JUST IN: Thomas Gudinas Executed | Last Meal and Words | Florida Death Row (US) 

On June 24th, 2025, after more than 30 years on death row, Thomas Lee Gdinas was executed by lethal injection in Florida. In this video, we’ll uncover what happened, his last meal, and his last words. On May 23rd, 1994, Thomas Gdinas spent the night bar hopping through Orlando. He was 20, lived with three roommates, and they had started the evening the way they always did, with beer and weed at home before heading downtown.

 The nightclub they picked that night was Barbarella’s, a popular spot known for its music and late night crowd. Inside, they drank more and every so often slipped out to keep their high going. But by the time the club shut down at 3:00 a.m., Thomas was nowhere to be found. He had disappeared into the dark. That same night, Michelle Smith and her fianceé had showed up around 11 p.m.

They danced, they drank, and around 2:00 a.m. they called it a night. Her fianceé stayed behind to say goodbye to friends, but Relle headed to the car, ready to go home. And that’s when things turned. At first, she walked through the wrong parking lot, and that’s where she saw him.

 A man crouched low behind a car watching her. Relle turned quickly and walked faster, trying to shake the feeling that she was being followed. She made it to the right lot, unlocked the door, slid into her car, and hit the lock button. But when she looked up into the rear view mirror, he was there again. The same man, but closer this time.

 He yanked on the passenger door, trying to force his way in, but it was locked. Then he circled around, crouched again, came around to her side, and tried the driver’s door, also locked. That’s when he snapped. “I want to,” he shouted. He then covered his hand with his shirt and started smashing it into her window.

 Over and over, the glass held, but so did the panic. Relle slammed her hand on the horn. The sound pierced the quiet like a siren, and suddenly the man froze and ran, vanishing into the shadows. But what Relle didn’t know was that he didn’t run far. He just hid and waited. And just an hour later, he saw his next chance. Michelle McGrath had also been at Barbarella’s that night.

 She was 22, a recent college graduate with her whole life ahead of her. She was also there with her fianceé. And like Michelle, Michelle left first to grab the car. But unfortunately, she didn’t get as lucky. And somewhere between the club and the lot, she vanished. Her fianceé waited, then started looking, but she was gone.

No one had seen her, and the parking lot offered nothing but silence. The next morning, Officer Chisari was on bike patrol in downtown Orlando when a man flagged him down. Colbert Presley. He had spotted a pile of clothes and some car keys lying near a parked car, a red geometro. But before the officer could process what that meant, someone nearby screamed.

Around 7:00 a.m., school employee Jane Brand had arrived at the pay school. The courtyard behind the building was quiet, but then she noticed someone sitting on the steps. The man had his back to her, but he seemed young, maybe 18. He had short brown hair and a slouched posture. And at first glance, he looked ordinary.

Just an averagel looking guy in baggy dark shorts. But when Jane told him he couldn’t be there, he didn’t answer. He just stood up slowly, fumbling with the front of his shorts like he was tucking something in or maybe doing something else. And then, without a word, he walked up the steps, climbed over the brick wall behind the school, and vanished down an alley.

 His behavior felt off. So Jane followed him into the alley trying to figure out what he was doing. And that’s when she saw her. Michelle McGrath crumpled in the dirt, naked and lifeless. All her clothes were gone except for her bra, which was pushed halfway up her chest. That’s when Jane screamed. Meanwhile, Thomas ran back to Michelle’s abandoned car.

 Her keys and clothes were still there. He grabbed them, climbed inside the red geometro, and sped off, trying to get away before anyone could stop him. But the walls were already closing in. The moment the murder hit the news, Relle went straight to the police. She described the man who tried to attack her in vivid detail.

 And when they showed her a photo lineup, she didn’t hesitate. She picked out Thomas Gdinas. And at trial, she pointed to him again. There was no doubt in her mind it was him. Jane Brand, the Pace School employee who found Michelle’s body, was shown the same lineup. At first, she hesitated, but later she saw a clip on the news of Thomas walking, and everything clicked.

She recognized the same figure she saw on the school grounds that morning. And again, it was Thomas Goodinz. And with this, the police had enough to arrest him. At his apartment, Thomas’s roommates had already started noticing things. He didn’t come home with them after the club that night, but by the next morning, he was back covered in blood.

 His hands were torn up, his knuckles scraped raw, and his boxers were soaked in something dark. Blood. When they asked him what happened, Thomas claimed he had gotten into a fight with two African-Amean men. But it was what he said later that chilled them. One of his roommates had asked, half joking, half curious, if Michelle had been a good Thomas didn’t flinch.

 He smiled calm and unbothered. “Yeah,” he said, and I her while she was dead. And another roommate heard him say it again, just as calm, just as cold. I killed her, then I her. So, what led Thomas Lee Goodinas to do something that horrifying? his mother, Karen Goldweight, tried to explain.

