Judge weighs execution order for death row inmate Zane Floyd

A judge said Friday that he would decide within days whether to sign an order of execution for a man sentenced to die for killing four people inside a Las Vegas grocery store.

District Judge Michael Villani said he would decide by Monday whether to order lethal injection for Zane Floyd, who shot five employees, including one who survived, inside an Albertsons on West Sahara Avenue 22 years ago.

Prosecutors have said they want Floyd killed at the end of next month.

“At some point, this has to be final,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Alex Chen said. “If the court never sets a date for certain, then there really is no goal, and theoretically this litigation will just continue for years and years and years.”

Assistant Federal Public Defenders David Anthony and Brad Levenson have asked judges in state and federal court to stay Floyd’s execution.

On Friday, Anthony asked Villani not to sign an order of execution, pointing out that the Nevada Department of Corrections had not revealed how Floyd would be killed.

“We shouldn’t play any games where we start off with an arbitrary date, and then later find that we’re not actually giving the Department of Corrections the time that they need,” Anthony said.

Prison officials are expected to finalize their execution protocol within about a week and disclose the drugs planned for the lethal injection cocktail.

Floyd, now 45, would be the first person executed in Nevada since 2006.

A jury convicted Floyd about a year after he used a 12-gauge shotgun to fatally shoot four employees — Lucy Tarantino, 60, Thomas Darnell, 40, Chuck Leos, 40, and Dennis “Troy” Sargent, 31 — inside the grocery story. Zachary Emenegger, 21, was shot twice but survived after playing dead.

Floyd also was found guilty of repeatedly raping a woman in a guesthouse at his parents’ home before the June 3, 1999, shooting.

Contact David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Follow @randompoker on Twitter.