Florida’s highest court rejects killer’s appeal

The Florida Supreme Court has rejected the appeal of a Nassau County man who is on death row for murdering his parents.

Gregory David Larkin, 40, was convicted of murdering Richard and Myra Larkin and sentenced to death by Circuit JudgeRobert Foster.

Larkin defended himself at the trial but didn’t make any arguments on his own behalf when the state sought to execute him.

Assistant Public Defender Brian Morrissey, who was appointed as standby counsel, called Larkin’s decision to defend himself “state-assisted suicide.”

Morrissey requested to have Larkin’s mental health evaluated after he was convicted but before he was sentenced to death, saying he believed Larkin was delusional.

One doctor found him incompetent, while two others found him competent, and Foster allowed Larkin to continue representing himself.

On appeal, lawyers argued that Larkin’s conviction and death sentence

Gregory David Larkin was convicted of murdering his parents — Richard and Myra Larkin — and was sentenced to death.

should be overturned because of doubts that he was competent enough to represent himself.

But the Supreme Court unanimously rejected that argument because two doctors found him competent, and Foster disagreed with Morissey’s contention that Larkin had demonstrated delusional behavior during his criminal trial.

During oral arguments in September, justices expressed reservations about granting Larkin a new trial.

Justice Fred Lewis questioned the timing of the competency argument because Morrissey didn’t raise it until after Larkin had been convicted, and Justice Barbara Pariente said it was hard to believe that Larkin’s behavior at trial showed signs of mental illness when the judge in the case didn’t notice anything.

“Our obvious concern is that this is posturing to get a new trial,” Pariente said.

Prosecutors said Larkin sneaked up on his 73-year-old mother from behind while she was watching a movie in the living room of her Amelia Island home and beat her to death with a baseball bat.

He then found his 75-year-old father working on a computer in the garage and attacked him.

His father fought back, but Larkin eventually killed him by dropping a concrete garden statue on his head.

He was mad at their decision to sell a dive-andkayak business they owned in Costa Rica. Larkin had been working at the business.

He claimed to be in Mexico for a job interview when the killings occurred, but police determined that DNA from his parents matched traces of blood on some of the clothes found in his bedroom.

The jury that convicted him unanimously recommended death.