The Final Chapter of a Thirty-Five Year Wait: Florida Executes Richard Barry Randolph for the 1988 Murder of His Manager
In the quiet, early hours of a November morning in Florida, a legal saga that spanned nearly four decades reached its somber conclusion. On November 20, 2025, the state of Florida carried out the execution of Richard Barry Randolph by lethal injection at the Florida State Prison. Randolph’s death marked a significant moment in the state’s judicial history, as he became the 17th person executed in Florida within a single year—a record-breaking total since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976. But beyond the statistics lies a haunting story of a life that spiraled from a promising second chance into a depths of depravity and violence that the small community of East Palatka will never forget.
The story begins in 1988, a year that should have been a turning point for 26-year-old Richard Barry Randolph. Randolph was a young man with no family and no stable home, drifting through life until he walked into the Handyway Convenience Store in East Palatka. There, he met Minnie Ruth McCollum, the store manager. While many others had looked at Randolph and seen only a man with no experience and no roots, McCollum saw something different. She saw potential. In an act of kindness and professional intuition, she offered him a job, providing him with the first steady foundation he had ever known.
For several months, it appeared that McCollum’s faith was well-placed. Randolph was described as a dedicated and responsible employee. With the steady income from his job, he was finally able to rent a small house, moving away from the instability that had defined his youth. For a brief window of time, Randolph was a success story—a man who had been given a hand up and was using it to build a better life. However, this period of stability was fragile.
The descent began with the introduction of cocaine. What started as occasional use quickly morphed into a crippling addiction that consumed Randolph’s life and his finances. As his dependency grew, he lost the ability to pay his rent and was evicted from the very home his job had helped him secure. In a tragic and desperate turn, he began living in a dumpster located just behind the convenience store where he worked. The change in his living situation mirrored the change in his character. The once-reliable employee became irritable, unkempt, and prone to lateness. When it was discovered that he had begun stealing from the business to fund his habit, Minnie Ruth McCollum was forced to make a heartbreaking decision. On August 15, 1988, she fired the man she had once tried to save.
Later that same morning, the ultimate betrayal occurred. Randolph, worn down by months of addiction and the harsh reality of living in a dumpster, walked back into the Handyway store. His intent was no longer to work, but to rob. He carried a toy gun, likely hoping the threat of violence would be enough to secure the money he desperately needed for his next fix. However, when McCollum caught him attempting to open the store’s safe, an argument erupted. During the struggle, McCollum realized the weapon was not real, and in that moment, the situation spiraled into a level of brutality that defied explanation.
What followed was a prolonged and vicious attack. Randolph beat McCollum repeatedly, slamming her head against hard surfaces. When she tried to defend herself, he used the drawstring from his own sweatshirt to strangle her until she lost consciousness. Even when she regained consciousness and cried out for help, Randolph did not stop. He resumed the assault until she was no longer able to resist. In a final, horrific escalation, he used a small knife to stab her multiple times in the neck and head. Before fleeing, he committed a final act of degradation by sexually assaulting his former manager as she lay dying.
Randolph’s attempt to escape was as clumsy as his crime was cruel. He stole McCollum’s car keys and vehicle, but not before being spotted by three local women—Terry Serell, Dorothy Patilla, and Deborah Patilla—as he was locking the store’s front door. When they questioned him about the store’s closure and McCollum’s whereabouts, Randolph spun a desperate lie, claiming McCollum’s car had broken down and he was on his way to pick her up. The women, suspicious of the disarray they saw through the store window and the displaced security camera, immediately called the sheriff’s office.
When an officer arrived, they found Minnie Ruth McCollum still alive, though barely. She was lying on her back, struggling for breath, her life slipping away from the severe brain injuries and stab wounds. She was rushed to the hospital in a coma, where she fought for six days before finally succumbing to her injuries. Randolph was captured later that same day at a grocery store in Jacksonville, where he was caught trying to cash stolen lottery tickets.
The legal battle that followed was as lengthy as the crime was shocking. In 1989, a jury found Randolph guilty of first-degree murder, armed robbery, sexual assault, and grand theft. They voted 8 to 4 in favor of the death penalty, a recommendation the judge upheld, citing the “especially heinous, atrocious, and cruel” nature of the crime. For the next thirty-five years, Randolph lived in the shadow of the gallows. He filed countless appeals and petitions, all of which were eventually denied.
In his final years, a new legal argument emerged centered around Randolph’s health. He had developed systemic lupus, an autoimmune disease that had severely compromised his physical state. His attorneys argued that the state’s lethal injection protocol would cause him “extreme pain and death by suffocation,” potentially violating the Eighth Amendment’s protection against cruel and unusual punishment. However, the Florida Supreme Court rejected these claims, ruling they had been filed too late. On October 21, 2025, Governor Ron DeSantis signed the final death warrant.
On the day of his execution, Richard Barry Randolph followed a lonely routine. Having grown up as an orphan and with no family to speak of, he received no visitors and made no phone calls. He ate his final meal—a double hamburger, fried onion rings, and cherry pie—the night before. At 6:00 p.m. on November 20, the process began. Despite the long legal battles regarding his health, the execution proceeded. Witnesses noted that Randolph moved, gasped, and grimaced as the drugs entered his system, but he remained silent. He chose not to offer any final words, carrying his thoughts and perhaps his regrets into the quiet of the Florida night. At 6:30 p.m., after thirty-five years of waiting, Richard Barry Randolph was pronounced dead, bringing a final, silent end to a tragic story of mercy, betrayal, and the long reach of justice.
