FLORIDA — A man who booby-trapped a microwave oven with a pipe bomb that killed a Florida Highway Patrol trooper has been executed.
Authorities say 48-year-old Paul Augustus Howell was pronounced dead at 6:32 p.m. Wednesday after a lethal injection at Florida State Prison.
Howell was condemned for the February 1992 killing of Trooper Jimmy Fulford, who died in an explosion after opening the gift-wrapped microwave during a traffic stop.
Authorities say Howell was called and asked if the man had permission to drive the car, but Howell never warned a dispatcher about the bomb in the trunk.
Howell rented a car and paid another man to deliver the box to a woman elsewhere in Florida. En route, the man was pulled over by Fulford for speeding on Interstate 10 near Tallahassee.