JUST IN: Florida EXECUTES Mark Allen Geralds for the murder and torture of a woman | DeathRow US
On December 9th, 2025, after more than 35 years on death row, Mark Allen Geralds faced his execution at the Florida State Prison. Geralds, convicted of one of the most brutal crimes ever recorded in Bay County, had reached the end of a process that left an entire community shaken. In this video, I’m going to tell you what happened that day, what his final meal was, and what his last words were before he died by lethal injection.
In January 1989, Mark Allen Geralds was working as a carpenter in Panama City Beach, Florida. One of the neighborhoods where he did remodeling work was called The Cove. He fixed up several houses there [music] until he eventually arrived at the home of the Petty Bone family. During those renovations, Mark became friends with Kevin Petty and his wife, Tresa.
They trusted him so much that they even gave him a key to the house so he could finish the work more easily. But instead of building a friendship, something [music] else began to grow inside Mark. Ambition. He realized the family was financially comfortable [music] and that the house was full of valuable items. From that moment on, his intention stopped being honest work and turned into something much darker.
A week before the tragedy, Geralds deliberately ran into Tresa Lynn Petone and her two children at a local shopping mall. During that casual conversation, Tresa mentioned something that would later prove fatal. Her husband Kevin [music] was out of town on business. That was the first step in a robbery plan that would end in tragedy. After that brief interaction, Gerald’s didn’t leave.
He stayed at the mall, watching them from a distance. He knew exactly what he was looking for. At one point, when no one was paying attention, he approached the Pibona’s youngest son, Bart, an 8-year-old who was alone in the arcade. Using that same friendly familiarity he had built during the renovations, Mark started asking him direct questions.
He asked when his father would be back. Then he went even further. He wanted to know what time the kids left for school and what time they got home. None of this was accidental. Geralds was gathering tactical information, calculating the exact moment when Tresa would be alone and unable to get help. And in his innocence, and because he already knew him, Bart answered without suspecting anything.
He even told him something crucial. His dad wouldn’t return for another [music] 2 weeks. On February 1st, 1989, around 3:00 in the afternoon, Geralds [music] put his carefully calculated plan into action. Tresa Petty Bonet was alone at home. The exact situation he had been waiting for. He entered without forcing anything, using a copy of the key the family had trusted him with just weeks earlier.
What happened next would be recorded as one of the most brutal attacks ever documented in Florida. Geralds didn’t go there driven by chaos, but by a clear objective, money. He knew because he had made sure to find out that the family kept about $7,000 in cash inside the house. To make her reveal where it was, he subjected Tresa to cold, methodical torture.
He tied her with plastic zip ties, the same ones he carried in his vehicle, restraining her for more than 20 minutes while she remained conscious, defenseless, [music] and terrified. During that time, he beat and gagged her. Every action seemed calculated with no sign of improvisation. But Tresa, even in the midst of fear, revealed nothing.
When Geralds didn’t get the information he wanted, he decided to end everything with extreme violence. He stabbed her three times, twice in the neck and once in the side, the latter being fatal. The forensic report would later reveal an even more harrowing scene. Tresa did not die immediately. She bled slowly inside her own home and even inhaled some of her own blood during the final moments when she was still conscious.
After committing the murder, Geralds began ransacking the house. His search was desperate and chaotic, going through drawers, cabinets, and any place that might hide the money he believed he would find. He ended up taking a collection of designer jewelry, a pair of branded sunglasses, and Tres’s dark Mercedes Benz, which was later found abandoned in the parking lot of a nearby school.
But what Gerald sought most obsessively, the $7,000 in cash, was never found. Despite the brutality of the attack and the prolonged torture, [music] Tresa never revealed where the money was. She died without giving in. That detail [music] would prove crucial for the prosecution. It reinforced the idea that Gerald’s acted with a purely economic motive [music] and that the entire attack from gathering information to committing extreme violence had a single objective, money.
