Paul Augustus Howell, Florida State Trooper killer, scheduled to die by lethal injection February 26

Associated Press
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- Gov. Rick Scott has signed a death warrant for a man convicted killing a Florida state trooper.

The governor's office announced Friday that 47-year-old Paul Augustus Howell is scheduled to die by lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Raiford at 6 p.m., Feb. 26.

Trooper Jimmy Fulford was blown apart when he opened a booby-trapped package during a routine traffic stop on Interstate 10 in February 1992.

The pipe bomb, hidden in a gift-wrapped microwave oven, was intended to kill two women in Marianna because they knew too much about a drug-related murder in 1991.

The death led to federal and state investigations that exposed a drug trafficking ring based in South Florida.

Howell was convicted of building the bomb and sentenced to death in 1995.