Man convicted in 2000 kidnapping, murder of Miami Herald employee to be executed

Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a death warrant for the April 8 execution of inmate Michael Tanzi, who was convicted in the 2000 murder of a Miami Herald employee abducted while on lunch break at the Japanese Garden on Watson Island, according to court records.

The warrant, made public by the Supreme Court of Florida, states Michael Tanzi, now 48, is scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m. EDT April 8 at Florida State Prison in Raiford.

The Florida Supreme Court Monday evening posted a document on its website that said DeSantis had signed a death warrant for Tanzi. The document detailed a schedule for expected legal proceedings.

Tanzi was convicted of kidnapping and murdering Janet Acosta, according to court documents from previous appeals. He assaulted and kidnapped Acosta, 49, as she sat in her van at the garden on April 25, 2000. Tanzi drove to the Florida Keys, strangled Acosta and disposed of her body in a secluded area on Cudjoe Key, about 20 miles north of Key West, the court documents said.

Acosta, a production supervisor at the Herald, regularly visited the garden to read during her lunch break. The garden is off the MacArthur Causeway and was near where the Herald’s main office at 1 Herald Plaza was for decades.

Tanzi, now 47, is an inmate at Florida State Prison, according to the state Department of Corrections website.

Miami Herald reporter David Goodhue contributed to this report.

This story was originally published March 11, 2025 at 2:35 PM.