A Miami-Dade death row inmate who helped four other men ambush and gun down a North Miami police officer during a bank robbery is set to be executed soon. On Friday, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant for Ricardo Gonzalez, 56. Gonzalez was convicted and condemned to die for the Jan. 3, 1992, murder of Officer Steven Bauer, 39. Bauer, a father of three, grew up in North Miami and had served as a police officer for 12 years.
Gonzalez’s execution is scheduled for Dec. 1 at Florida State Prison in Raiford.
Bauer was working in uniform when he was shot twice during a robbery at Kislak National Bank, 13490 NW Seventh Ave. One of the bullets pierced his heart. Gonzalez and four other men took part in the $17,000 heist, which began around 7:50 a.m., 10 minutes before opening time, according to the Miami Herald’s archives.
Bauer was escorting bank tellers to their drive-in stations moments before he was gunned down.
A jury convicted Gonzalez and sentenced him to death in 1994. He won a new sentencing trial, but a second Miami-Dade jury again voted to send him to Florida’s death row, where he has remained since 1998.
His execution warrant arrives a week after DeSantis signed a warrant for Thomas Overton, another South Floridian on death row. Overton was sentenced to death for strangling third-grade teacher Susan “Missy” MacIvor, 29, and her husband Michael MacIvor, 30, inside their Florida Keys home.
In October, DeSantis canceled the execution of William Thompson after his attorneys raised concerns about his mental capacity, including possible dementia. Thompson was convicted of the brutal 1976 torture and murder of 23-year-old Sally Ivester in North Miami Beach.
Gonzalez, Leonardo Franqui, Pablo San Martin, Fernando Fernandez and Pablo Abreu were all involved in Bauer’s murder.
According to the Herald archives, the men planned the robbery methodically. They stole two gray Chevrolet Caprices to confuse witnesses, cased the bank before the heist and gave each man a role.
Gonzalez and Franqui, 56, who is also on Florida’s death row for the killing, shot Bauer. Abreu, 72, drove the getaway car and will remain behind bars for the rest of his life. San Martin, 59, and Fernandez, whom Florida prison records list as deceased, helped steal the cars used in the robbery. Both received life sentences for Bauer’s murder.
San Martin also had the job of grabbing the cash tray, which held $17,000.
Franqui shot Bauer with a 9mm handgun. Gonzalez fired the fatal bullet from a .357 pistol. It struck Bauer in the neck and traveled into his heart. Police later recovered the firearms from the bottom of a muddy canal at Northwest 10th Street and 18th Avenue.
After their arrests, the men gave detectives a detailed confession. They said they confronted Bauer as he escorted the tellers, who were carrying money to their drive-in posts.
The tellers said Bauer was singing a Christian hymn moments before he was shot. He had been teasing them, telling them, “You girls are going to be busy today.”
Suddenly, the men attacked Bauer. He tried to grab his gun, but Gonzalez and Franqui fired at him first.
“Officer Bauer did not stand a chance,” North Miami Police Chief Kenneth Each said at the time, according to the Herald’s coverage. “It’s a cold, vicious killing. Totally, totally premeditated.”
After the shooting, the tellers rushed to the officer, who was lying in a pool of blood. Even as he was dying, they said, the first thing he asked was, “Are you all right?”
Detectives investigating the murder gathered evidence, interviewed witnesses and drew sketches of the men. But the break in the case came when a Santería priest called in a tip. Fernandez had confessed to the killing, the priest told police.
A month before Bauer’s murder, several of the men had taken part in the murder of Raul Lopez, 46, who was shot to death during a Hialeah robbery. Franqui, Abreu and San Martin were charged with and convicted of that murder.
Franqui and San Martin received death sentences for Lopez’s killing.
