Osceola killer receives wish: A date with death

TALLAHASSEE -- The convicted Osceola County murderer known as Raven Raven has been asking to die for five years.

Gov. Jeb Bush granted his wish Thursday.

Bush signed a death warrant for Raven, known as Glen or Glenn Ocha before he legally changed his name, and set his execution date for next month.

Raven was convicted of strangling and hanging 28-year-old Carol Skjerva at his Buenaventura Lakes home Oct. 5, 1999.

"This was a very heinous crime. . . . After a thorough and thoughtful appeals process, that was the end of it," Bush spokesman Jacob DiPietre said of the governor's decision.

Raven, 47, was drunk and high on Ecstasy when he met Skjerva at a bar called Rosie's Pub near his house. She drove him home, and the two had consensual sex. Afterward, Raven told investigators, Skjerva made a disparaging comment, enraging him.

He tried to strangle her three times until his arms got tired. So he hung Skjerva from a door and drank a beer while she died.

Skjerva moved to Kissimmee in 1992 in hopes of becoming a flight attendant. She had been living with a long-term boyfriend in Kissimmee and helping to raise his young son.

Raven pleaded guilty without a trial and would not let a public defender present evidence to try and avoid execution. Raven asked an Osceola County circuit judge to sentence him to die, and then later fired an attorney who tried to appeal the ruling.

If Raven is executed next month, he will become the first inmate in Florida put to death since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that its 2002 decision that said juries, not judges, must hand out death sentences couldn't be applied to old cases.

Raven's execution is scheduled for April 5 at 6 p.m.

Jason Garcia, who reported from Orlando, can be reached at jrgarcia@orlandosentinel.com

or 407-420-5198. Sean Mussenden, who reported from Tallahassee, can be reached

at smussenden@orlandosentinel.com or

850-222-5564.