DeSantis signs death warrant for Ricardo Gonzalez, sentenced to death in an officer’s killing during a 1992 North Miami bank robbery

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant on Friday, Oct. 30, for Ricardo Gonzalez, 56, whose execution is set for 6 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 1, at Florida State Prison, according to the governor’s letter to the warden, an image of which was published by the newsletter Tracking Florida’s Death Penalty.¹ The News Service of Florida also reported the Friday signing, the Dec. 1 date and his age.²

The count this year

The News Service reported that Gonzalez would be the 21st person the state has executed this year.² That figure includes two executions not yet carried out: The Death Penalty Information Center lists Jesse Guardado for Nov. 5 and Thomas Mitchell Overton for Nov. 19. It had not added Gonzalez Monday.³ The Department of Corrections’ list, opened Monday, numbers its 2026 entries from No. 126, on Feb. 10, through No. 143, William Reaves, on Oct. 20.⁴ The newsletter called this DeSantis’ 22nd death warrant this year.¹ The department’s roster, dated Nov. 2, lists Gonzalez among 235 people on death row.⁵

The case as the courts describe it

Florida Supreme Court opinions say four gunmen robbed the Kislak National Bank in North Miami on Jan. 3, 1992, and that police officer Steven Bauer was shot and killed during the robbery. Gonzalez was tried in May 1994 with Leonardo Franqui and Pablo San Martin.⁶

The opinions say police stopped Gonzalez on Jan. 18, 1992, and that he confessed, saying Franqui fired first and several times while he fired once, aiming low, and believed he had hit Bauer only in the leg. The court said the fatal bullet was found to have come from the gun Gonzalez carried.⁶

The sentence and the appeals

• 1997: A jury had recommended death 7-5. The Florida Supreme Court upheld the convictions but threw out the sentence, saying the wrongful use of Franqui’s confession, which cast Gonzalez as the aggressor, could not be called harmless as to punishment.⁶
• 2001: After a new penalty phase in August 1998, a jury recommended death 8-4 and the judge reimposed it.⁷ The court upheld the sentence May 10, 2001.⁸
• 2008: The court on July 3 affirmed the denial of postconviction relief.⁷
• 2011: The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Jan. 3 affirmed the denial of his federal habeas petition.⁹
• 2018: The state court on March 23 held that Hurst v. Florida does not apply retroactively to him because his sentence became final in 2001.¹⁰

Bauer’s department

The News Service calls Bauer a North Miami Beach officer.² The Miami Herald¹¹ and WFLA¹² call him a North Miami officer. The opinions reviewed name no department. The 1997 opinion calls him a police officer and, in its penalty discussion, a security guard.⁶ A summary from the Florida Commission on Capital Cases says a security guard was killed.¹³ WFLA reported he was working an off-duty job at the bank and spells his name Stephen; the courts use Steven.¹² The 2001 opinion says the sentencing judge found as an aggravating factor that the victim was a law enforcement officer “engaged in the performance of his official duties.”⁸

What the records do not show

• The death warrant itself was not available. The time and date come from an image of the governor’s letter on a newsletter’s site, not a copy obtained from the state.
• The Florida Supreme Court’s online docket could not be opened.
• The records reviewed do not name Bauer’s department and do not address WFLA’s report of an off-duty job.
• The News Service dates the sentencing order Sept. 19, 1998;² the commission’s summary, last updated in 2009, gives Sept. 18.¹³ The order was not opened.
• The count of 22 warrants comes only from the newsletter.
• No filings made since the warrant was signed were reviewed.