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Danny Rolling

Also known as: Gainesville Ripper

Active

1990–1990

Region

Gainesville, Florida, USA

State

FL

Kind

Serial

Status

Executed

Victims

5

Over a few days in late August 1990, at the start of the fall semester, Danny Rolling killed five college students in their off-campus apartments in Gainesville: Sonja Larson, Christina Powell, Christa Hoyt, Tracy Paules and Manuel Taboada. He was arrested in Ocala in September 1990 for an unrelated supermarket robbery and later linked to the murders by evidence including DNA. He pleaded guilty as his trial opened in February 1994, was sentenced to death, and was executed at Florida State Prison on October 25, 2006. Shortly before his execution he also confessed to the 1989 killings of three members of a family in Shreveport, Louisiana, for which he was never tried.

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Victims

We remember the people whose lives were taken.

• Sonja Larson, 18 · August 24, 1990

  A University of Florida freshman.

• Christina Powell, 17 · August 24, 1990

  A University of Florida freshman from Jacksonville, Larson's roommate.

• Christa Hoyt, 18 · August 25, 1990

  A Santa Fe Community College student who worked for the sheriff's office.

• Tracy Paules, 23 · August 27, 1990

  A University of Florida student from St. Johns County.

• Manuel Taboada, 23 · August 27, 1990

  A University of Florida student, Paules's roommate.

Timeline of locations

1. 1990
   34th Street Wall memorial (Other)

   The five students' names were painted on Gainesville's 34th Street Wall in 1990, and the panel has been kept up as a memorial since.

2. August 24, 1990
   Larson and Powell's apartment, south of UF (Crime scene, approximate area)

   The two freshman roommates were killed in the apartment they shared near the south side of the University of Florida campus. Mapped at city precision.

3. August 25, 1990
   Hoyt's apartment, Gainesville (Crime scene, approximate area)

   Christa Hoyt was killed in her apartment the next day; she was found just after midnight. Mapped at city precision.

4. August 27, 1990
   Gatorwood Apartments, near UF (Crime scene, approximate area)

   Tracy Paules and Manuel Taboada were killed in the apartment they shared at the Gatorwood Apartments near campus; they were found on August 28. Mapped at city precision.

5. September 7, 1990
   Arrest after a supermarket robbery, Ocala (Arrest, approximate area)

   Rolling was arrested after a botched robbery of a Winn-Dixie supermarket in Ocala. While he was held in the Marion County jail, investigators linked him to the Gainesville murders.

6. February 15, 1994
   Alachua County court, Gainesville (Court / trial, approximate area)

   Rolling pleaded guilty as his trial began on February 15, 1994. After a penalty phase, Judge Stan R. Morris sentenced him to death on April 20, 1994.

7. October 25, 2006
   Florida State Prison (execution) (Prison)

   After about 12 years on death row, Rolling was executed by lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke on October 25, 2006.

Watch, listen, read

Active at the same time, nearby

• Aileen Wuornos · both active in 1990, 55 km apart · map both

A coincidence of time and place, not a connection. All overlaps

Sources

• Danny Rolling (Wikipedia)
• Memories of terror return to Fla. college town (AP via NBC News, 2006)
• Gainesville honors students killed 25 years ago (WJXT News4Jax)
• State executes notorious serial killer (AP via Youngstown Vindicator)

Each location also lists its own sources in the data file.