Death Row inmate James Dennis Ford's life shaped by alcohol, loss before couple's murder
Warning: This story contains details of a disturbing crime.
Florida death row inmate James Dennis Ford was so overcome with grief after his father's death, his former wife says she would find him in the cemetery at night, lying on his dad's grave and crying.
Described as severely mentally delayed in court records, Ford turned to alcohol after the loss, and eventually, murder.
Florida is set to execute Ford by lethal injection for the 1997 murders of 25-year-old Gregory and his 26-year-old wife Kimberly Malnory. If the execution moves forward, Ford will be the first inmate executed in Florida this year and the fifth in the U.S.
Ford’s lawyers have argued in court filings that the death penalty should not be applied to him because of his developmental issues. Prosecutors say the case was particularly horrific and that Ford's execution will be justice served.
As the execution approaches, Paste BN is looking back at the crime, who Ford is, and who his victims were.
What was James Ford convicted of?
On April 6, 1997, court records say that Ford invited his co-worker Gregory Malnory and Malnory's wife Kimberly on a fishing trip to the South Florida Sod Farm in Punta Gorda, a southwestern Florida city just north of Fort Myers. They brought along their 23-month-old daughter Maranda.
Police believe Ford first attacked Gregory, shooting him in the back of the head, though that didn't kill him. Investigators believe Gregory staggered to the middle of a nearby field, where Ford bludgeoned him and slit his throat "from ear to ear," court records say.
Kimberly, who was injured during the initial attack, managed to save Maranda by strapping her in the backseat of the couple's truck. But court records say Ford returned, then raped and beat her before shooting her dead.
About 18 hours later, an employee of the sod farm found the Malnorys' bodies. Maranda survived but the 23-month-old was dehydrated, full of insect bites and covered in her mother's blood.
Ford told police that he went fishing with the family and that they were alive when he left them to go hunting, records show.
Witnesses at the sod farm told police they had seen Ford with blood on his face, hands and clothes, and had large scratches on his body. Prosecutors say DNA testing showed that Ford's semen was inside Kimberly Malnory, and that a number of other items connected him to the crime scene, including his own gun.
At trial, Ford's lawyers argued he was blackout drunk at the time of the crime and couldn't have committed the murders. Ford later said he disagreed with that trial argument because it could imply his guilt.
Linda Griffin, Kimberly Malnory's mother, said during the trial that she had lost not only a daughter but a friend, according to news articles at the time.
"She was my life, my laughter and my tears,” she said.
A jury convicted Ford of murder.
A life changed by death and alcohol
Ford had no significant criminal record before the murders, and friends and family said he never showed signs of violence.
Ford had a troubled childhood with an alcoholic father and a mother who left when he was 14, court records say.
Rodney McCray, a close friend of the family, said that the last few years of his life, Ford's father was "drinking just about around the clock,” according to court records.
Still, Ford was close with his dad. He dropped out of school because he preferred to spend time with his dad at his job as a cemetery caretaker in Arcadia.
Ford and his father shared a "very close" bond, Ford's first wife said, remarking that they were "closer than any two people she had ever known in her entire life.”
Ford was in his early 20s when his dad died at the age of 52.
“He was devastated that he had lost his best friend,” Ford's defense attorneys wrote in court records. “There were times when Paige Ford [his first wife] would find him missing at night, and she would find him at the cemetery lying on his father’s grave.”
This loss compounded Ford's decline. He had begun drinking in his late teens and eventually worked his way up to 24 beers in a day, records say.
What has Ford's family said about the crime?
One of Ford's daughters said her father's crime had a major impact on her life, according to a 2012 article by the Englewood Sun.
“People didn't want to have anything to do with me,” Peggy Ford said. “It's hard for me to get a job. It's hard for me to hold a job. It was hard for me to have a relationship. It was hard for me to have friendships.”
As a 15-year-old when the murders happened, she was ridiculed and bullied by her classmates at Charlotte High. In the article, she said she was still trying to figure out why her own father could have done what he did.
“There's something in my heart that tells me he's where he needs to be,” Peggy Ford said. “I feel very bad (for the Malnorys' families)."
Ford’s lawyers say his mental age should stop his execution
Ford's attorneys have most recently argued that his death sentence should be thrown out, pointing to a 2005 Supreme Court decision that prohibited executions for underage people. Although Ford was 36 at the time of the crime, his lawyers argued that Ford’s developmental age was much younger, more like 14, according to a psychologist who evaluated Ford.
Circuit Judge Lisa Porter struck down that appeal.
“The argument that the death penalty is unconstitutional as applied to persons with a mental and developmental age of less than 18 is a legal issue, not a factual issue, for which the defendant has provided no supporting case law,” she said.
Ford has few options left for a reprieve: the U.S. Supreme Court and Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. The Florida Supreme Court rejected his latest attempt to stop his execution on Friday.
Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for Paste BN. Reach him at fernando.cervantes@gannett.com and follow him on X @fern_cerv_.