proceedings in the case.[58]
Final appeals
State
After Cole's death warrant was issued, his lawyers filed appeals with hopes of staving off his upcoming execution. They raised the fact that since his stay at the age of 17, Cole was a victim of abuse at the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys, a reform school for troubled youths, and Cole's traumatic experiences were not being raised during his trial as factors that would have spared him the death sentence and also enable the jury to duly consider before deciding on his sentence at an earlier stage. However, the prosecution argued that these claims were already considered during his previous appeals from the past few years and were hardly new, and they were not being accepted by the courts in each and every past hearing regarding this matter.[59]
On August 8, 2024, Marion County Circuit Judge Robert Hodges ruled that the arguments of Cole's lawyers should be rejected, since the evidence was not new and they were already being rejected in prior appeals before this stage. He additionally rejected that a new law compensating victims of abuse from the school should allow a fresh review of Cole's case.[60]
A follow-up appeal was submitted to the Florida Supreme Court.[61] Cole's lawyers argued before the Supreme Court that their client was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and his symptoms of involuntary movements would affect the placement of intravenous lines necessary in carrying out his death sentence, and it would lead to a "substantial risk of illness by injury and needless suffering". However, this argument was already raised in their previous appeal before Justice Hodges in the lower courts of Marion County, as the judge rejected this evidence as "untimely" and without merit because Cole chose to reveal it right after the signing of his death warrant despite having a long window of opportunity to raise it much earlier before this present stage, and it was mere speculation that he might suffer because of his involuntary body movements, in addition to his failure of showing "that medical personnel have previously had problems finding a vein in his arm or that he has previously suffered pain during the placement of an intravenous line".[62]
On August 23, 2024, the Florida Supreme Court unanimously rejected the appeal of Cole.[63][64]
Federal
On August 26, 2024, Cole appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to delay his execution, and it also centered on the same grounds of appeal he raised before the Florida Supreme Court.[65][66] Also, a group of death penalty opponents banded together to appeal to the governor to grant clemency to Cole based on the fact that he was a victim of abuse at the Dozier School and it shaped him into who he was today, and urged for mercy to take priority in this case.[67]
In response to Cole's petition to the U.S. Supreme Court, state lawyers representing Florida argued that Cole's execution should not be halted on the grounds of Parkinson's disease. Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody stated that Cole had known about his symptoms of Parkinson's disease for at least seven years and his petition was a tactical ploy to delay the death sentence, as he never raised such claims prior to the signing of his death warrant, and no hindrance had been made for him to pursue this in any appeal he should have made before the death warrant was finalized.[68][69] The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the appeal of Cole on the morning of August 29, 2024, hours before he was slated to be executed.[70][71]
Execution
On August 29, 2024, 57-year-old Loran Kenstley Cole was put to death via lethal injection at Florida State Prison.[72] John Edwards's family reportedly did not attend the execution of Cole. When asked if he wanted to make a final statement, Cole declined, stating his last words: "No, sir". Cole was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m., about 15 minutes after he was administered with the drugs.[73][74]
Cole reportedly ate a last meal of pizza, M&M's, ice cream and a soda before his death sentence was carried out. Both Cole's 36-year-old son and a female pen pal paid him a last visit prior to the execution. Cole's son described the execution of his father as a nightmare and he said that bidding good bye to his father, whom he barely knew throughout his life, was the hardest thing for him to do.[75][76] Another source revealed that during his son's last prison visit before he was put to death, Cole shared his final meal with his son and the pen pal.[77]
After the execution of Cole, the late John Edwards's parents Timothy and Victoria Edwards released a media statement, stating that the murder of their son back in 1994 was "horrendous" and "senseless" and it shattered the family. Edwards's parents did not agree with the possibility of reducing Cole's death sentence, expressing that Cole did not deserve mercy when he mercilessly killed their son and raped their daughter, who went on to become a "teacher, professor, wife and mother".[78][79] Before the execution of Cole, the friends of Edwards spoke up in the media, stating that they still remembered and missed Edwards, for he was a good friend with a kind soul. Many of them stated that the news of Cole's scheduled execution was a signal that the painful chapter of losing Edwards was coming to an end and the beginning of closure.[80]
Cole was the first and only death row prisoner from Florida, as well as the 13th out of the 25 convicts in the U.S. to be executed during the year of 2024.[81][82] Cole’s execution was the 106th execution in Florida since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.[83]
^"Arrest record shows Cole as felony offender". Ocala Star-Banner. February 22, 1994.
^"COLE, LORAN K". FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS. Retrieved August 11, 2024.
^"'It should never have happened'". Ocala Star-Banner. February 23, 1994.
^"More than 50,000 Floridians have signed a petition that would require prisoners serve at least 85 percent of their sentences". Gainesville Sun. February 27, 1995.
^"Citizens Take Safety Into Their Own Hands". The News. February 27, 1995.
^"Jury Selection Begins In Ocala Forest Murder Trial". Ocala Star-Banner. September 18, 1995.
