Florida Supreme Court Reaffirms Death Sentence for Oba Chandler

The Florida Supreme Court on Monday unanimously reaffirmed the death penalty for Oba Chandler, who is sentenced to die Nov. 15 at Florida State Prison in Raiford.

No motion for rehearing will be entertained by this court, the justices wrote.

Chandler, through appointed counsel, had sought to overturn a ruling from a circuit court in Pinellas County that supported his three sentences of death.

Gov. Rick Scott signed the death warrant last month for Chandler.

Chandler, 65, was convicted and sentenced to death for the murders of Joan Rogers and her two daughters, Michelle and Christe, on June 1, 1989.

The family was vacationing in Tampa from Ohio.

Rogers car was found abandoned beside a boat ramp off the Courtney Campbell Causeway. Inside the car they found a brochure with directions on it, parts of which were written in Oba Chandlers handwriting. Chandlers fingerprints were also lifted from the brochure.

The tied bodies of all three women were found in Tampa Bay, and a cinder block was tied by a rope around their necks. Medical examiners determined the cause of death of all three women to be asphyxiation from the ropes around their necks or from drowning.