A Polk County jury rejected the death penalty after convicting the Pennsylvania electrician of killing three co-workers in a Davenport rental home.

BARTOW, Fla. — Shaun Runyon is scheduled to return to court Oct. 22 for formal sentencing after a Polk County jury convicted him of three first-degree murders and then recommended life in prison without parole, ending the prosecution’s effort to have him sentenced to death.

The sentencing hearing will close the trial phase of a case that began with a workplace dispute nearly five years ago and ended with three electricians dead at a short-term rental in unincorporated Davenport. Runyon, 44, was found guilty Sept. 10 in the deaths of Kevin Lanusse, 41, Dewlon Donell, 46, and Gregory Dolezal, 41. Jurors also convicted him of attempted second-degree murder for an attack on another co-worker who survived. On Sept. 26, after a separate penalty proceeding, the same jury recommended life without the possibility of parole. Under Florida law, the court must impose life when a capital jury makes that recommendation.

The verdict resolved the central question of criminal responsibility but led directly to another: whether the killings warranted a death sentence. Prosecutors argued during the penalty phase that Runyon’s conduct showed planning, awareness and control. The defense presented testimony about delusional beliefs, substance abuse and mental-health problems, asking jurors to choose life. The jury’s decision did not disturb the murder convictions. It determined only the punishment for the first-degree murder counts.

The case arose from a contracting job in Central Florida. Runyon and the men he later killed worked for a Pennsylvania electrical company whose crew had been assigned work connected to Publix. Several members of the crew were staying together in a rented house near Davenport. On Oct. 1, 2021, Runyon and Lanusse, a supervisor, argued at the job site. Authorities said the disagreement became physical when Runyon punched Lanusse and left. Co-workers believed he was heading back to Pennsylvania, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.

Instead, investigators said, Runyon drove away from the work area and took a series of steps prosecutors later used to portray the killings as deliberate rather than spontaneous. Evidence described in trial reporting showed that he traveled to the Tampa area, left a work vehicle at Tampa International Airport, rented another car and bought an aluminum baseball bat at a Target store. Prosecutors also presented evidence that he acquired a prepaid phone, removed the SIM card from a work phone and later changed clothes. Those details became important because the state argued they showed a sustained course of preparation between the job-site confrontation and the killings.

Runyon returned to the rental the next morning. The Sheriff’s Office said Lanusse and Donell were asleep when they were attacked with the bat. Dolezal was also attacked and died after reaching the front-porch area. Another co-worker, Albert Read, was struck but survived. Three other people in the home, including a 7-year-old child, escaped without injury. Authorities said Runyon also had a knife, and evidence at trial described a violent struggle involving one of the victims. The attacks were reported to law enforcement shortly before 10 a.m.

Investigators said security-camera evidence and Runyon’s own statements helped reconstruct what happened. An arrest affidavit cited by news organizations said Runyon adjusted a camera near the rear entrance after noticing that it faced him. Prosecutors also relied on surveillance recordings from businesses visited before the killings and on vehicle records that tracked his movements. After leaving the rental, Runyon sought medical care for a wrist injury, according to trial accounts. Detectives located him at a hospital after a manhunt and obtained statements from him.

Some of Runyon’s statements became a contested part of the case. Authorities said he claimed that co-workers had sexually assaulted him and were connected to a drug cartel. Investigators said they found no evidence to support those allegations. Prosecutors instead tied the violence to the earlier dispute with Lanusse and argued that Runyon’s purchases, travel and changes in transportation showed he acted methodically. The defense did not erase those actions from the record but sought to put them in the context of a troubled mental state.

That dispute became especially important after the guilty verdict, when the proceeding shifted from determining whether Runyon committed the crimes to deciding whether he should live or die in prison. Defense experts testified that he had experienced delusional beliefs and that drug use could have worsened his condition. One psychologist said Runyon had suffered severe emotional disturbance. Family members described earlier episodes in which he appeared to believe people were watching, threatening or targeting him. His mother testified that she thought he had been doing better before the killings and had been attending church.

Prosecutors challenged the weight the jury should give that evidence. They argued that Runyon’s detailed memory and the sequence of his actions were inconsistent with an uncontrolled outburst. The state pointed to evidence of travel, purchases, a rented vehicle and other steps before and after the killings. In closing arguments, prosecutors emphasized the vulnerability of sleeping victims and the repeated nature of the attacks. The defense, in turn, asked jurors to treat mental illness and Runyon’s personal history as mitigation even though those factors did not excuse the crimes.

Florida’s capital-sentencing law required the jury to weigh aggravating factors against mitigating circumstances before recommending either death or life without parole. A death recommendation would have required at least eight jurors. If fewer than eight favored death, the recommendation had to be life without parole. The jury chose life. Florida law states that when a capital jury recommends life without parole, the trial judge must impose that sentence rather than substitute death. The formal hearing remains necessary to enter judgment and sentence and to address the separate attempted-murder conviction.

The outcome came after years of litigation between Runyon’s arrest in October 2021 and his trial, which opened Aug. 31, 2026, at the Bartow courthouse. A grand jury had indicted him later in October 2021 on murder charges arising from the three deaths. As the case moved toward trial, his mental condition became an issue for the defense, and evaluators examined him. The jury ultimately heard evidence about his mental health during the penalty phase after rejecting any argument that would prevent conviction for the killings themselves.

For the victims’ families, the Sept. 10 verdict established legal accountability for a case that began with co-workers traveling away from home for temporary employment. Lanusse was from Effort, Pennsylvania; Donell was from Baltimore; and Dolezal was from Ohio, according to the Sheriff’s Office. They were part of a work crew living under the same roof while assigned to the Florida project. The ordinary arrangement of contract workers sharing temporary housing became central to the case because it gave Runyon knowledge of where the men were staying and, prosecutors argued, of their schedules.

The evidence described at trial also gave jurors a chronology extending beyond the rental house. Prosecutors said Runyon’s movements after the workplace fight included a long drive, the purchase of the bat and changes involving his vehicle and phone. He then returned toward the Davenport area before the morning attacks. The state used that timeline to argue premeditation on each first-degree murder count. The guilty verdicts show the jury accepted the prosecution’s proof beyond a reasonable doubt on those charges.

The life recommendation, however, showed that jurors reached a different judgment when asked to select punishment. Capital trials separate those decisions: a finding of guilt does not automatically dictate death, and the penalty phase allows the defense to present mitigating evidence about a defendant’s background and condition. In Runyon’s case, jurors who had already convicted him were asked to consider the same acts alongside testimony about delusions, drug history and family observations. They chose the punishment that permanently removes him from the community without an execution.

Nearly five years after the killings, the case now stands at its final trial-court stage rather than another decision over capital punishment. Runyon is scheduled to appear Oct. 22 for formal sentencing, when the judge must impose life without parole on the three first-degree murder convictions and determine the sentence attached to his attempted second-degree murder conviction.

Author note: Last updated Oct. 21, 2026.