Zane Michael Floyd (born September 20, 1975)
is an American convicted mass murderer who at the age of 23 killed four people and injured a fifth in a supermarket in
Las Vegas
Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...
,
Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...
, on June 3, 1999. After being convicted of the murders, Floyd was sentenced to
death
Death is the end of life; the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. Death eventually and inevitably occurs in all organisms. The remains of a former organism normally begin to decompose sh ...
by a
Clark County Clark County may refer to:
*Clark County, Arkansas
*Clark County, Idaho
*Clark County, Illinois
*Clark County, Indiana
*Clark County, Kansas
*Clark County, Kentucky
*Clark County, Missouri
*Clark County, Nevada, containing Las Vegas
*Clark County, ...
jury.
Background
After attending high school, Floyd enlisted in the
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expeditionar ...
in 1994. He was honorably discharged in July 1998 with the rank of
lance corporal
Lance corporal is a military rank, used by many English-speaking armed forces worldwide, and also by some police forces and other uniformed organisations. It is below the rank of corporal.
Etymology
The presumed origin of the rank of lance corp ...
due to heavy drinking and was told he was not welcome to re-enlist. Before the shooting that led to his conviction, he worked as a security guard and part-time as a bouncer at a bar.
Days before the crime, he was fired from his security officer job and evicted from his apartment, moving back into a room at his parents' home. According to testimony during the penalty phase of his trial, Floyd may have suffered from fetal alcohol syndrome.
The massacre
On June 3, 1999, at approximately 5:15 in the morning, Floyd entered an
Albertson's
Albertsons Companies, Inc. is an American grocery company founded and headquartered in Boise, Idaho.
With 2,253 stores as of the third quarter of fiscal year 2020 and 270,000 employees as of fiscal year 2019, the company is the second-large ...
supermarket
A supermarket is a self-service Retail#Types of outlets, shop offering a wide variety of food, Drink, beverages and Household goods, household products, organized into sections. Strictly speaking, a supermarket is larger and has a wider selecti ...
located at 3864 West Sahara Avenue in Las Vegas and opened fire on random individuals in the store using a
shotgun
A shotgun (also known as a scattergun, peppergun, or historically as a fowling piece) is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed to shoot a straight-walled cartridge (firearms), cartridge known as a shotshell, which discharges numerous small ...
.
[''Floyd v. State'', 118 Nev. 156, 42 P.3d 249, at 253 (2002) (per curiam).]
Floyd first shot 40-year-old worker Thomas Darnell in the back, killing him.
Immediately after, he also shot and killed 41-year-old store manager Carlos Chuck Leos in the face and neck, and 31-year-old worker Dennis Troy Sargent in the chest.
Floyd then encountered 23-year-old worker Zachary T. Emenegger, who fled from Floyd when he saw the gunman pointing the shotgun in his direction,
beginning a sequence of near-death encounters with the gunman. Diving under a produce table, Emenegger avoided Floyd's gunfire for 15 seconds but ultimately was shot in the upper-chest region resulting in a punctured lung. Floyd then saw Emenegger move and shot him again. Emenegger then played dead. Believing his victim was dead, Floyd whispered, "Yeah, you're dead," and continued searching the store. Eventually, Floyd found 60-year-old clerk Lucille Alice Tarantino in the rear of the store and fatally shot her in the head at point-blank range. After his later arrest, Floyd stated: “I looked right at her, and I just, I just, just blew her head apart.” Thinking that Floyd was gone, Emenegger attempted to get up and go for help but collapsed back onto the ground. Floyd initially walked past Emenegger's motionless body and started to leave the store but abruptly stopped and doubled back to ensure Emenegger was dead. After watching for a moment, Floyd finally fled from the store. In total, Floyd had shot seven shotgun shells in seven minutes,
killing
Killing, Killings, or The Killing may refer to:
Types of killing
*-cide, a suffix that refers to types of killing (see List of types of killing), such as:
** Homicide, one human killing another
*** Murder, unlawful killing of another human without ...
four people and critically wounding Emenegger.
It later emerged that shortly before the shooting, Floyd had telephoned an
escort agency
An escort agency is a company that provides escorts for clients, usually for sexual services. The agency typically arranges a meeting between one of its escorts and the client at the customer's house or hotel room (outcall), or at the escort' ...
and called for the services of a young woman at his apartment.
When a 20-year-old woman arrived at the apartment at around 3:30 am, Floyd, threatened her with a shotgun and raped her. He eventually told her she had 60 seconds to run or be killed. After she escaped, Floyd took his shotgun and began walking to the supermarket at around 5:00 am.
Arrest
Floyd left through the supermarket's north doors to meet the
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (also known as the LVMPD or Metro) is a combined city and county law enforcement agency for the Las Vegas, City of Las Vegas and Clark County, Nevada, United States. It is headed by the Sheriff of Clar ...
, who had been called by an employee who had been upstairs and believed there was a robbery in progress. Without exchanging any gunfire, Floyd ran back into the supermarket and left through the west doors, hoping to avoid the police outside. When he noticed officers surrounding the complex, Floyd threatened to kill himself, pointing the shotgun to his head. After an eight-minute standoff, police convinced him to surrender. They immediately arrested him on charges of murder.
When questioned by police, Floyd confessed to the killings and said he committed the murders since he had always wanted to know what it was like to kill someone, stating: "I've always just wanted to know, call me crazy, psychotic, whatever, I've just always wanted to know what it's like to shoot someone ... ever since I was a little kid, I've always, you know, every since I saw my first, my first war movies, I've always just wanted to go to war and kill people,".
