Inmate executed for US highway trooper’s 1992 death in explosion of booby-trapped microwave

STARKE, Fla. – 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.

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 near Tallahassee.

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.