Man who shot Kissimmee police officers officially given death sentence

Circuit Court Judge Greg Tynan doubled down on what a jury said in Nov. 2019: Everett Miller should receive the death penalty for gunning down Kissimmee Police Officer Matthew Baxter and Sgt. Richard "Sam" Howard in 2017.

While, nearly five years later, this closes the book on the case for the most part — Defense Attorney Frank Bankowitz said the case will be automatically appealed in the 5th District in the coming days — the officers' families, and extended Kissimmee Police Department family, will still feel the loss and pain.

"Justice has been served," said a tearful Mia Brown, Baxter's sister. "Life will never be the same without Matt."

Sadia Baxter, Matthew's widow and an FDLE agent, attended every hearing in the process.

"It's been almost five years since Matthew and Sam were killed. I sat there representing Matt, and Sam, and all law enforcement officers in the nation. I'm so grateful that this community supported us like it has. Five years and we finally have justice. I'm so grateful. Although we have a verdict today, my girls still don't have their daddy.

"One of the hardest things I've had to do in the process was forgive; forgive someone who did not ask for forgiveness. I stand here with my family and say we forgive Everett Miller. Although what he did was not right, we forgive because these girls deserve to live a happy life, free from hate. Hate is what got us here, hate toward law enforcement officers. It's not okay."

Through Sadia Baxter, the Howard family said they would miss Sam's smile the most.

A jury convicted Miller, who had no criminal record prior to the shootings, of first-degree murder in September 2019, and recommended the death penalty two months later. In 2021, Millers' defense team files motions that supported a life sentence rather than the death penalty, and another to find the death penalty unconstitutional in Florida, which were both denied.

In 2018, when then-State Attorney Aramis Ayala said she would not prosecute death penalty cases, then-Gov. Rick Scott took her office off the case and turned it over to another circuit. Assistant State Attorney Ryan Williams prosecuted the case, and is aware of and expecting the appeal.

"It's what they do," he said. "The evidence in the case was clean ... and there was a lot of it. The law made clear what the outcome should have been."

On the night of Aug. 18, 2017, investigators say Baxter called Howard for backup the night of the shooting when Miller began arguing with him for being in the area of Cypress and Palmway Streets. When Howard arrived, Miller shot each of them ambush-style. Miller was found hours later in a bar on Orange Blossom Trail, just a couple blocks away from the shooting site. Baxter died that night, while Howard succumbed the following morning.