JUST IN: Thomas Lee Gudinas Executed – Apologized Before Dying | Shocking Last Words & Final Meal

Thomas Lee Gudinas, 51, was executed by lethal injection on June 24, 2025, at Florida State Prison near Starke, becoming the seventh inmate put to death in Florida this year. In his final moments, Gudinas offered a last statement that included repentance and a reference to Jesus — a quiet apology that stood in stark contrast to the horrific 1994 rape and murder of 27-year-old Michelle McGrath.

The execution began at 6:00 p.m. when the curtain opened to reveal Gudinas already strapped to the gurney with an IV in his left arm. After the warden confirmed the governor’s office had given the go-ahead, Gudinas was asked if he wished to make a final statement. His words were inaudible to the 19 witnesses in the viewing room, but Department of Corrections spokesman Bryan Griffin later confirmed: “He repented and made a reference to Jesus.”

Gudinas’ last meal, requested and consumed earlier that morning after waking at 4:45 a.m., was simple: pepperoni pizza, French fries, and a soda. His mother visited him for the final time. The modest request stood in haunting contrast to the monstrous crime that had defined the final three decades of his life.

The crime unfolded in the early hours of May 24, 1994, outside Barbarella’s nightclub in downtown Orlando. Gudinas, then 20, had spent the evening drinking and smoking marijuana with friends. After the bar closed at 3 a.m., he targeted Michelle McGrath, who had been inside the club. Another woman, Rachelle Smith, had already escaped Gudinas earlier that night after he smashed her car window and shouted Sєxual threats. McGrath was not so fortunate.

Her naked body was discovered at 7:30 a.m. in a nearby alley, bra pushed above her breasts. She had been beaten to death. The medical examiner ruled the cause of death as brain hemorrhage from blunt-force trauma. Gudinas dragged her body into the alley and Sєxually ᴀssaulted her corpse — a detail revealed through his own confession to a cousin.

Fingerprints, witness statements, and Gudinas’ bizarre fascination with missing-person flyers for McGrath quickly led police to him. In 1995, after a change of venue, a jury convicted him of first-degree murder and related Sєxual battery charges. The jury recommended death by a 10–2 vote. Judge Belvin Perry sentenced him to die.

Gudinas spent 30 years on death row. Appeals were repeatedly rejected. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the death warrant earlier in 2025, and all final legal challenges failed. On execution day, the process was clinical and swift. Gudinas’ chest rose and fell visibly after the drugs began flowing; within minutes, he was motionless. He was pronounced ᴅᴇᴀᴅ at 6:13 p.m.

The execution closes one of Florida’s longest-running capital cases and highlights the state’s aggressive pursuit of the death penalty in 2025. For McGrath’s family, who waited 31 years, the execution brings a measure of closure — though no sentence can restore the life of the young woman who was simply heading home from a night out.

Gudinas’ final apology and reference to Jesus offered a last glimpse of humanity from a man whose actions had shown none. Yet the horror of his crime — the stalking, the brutal beating, the necrophilia — remains the defining legacy he leaves behind.

As Florida continues its record pace of executions, the case of Thomas Lee Gudinas stands as a grim reminder that justice, however delayed, can still be delivered. His simple last meal and repentant final words will be remembered alongside the unspeakable suffering he inflicted on Michelle McGrath and her loved ones.