Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018 | 4:18 p.m.
STARKE, Fla. — Florida has executed a man convicted of raping and killing a college student in 1993 so he could steal her car.
Authorities say 47-year-old Eric Scott Branch was pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m. Thursday after a lethal injection at Florida State Prison.
Branch was convicted of the rape and fatal beating of University of West Florida student 21-year-old Susan Morris, whose naked body was found buried in a shallow grave near a nature trail.
Evidence shows that Branch approached Morris after she left a night class on Jan. 11, 1993, so he could steal her red Toyota and return to his home state of Indiana. He was arrested while traveling there.
Branch also was convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in Indiana and of another sexual assault in Panama City, Florida.
