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TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — A man nicknamed the “Deacon of Death” was executed Tuesday evening, nearly 30 years after committing two murders in Florida.

Samuel Smithers, 72, was a church deacon when he murdered Christie Cowan and Denise Roach in 1996.

Investigators said he paid both women for sex, then killed them and dumped their bodies in a pond in Plant City.

Smithers’ time of death was 6:15 p.m. after a lethal injection. When asked if he had anything left to say, he said “no sir,” according to Alex Lanfranconi, spokesman for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

At the time of the murders, Craig Latimer, who is now the Hillsborough County Supervisor of

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