Overview
- Billy Adams III filed a handwritten letter on Oct. 12, 2026 asking Judge Mark Wolfe to follow a jury’s death recommendation and to waive any mitigation at his Dec. 1 sentencing.
- The jury recommended life without parole for the murder of Alana Sims but voted 8–4 to recommend death for the death of her unborn child.
- Florida law gives the judge final authority so Wolfe can impose death or life, and the court must determine whether Adams is competent and whether any waiver of mitigation was knowing and voluntary.
- Prosecutors say Adams shot Sims after she refused to end her pregnancy, later testing showed the fetus was not biologically his, and Adams was previously arrested in a separate 2020 double-murder case in which he was later acquitted.
- The request comes in a state that has seen an uptick in executions, and the Dec. 1 hearing will test how courts handle competency reviews and mitigation waivers when a defendant seeks capital punishment.