Florida executes 'Hog Trail Killer' as state's 2026 execution pace continues
Daniel Conahan Jr.'s death by lethal injection marks the 15th Florida execution this year, part of a statewide pace that outstrips the record set in 2025.
What happened
The state of Florida executed Daniel Conahan Jr., 72, at 6:12 p.m. Thursday at Florida State Prison in Raiford, according to the Florida Department of Corrections. Conahan was sentenced to death for the 1996 kidnapping and murder of 21-year-old Richard Montgomery in Charlotte County. “The execution took place without incident,” said Jordan Kirkland, the department’s communications director, in a briefing after the execution.
Conahan was the 15th person executed by the state in 2026, following a record 19 executions in 2025, DOC figures show. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Conahan’s death warrant on Aug. 11, 2025.
The case behind the sentence
Montgomery’s nude body was found in the woods of Charlotte County in April 1996, a day after he told his mother someone had offered him $200 to pose for photographs, according to court documents. An autopsy found he died of strangulation, with marks indicating he had been tied to a tree. Investigators linked Conahan to the crime through paint chips on Montgomery’s body that matched his father’s car and Walmart credit card records showing Conahan bought clothesline, Polaroid film, a knife and pliers before the killing.
Conahan was also a person of interest, but never charged, in a string of unsolved deaths known as the Hog Trail murders, named for the area near where Montgomery’s and several other bodies were found in Charlotte and Lee counties between 1994 and 2007. A 1999 jury convicted Conahan of first-degree murder and kidnapping and unanimously recommended death; he was acquitted of a related sexual battery charge. The Florida Supreme Court affirmed the sentence in 2003, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined further review.
In January 2025, Conahan sought post-conviction DNA testing, arguing new technology might reveal a third person’s DNA under Montgomery’s fingernails. The Florida Supreme Court denied the request on Aug. 12, 2025, a day after the death warrant was signed, finding no reasonable probability the evidence would have changed the trial’s outcome. The court noted the crime scene was a known dumping area, making unidentified DNA unremarkable.
Why it matters beyond Charlotte County
No part of this case touches Levy County or Cedar Key directly. But the execution is a data point in a statewide pattern this newsroom tracks because it shapes policy and resources reaching every county, including this one: Florida’s use of capital punishment has accelerated sharply under the current administration, with 2025’s 19 executions setting a modern state record and 2026 already at 15 as of this week. Death warrants, DNA-testing rules and appellate standards set by the Florida Supreme Court in cases like Conahan’s apply uniformly across the state’s judicial circuits, including the Eighth and Third circuits that cover Levy County.
Response from opponents
A vigil was held Thursday evening on the prison lawn, organized in part by members of Our Lady of Lourdes church, who make the trip from Daytona Beach before each scheduled execution. Grace Hanna, executive director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, called the evidence against Conahan “shockingly thin,” noting the absence of DNA directly tying him to the crime. Emmjolee Waters of the Catholic Mobilizing Network’s Death Penalty Abolition program also attended.
Florida & Cedar Key News will continue to track statewide execution and death-penalty policy as it affects courts and corrections statewide.