 She spoke of a pregnancy that nearly broke her and a birth that nearly killed him. And the first 6 months of Thomas’s life were a blur of fevers, breathing problems, and endless doctor visits. And then came the rages. By the time he could walk, Thomas had tantrums that could last for hours. He didn’t lash out at anyone, not yet.

 But all the screaming, the shaking, the wildeyed fury made it clear something was wrong. At school, teachers flagged him as hyperactive and impossible to manage. One recalled him flipping chairs over in the middle of class, saying it was like a fuse inside him snapped anytime something didn’t go his way. By the time he was six, his mother brought him to Boston University for an evaluation.

 and soon after she turned to the Massachusetts Division of Youth Services, desperate for help. But what followed was a blur of instability. Over the next several years, Thomas was moved through 105 different placements, and eventually Karen was told he needed long-term residential care, but that never happened. In all that chaos, Thomas only made it through fourth grade in regular school.

He earned a GED later, but his learning struggles were obvious, and he was eventually diagnosed with a low IQ of 85. Thomas started drinking when he was still a kid. Then it was weed, then cocaine. He even tried LSD, all long before he turned 18. At trial, his younger sister, Michelle, told the court what their house was like growing up.

 Their father once held Thomas’s hand over an open flame to punish him for playing with matches. And another time after he wet the bed, their dad forced him to stand outside half naked holding a sign that read, “I will not wet the bed.” Michelle added that things got better after the divorce. And Thomas even got along with her stepfather.

 But by then, the damage was already done. By the time the case reached court, the forensic evidence spoke louder than any witness ever could. The medical examiner, Dr. Heagert, testified that Michelle McGrath had died from massive head trauma, her skull crushed by what looked like a stomp from a heavy boot. Her brain had swelled, and the hemorrhaging killed her somewhere between 3 and 5 a.m.

 There were signs she fought back. Bruises and cuts on her hands made that clear. But it hadn’t been enough. What followed was savage and deliberate. She was assaulted vastly and angly with broken pieces of a stick. One fragment jammed 2 in deep and another pushed in even farther. And it didn’t end there. The forensic team found signs of additional trauma pointing to a second object or attack.

Thomas’s bodily fluids and with them his DNA were found on her and his fingerprints were discovered on the gate near the alley and inside her car. Then Thomas’s own roommates testified against him. They had seen him at the club around 1:00 a.m. But when they headed home later, he was gone. And when he finally returned, he came back with blood on him.

 A halfbaked story and eventually confessions. The evidence left little room for doubt. And the jury didn’t hesitate. They found Thomas guilty on every count. And while he spent years insisting he suffered from bipolar disorder and severe mental illness, claiming he wasn’t capable of rational intent when he killed Michelle McGrath, the courts saw it differently.

And 10 of 12 jurors voted for death. On June 16th, 1995, a Florida judge sentenced Thomas to die for the firstdegree murder of Michelle McGrath. He also received 30 years for attempted burglary with assault, 30 more for attempted battery, and life for each count of battery. Thomas spent the next 30 years on death row.

 With his execution scheduled for June 24th, 2025, Thomas’s lawyers made one last effort to stop the sentence. Just weeks before the scheduled date, they returned to the Florida Supreme Court with a new filing. They said Thomas suffers from serious mental illness, including psychosis and delusional thinking. And according to them, going through with the execution would violate the ETH amendment, which protects people from cruel and unusual punishment.

 The appeal asked the court to look not only at his mental state back when the crime happened, but also at how he is doing right now on death row. His lawyers argued that Thomas might not even understand why he’s being punished anymore, which is a key legal requirement in death penalty cases. But it didn’t matter, and the outcome stayed the same.

 On June 24th, 2025, his final day came. That morning, Thomas woke up at 4:45 a.m. alone with his thoughts. He had just one visitor that day, his mother. No spiritual adviser, no final prayers, just silence and the slow ticking of time. For his last meal, Thomas requested a pepperoni pizza, fries, and a soda. At 6:00 p.m., Thomas lay strapped to the gurnie, wearing a plain white shirt and dark pants.

 From a distance, he looked calm with healthy color in his skin and no visible signs of fear or pain. When the curtain rose, Thomas was already scanning the witness room, his eyes moving slowly and his head turning just slightly. There was no spiritual adviser at his side. He did give a final statement, but it was spoken so softly that no one in the witness room could hear it.

 With the air conditioning humming and the microphone too far away, only the executioner may have heard it. It seems to have been a short prayer, but as of now, those words have not been released. When the drugs began to flow, his breathing shortened. He blinked a few times, stayed alert for a moment, then faded.

 Within 4 minutes, he appeared unconscious. The usual checks followed. A guard leaned in, called his name, and flicked at his eyelid, but no response came. The signal was given, and then came the next two doses. At 6:13 p.m., he was pronounced dead. Thomas Lee Goodinas was 51 years old.