Bio

William Frederick Happ was born on January 19, 1962. At the time of the crime, Happ was 24 years old. Happ’s case later became significant in Florida death-penalty history because he was the first person executed in the state using midazolam hydrochloride as part of the lethal injection drug protocol.

Murder Story

On May 24, 1986, Angela Crowley was traveling through Citrus County, Florida, during Memorial Day weekend. She was making one of her first long drives through the state and was on her way to meet a friend near Yankeetown. Crowley stopped at a Cumberland Farms convenience store in Crystal River at approximately 2:30 a.m. She intended to use a pay phone to contact her friend for directions.

Before she could safely continue her trip, William Frederick Happ attacked her. Prosecutors said Happ smashed the driver’s side window of her car, abducted her, beat her, sexually assaulted her, and strangled her with her own stretch pants. Later that day, a fisherman found Crowley’s partially clothed body on the bank of the Cross Florida Barge Canal. Investigators found her T-shirt pulled up to her underarms and stretch pants tied tightly around her neck.

A medical examiner testified that Crowley had suffered severe injuries, including bruising and hemorrhaging to her face and skull, multiple scrapes, and ten to twenty hard blows to the head. Her cause of death was strangulation. Investigators found Crowley’s car about six-tenths of a mile from the convenience store. The driver’s side window had been shattered. A shoe print outside the driver’s door matched one of Happ’s shoes, and his fingerprints were found on the outside of the vehicle.

Happ also revealed details of the crime to a fellow jail inmate, Richard Miller, whose testimony became part of the prosecution’s case. Happ was indicted on December 2, 1986, on charges of first-degree murder, burglary with battery, kidnapping, and sexual battery. He pleaded not guilty on February 5, 1987. His first trial ended in a mistrial after the prosecutor violated a court order by revealing Happ’s prior criminal record. The case was later retried after venue was changed from Citrus County to Lake County.

At the second trial, prosecutors presented physical evidence, witness testimony, and jailhouse statements. A friend testified that around the time of the murder, he saw Happ walking toward the canal. The following morning, the friend noticed that Happ had a swollen right hand. Happ’s former girlfriend also testified that he told her he had broken a car window with his fist.

On July 28, 1989, a jury convicted Happ on all counts. On July 31, 1989, the jury recommended death by a vote of 9-3, and the court sentenced him to death for first-degree murder. He also received life sentences for the related offenses.

Happ pursued direct appeals and post-conviction motions over the following decades. The Florida Supreme Court affirmed his conviction and sentence, and later challenges did not prevent the execution from being scheduled. In 2013, Happ abandoned further appeals and stated that he was ready to die. Before his execution, he confessed publicly to Angela Crowley’s murder and apologized to her family.

William Frederick Happ was executed by lethal injection at Florida State Prison in Starke on October 15, 2013. He was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m. He was 51 years old.