Fla. man on Death Row does state a favor by killing himself: officials

A Florida man sentenced to death for raping and murdering a 13-year-old girl did the state a favor last week — by killing himself before it could execute him, officials said.

Matthew Caylor, 50, had been on Death Row for 16 years for raping and fatally strangling Melinda Hinson in 2008.

Caylor attacked Melinda while on the lam after molesting a 14-year-old girl in Georgia, authorities said.

He was living out of a motel room in Panama City so he could sell drugs on the side while in hiding — and Melinda, who lived in that same motel with her family, dropped by his room one day to ask for a cigarette.

Caylor wanted to make the trade “worth it,” according to court documents.

“[I]f I’m going to be in trouble for having sex with this girl being in my room, I might as well have sex with this girl,” Caylor told authorities of his thinking at the time.

Melinda tried to force him off her, and they eventually rolled off the bed and over a telephone, Caylor said. He then took the cord and strangled the flailing teenager with it until she died. Then he stuffed her body between the mattress and the bed frame, where motel cleaners found her two days later.

Caylor repeatedly tried to dodge Death Row through the courts, to no avail.

So he took matters into his own hands last week — a move that State Attorney Larry Basford claimed did a service to Floridians’ wallets.

“Matthew Caylor was a sexual predator that had violated his parole in Georgia and came down here for a last hurrah in Bay County,” Basford said. “After a trial and numerous appeals, he knew he was facing the same inevitable fate as Kayle Bates.

“By committing suicide, he saved the taxpayers of Florida a lot of money.”

It’s unclear how Caylor killed himself.

Kayle Bates, another inmate on the Sunshine State’s Death Row, was executed Tuesday. Bates had abducted a woman from a Florida Panhandle insurance office and killed her.

It’s unclear how much executions cost taxpayers today and if their grisly price tag varies by method.

In 2000, it cost about $24 million for each execution with the electric chair, the Palm Street Post said.

At that time, Florida had executed 44 prisoners. In the quarter century since the Palm Street Post’s findings, another 72 prisoners have been executed, including 10 in 2025 alone, according to the Florida Department of Corrections.

There are still more than 250 people waiting on Florida’s Death Row.