TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) _ A drug dealer is scheduled to be executed for the murder of a Florida Highway Patrol trooper 21 years ago got a late stay.
Paul Augustus Howell is set to die Tuesday for the Feb. 1, 1992, death of Trooper Jimmy Fulford, who was killed when a booby-trapped microwave oven exploded.
Howell had planned to kill two women with the bomb, but Fulford opened the package containing the microwave during a traffic stop.
It blew up.
The 47-year-old Howell was scheduled to die at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Florida State Prison near Starke but his lawyers got a late stay from state and federal courts.