Adjusted for inflation at the time, those $7,000 would be worth nearly 19,000 today. [music] Around 3:15 p.m., Bart Pedabone, just an 8-year-old boy, returned from school like any other day. But as he crossed the threshold and entered the kitchen, his childhood shattered in an instant. There, on the floor, he found his mother’s bloodied [music] body.
The scene was indescribable, a horror no child should ever have to witness. That moment, frozen in time, [music] would mark Bart’s life forever, forcing him to carry an image no human being, and certainly no child, should ever see. The investigation moved quickly. Soon, the evidence began to close in on Mark Allen Gerald’s.
Detectives discovered that he had pawned a gold chain identical to one missing from the Pedabone home, and most incriminatingly, it bore traces of Tres’s blood. They also confirmed that Geralds had given a friend a pair of designer sunglasses that matched the ones reported stolen. But the key piece of evidence was found in his own vehicle.
Plastic zip ties of the same type and brand used to restrain [music] Tresa. There was no doubt. Every piece of evidence pointed directly to him. When they finally captured him, investigators discovered something that changed everything. Mark Allen Geralds was no amateur. By 1989, he already had eight prior convictions on his record. He was a man who knew how to operate in two worlds.
On one hand, [music] the trustworthy carpenter repairing neighborhood homes. On the other, an experienced criminal capable of combining the facade of an honest worker with a dangerous inclination toward violence and crime. Tresa Lynn Pedabone was 33 years old and a mother of two when her life was brutally taken on February 1st, 1989.
She was born in Ohio, but had moved to Florida with her husband Kevin to build a quiet life in a safe neighborhood of Panama City Beach in the northwest part of the state. Those who knew her described her as a dedicated mother, a caring woman, and a [music] constant presence in her community. Mark Allen Geralds was formally charged on March 15th, 1989 with first-degree murder, armed robbery, [music] burglary, and vehicle theft.
His trial began in January 1990, and the prosecution presented a detailed and strong case. On March 26th, the jury deliberated and delivered a decisive verdict, guilty on all counts, with a sentence of death. Amid the legal proceedings, Gerald’s made headlines again [music] in 1990. While awaiting his murder trial, he carried out a bold and somewhat improvised escape [music] from the Bay County Jail, Florida’s first fully privatized prison, which, as it soon became clear, had serious security flaws.
During a conjugal visit, his wife secretly passed him saw blades, and Geralds, along with four other inmates, began cutting through the metal frame of their cell. The escape was executed with surprising coordination. They removed a sixth floor window and descended using a rope made from tied together sheets.
But their freedom was short-lived. Geralds and nearly all of the escapees were recaptured within hours. Mark Allen Geralds would spend the next 32 years of his life on Florida’s death row. During this period, he filed multiple appeals in state courts, federal courts, and even the United States Supreme [music] Court, all without success.
Finally, continuing Florida’s record of executions in November 2025, Governor Ron DeSantis signed a new execution order for Mark Allen Gerald’s, setting the date for December 9th, 2025. What happened next, however, was extraordinary and highly unusual. After the execution order was signed, Geralds approached the courts with a remarkable request to wave all of his remaining appeals.
Ultimately, Geralds was executed by lethal injection on December 9th, 2025 at the Florida State Prison near Stark in Bradford County. He was 58 years old. His day began early. He woke at 4:00 a.m., took a shower, and received a visit from a spiritual adviser. [music] There were no phone calls, letters, or family waiting for him.
At 5:50 p.m., he [music] was taken to the execution chamber. At 6:00 p.m., the intravenous procedure began. There were initial difficulties, but after several attempts, the fluid started to flow. The process lasted about 6 minutes. Gerald’s moved slightly, gasped, and frowned before remaining still. At 6:30 p.m., [music] his death was officially certified.
Throughout the entire procedure, he remained silent with his eyes closed until the end. When asked if he had any final words, Mark remained silent, offering no response. Some distant relatives of the victim were present to witness his execution. However, Bart, the son who had discovered his mother’s body, never got to see justice served.
He had passed away in 2022. And that was the execution of this killer. Let me know what you think in the comments. Make sure to subscribe to the channel because in the next few days, three more people are scheduled to be executed.
