TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Former Mascotte police Officer James Duckett is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection March 31 for the 1987 murder of 11-year-old Teresa McAbee, according to a death warrant signed Friday by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Duckett, 68, is the grandfather of Trenton Duckett, a 2-year-old who was reported missing from his mother’s Leesburg apartment in 2006 and has never been found. James Duckett was on Florida’s Death Row at the time his grandson vanished and is not a suspect in the toddler’s disappearance.
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Duckett was the only Mascotte police officer on duty the night of May 11, 1987, when witnesses reported seeing McAbee sitting in his patrol car outside a convenience store where she had walked to buy a pencil, court records show.
When the 11-year-old did not return home, McAbee’s mother contacted police in nearby Groveland and eventually met Duckett at the Mascotte police station.
Duckett admitted McAbee had been in his patrol car but insisted that he had instructed her to go home and never saw her again, court records show.
The next morning, McAbee’s body was found in a lake less than a mile from the store. A medical examiner testified she had been sexually assaulted while alive, strangled and then drowned.
Investigators discovered tire tracks in the mud near the lake that matched unique Goodyear Eagle snow tires designed for northern driving that were installed on Mascotte’s two patrol cars.
McAbee’s fingerprints were found on the hood of Duckett’s patrol car, authorities said, indicating that she had been seated backwards on the hood and had scooted up the car.
A jury voted eight-to-four in favor of recommending the death penalty after finding Duckett guilty of first-degree murder and sexual battery.
Over the past four decades Duckett has unsuccessfully appealed his conviction and death sentence, which was affirmed by the Florida Supreme Court.
“The record has been reviewed, and there are no stays of execution issued by any court of competent jurisdiction in this cause,” Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier wrote in a letter supporting the issuance of a death warrant.
Following a record 19 executions last year, two Florida inmates have been put to death by lethal injection so far in 2026 with Billy Leon Kearse scheduled to be executed March 3.