Trial
Jurors at Floyd's trial heard his confession and watched the video from store surveillance cameras. Floyd did not testify at the three-day trial, where Emenegger testified against him.
On July 13, 2000, after deliberating for little more than two hours,
the jury convicted him of four counts of first degree murder with use of a deadly weapon, four counts of sexual assault with use of a deadly weapon, and single counts of burglary while in possession of a firearm, attempted murder with use of a deadly weapon, and first-degree kidnapping with use of a deadly weapon.
[See ''Floyd v. State'', 118 Nev. 156, 42 P.3d 249, at 254 (2002) (per curiam).]
The jury rendered a sentence of death for each count of murder, finding that the aggravating circumstances outweighed any mitigating circumstances. For the other seven offenses, the district court imposed the maximum terms in prison, to be served consecutively. The court also ordered restitution totaling more than 180,000 dollars.
Appeals
Floyd filed a direct appeal to the
Nevada Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of Nevada is the highest state court of the U.S. state of Nevada, and the head of the Nevada Judiciary. The main constitutional function of the Supreme Court is to review appeals made directly from the decisions of the distri ...
, which affirmed his conviction and sentence in March 2002. In 2003, the
U.S. Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...
denied
certiorari
In law, ''certiorari'' is a court process to seek judicial review of a decision of a lower court or government agency. ''Certiorari'' comes from the name of a prerogative writ in England, issued by a superior court to direct that the recor ...
. Floyd subsequently filed a petition for a
writ of habeas corpus
''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a legal procedure invoking the jurisdiction of a court to review the unlawful detention or imprisonment of an individual, and request the individual's custodian (usually a prison official) to ...
in the state district court. The petition was denied, and the Nevada Supreme Court affirmed the denial on appeal.
Floyd then pursued a ''
pro se
''Pro se'' legal representation ( or ) means to argue on one's own behalf in a legal proceeding, as a defendant or plaintiff in civil cases, or a defendant in criminal cases, rather than have representation from counsel or an attorney.
The ...
'' habeas petition in the
U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada
The United States District Court for the District of Nevada (in case citations, D. Nev.) is the federal district court whose jurisdiction is the state of Nevada. The court has locations in Las Vegas and Reno.
Cases from the District of Nevada ...
, challenging his conviction and death sentence. The court stayed federal proceedings pending exhaustion of certain claims in state court, prompting Floyd to file a second state habeas petition in state district court. The state district court denied relief in April 2009. The Nevada Supreme Court affirmed that Floyd's second petition was untimely and successive. The U.S. District Court lifted the stay in March 2011. Floyd filed a second amended petition for a writ of habeas corpus. In December 2014, the U.S. District Court partially granted the State's motion to dismiss and denied Floyd's remaining claims on the merits; however, it
allowed an appeal as to several issues.
Consequently, Floyd appealed the
United States Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in case citations, 9th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court of appeals that has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts for the following federal judicial districts:
* District ...
. In October 2019, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court's denial of Floyd's habeas petition. In July 2020, he filed a petition for certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court, challenging the Ninth Circuit's application of the
''Strickland'' standard. That petition was denied in November 2020.
Scheduled execution
Starting in April 2021, the State of Nevada sought an "order of execution" for Floyd, based on Floyd having exhausted his legal remedies. A state court judge granted the order with the execution scheduled to take place on July 26, 2021, via lethal injection. However, a federal judge later issued a preliminary injunction and stayed the execution to give Floyd more time to "adequately investigate and review
evada'snew execution protocol", which "would involve multiple variations of an untested sequence of drugs".
Meanwhile, Floyd initiated various new petitions to the Nevada Supreme Court, one alleging separation-of-powers violations by the District Attorney's office, another one challenging the authority and jurisdiction of the department of the state district court to issue an order of execution, and another one challenging the specific prison in which he was supposed to be executed. The court dismissed all three.
Floyd's execution was once again stayed by U.S. District Court Judge Richard Boulware II on February 14, 2022, after Nevada chief deputy Attorney General Randall Gilmer told the court that Clark County prosecutors could not satisfy the legal requirements to obtain a new death warrant to carry out the execution by February 28, when the state's current supply of ketamine, one of four drugs used in lethal injections in Nevada, expires.
As of July 2023, at least two additional petitions by Floyd are pending before the Nevada Supreme Court.
Floyd would have been the first person to be executed in Nevada in over fifteen years, since
Daryl Mack
Daryl Linnie Mack (August 28, 1958 – April 26, 2006) was an American man who was executed in Nevada for murder. Mack was sentenced to death for the October 1988 rape and murder of Betty Jane May in Reno. The murder went unsolved for twelve years ...
was executed in 2006.
See also
*
List of homicides in Nevada
This is a list of homicides in Nevada. It includes notable homicides committed in the U.S. state of Nevada that have a Wikipedia article on the killing, the killer, or the victim.
The list is divided into three sub-lists as follows:
1. Multipl ...
*
List of death row inmates in the United States
, there were 2,067 death row inmates in the United States, including 46 women. The number of death row inmates changes frequently with new convictions, appellate decisions overturning conviction or sentence alone, commutations, or deaths (throug ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Floyd, Zane
1975 births
1999 mass shootings in the United States
1999 murders in the United States
June 1999 crimes in the United States
American mass murderers
American people convicted of murder
American people convicted of rape
American prisoners sentenced to death
Attacks on supermarkets in the United States
Criminals from Nevada
Living people
People with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder
People convicted of murder by Nevada
Prisoners sentenced to death by Nevada
United States Marines