The only daughter of a couple brutally murdered during a robbery watched their killer as he was executed by lethal injection in Florida on Tuesday.
Irene Fisher was among the witnesses who watched as Victor Tony Jones, 64, died by lethal injection in Florida State Prison, 35 years after he murdered her parents in cold blood.
Jones murdered Jack and Dolly Nestor, who were 67 and 66, less than a week before Christmas in 1990, after the couple hired him at their shop in Miami, where Jack worked as a sculptor and Dolly as his secretary.
He first stabbed Dolly in the neck when she declined to pay him for a job he hadn’t finished, and then tracked down her husband, stabbing him in the heart. Moments before he was killed, Nestor managed to shoot Jones in the forehead.
‘After seeing what I saw tonight, I wish my parents had that opportunity to die so gracefully, close your eyes and just go,’ Fisher said after the execution.
‘They were violently killed. My father fought for 20 minutes with a stab wound in his heart, and my mother died instantly in the bathroom on a cold floor.’
Fisher attended the execution of her parents’ killer with her own two adult daughters and three other family members.
She said she had mixed emotions, as she had never watched anyone die before. But she said she was glad it was finally over and that justice had been served.
Fisher had earlier told Local News 10 that she forgives her parents’ killer, noting: ‘I forgive him because it’s important for me to forgive him. I won’t forget it.’
Jones declined to offer any final words. His last meal comprised of fried chicken, collard greens and sweet tea.
After he refused his final words, the drugs began flowing. His chest began to heave for a few minutes, then slowed and stopped completely.
Jones’ death extended Florida’s record for total executions in a single year, with the state planning to carry out two more executions next month.
The curtain to the viewing room opened right at the scheduled 6:00 p.m. start of the procedure.
The warden shook Jones and shouted his name several minutes into the procedure, but there was no response.
Jones’ face lost color as he laid motionless, and a medic eventually entered the death chamber and declared him dead minutes later. Officials said the execution was without complications.
Prior to his execution, Jones’ attorneys had argued his IQ was too low to understand that his crimes were wrong.
Police said they found Jones wounded at the scene with the Nestors’ money and personal property in his pockets.
Jones was hospitalized and later convicted of two counts of first-degree murder in 1993 and sentenced to death. The jury also found him guilty of armed robbery.
With Tuesday’s execution, a total of 34 men have undergone court-ordered execution so far this year in the US.
At least eight other people are scheduled to be put to death during the rest of 2025.
