Six Years After the Frostproof Fishing Killings, a Polk County Jury Hears the Capital Case

A Polk County jury is hearing evidence this week in the capital murder trial of Tony Wiggins, who is accused of killing three friends who had gone out for a night of fishing near Frostproof more than six years ago. Jury selection concluded the previous week, and the proceedings are expected to last roughly five weeks.

Wiggins faces three counts of first-degree murder, along with charges of tampering with physical evidence and being a felon in possession of a weapon. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty if he is convicted. He has not been convicted of these charges, and under Florida law he is presumed innocent until a jury returns a verdict.

The case has held the attention of Polk County since July 2020, when Damion Tillman, 23, Keven Springfield, 30, and Brandon Rollins, 27, were found along Lake Streety Road. The three had planned a night of catfishing. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd described the case in blunt terms at the time, and the details that emerged in the investigation have kept it in public view through six years of pretrial proceedings.

What prosecutors allege

According to the state's case, the three friends and Wiggins were all at the same Frostproof Dollar General store shortly before the killings. Store security footage placed Wiggins at that location. Prosecutors allege that Wiggins overheard the group discussing where they were heading and then followed them, accompanied by his brother and his girlfriend.

Investigators say forensic testing matched ammunition recovered from Wiggins's home to rounds fired at the scene. That evidence is likely to be central to the state's presentation, as ballistics and ammunition comparisons frequently are in cases without eyewitness testimony.

The Polk County Sheriff's Office has said investigators believe Wiggins held a grudge against Springfield related to a stolen truck engine. Motive is not an element the state must prove in a first-degree murder case, but prosecutors typically present it because juries expect an explanation.

Three people were arrested in connection with the case in 2020: Wiggins, his brother and his girlfriend. Wiggins was denied bond at the time while bond was set for the other two.

How a capital trial works in Florida

A death penalty trial in Florida proceeds in two phases. The guilt phase determines whether the defendant is guilty of the charged offenses. Only if the jury returns a first-degree murder conviction does the case move to a penalty phase.

In the penalty phase, the jury hears evidence on aggravating circumstances, which the state must prove, and mitigating circumstances, which the defense presents. Aggravating factors in Florida law include whether the murder was committed during another felony, whether it was especially heinous, atrocious or cruel, and whether the defendant has prior violent felony convictions. Mitigating factors can include the defendant's background, mental health and any circumstance the defense argues warrants a life sentence.

Florida changed its death penalty law in 2023. The state now requires a jury recommendation of at least eight of twelve jurors for a death sentence, rather than the unanimous recommendation previously required. That is the lowest threshold in the country among states that authorize capital punishment.

The trial judge makes the final sentencing determination and may impose a life sentence even where the jury recommends death, but may not impose death where the jury recommends life.

Why jury selection took a week

Selecting a jury in a capital case is substantially more involved than in an ordinary criminal trial, for two reasons.

The first is death qualification. Prospective jurors must be willing to consider imposing a death sentence if the law and evidence support it, and jurors who state they could never vote for death may be excused for cause. Jurors who would automatically vote for death regardless of the evidence may also be excused.

The second is pretrial publicity. A case that generated substantial local coverage in a county of Polk's size means many prospective jurors have heard about it. Courts address this by questioning jurors individually about what they know and whether they can set it aside.

The five-week estimate for the trial reflects the volume of forensic evidence, the number of witnesses, and the penalty phase that would follow a conviction.

What happened in July 2020

The three victims were ambushed along Lake Streety Road in a rural area near Frostproof as they headed out for a night of catfishing. Frostproof is a small city in southern Polk County, in an agricultural region of citrus groves, cattle land and lakes.

The location is relevant to how the case was investigated. Rural roads with no cameras, no immediate witnesses and limited nighttime traffic present a particular investigative challenge. Detectives built the case on physical evidence, phone records, store surveillance footage and witness accounts assembled after the fact.

The six-year gap between the killings and the trial is long but not extraordinary for a capital case. Death penalty prosecutions involve extensive pretrial motion practice, forensic testing, defense investigation into mitigation evidence and appellate litigation over pretrial rulings.

For the families of Damion Tillman, Keven Springfield and Brandon Rollins, that six years has meant waiting through a process that offers no resolution until it concludes.

What the defense will contest

The state's case, as described in public filings and law enforcement accounts, rests substantially on circumstantial evidence, and that is where the defense will focus.

Surveillance footage placing a defendant at a store shortly before a crime establishes presence in the area, not participation in the crime. The inference that he overheard the group's plans and followed them is exactly that, an inference, and the defense will argue it is not the only explanation for the footage.

Ammunition comparison is the more significant evidence, and it is also more contested as a forensic discipline than laypeople typically assume. Toolmark and ballistics comparison relies on an examiner's judgment about whether markings match, and scientific reviews in recent years have questioned the error rates and the strength of the conclusions examiners are permitted to state. Defense counsel in cases of this type routinely challenge both the methodology and the specific analysis.

The presence of co-defendants creates additional strategic dimensions. Prosecutors in multi-defendant homicide cases frequently secure cooperation from one participant in exchange for reduced exposure, and testimony from a cooperating co-defendant is both powerful and vulnerable, since the defense can argue the witness has an obvious incentive to shift blame.

Six years of pretrial litigation also means the defense has had extensive opportunity to test the state's evidence through depositions and motion practice, which is one reason capital cases take as long as they do to reach trial.

Florida's capital punishment landscape

This trial takes place against a backdrop of renewed activity in Florida's death penalty system after a period of relative quiet.

Florida changed its sentencing law in 2023 to permit a death sentence on a jury recommendation of eight of twelve jurors, down from the unanimity the state had required since 2017. That change followed a case in which a jury declined to unanimously recommend death, and it made Florida's threshold the lowest among states that authorize capital punishment.

The state has also resumed carrying out executions at a pace not seen in years, including its first execution of 2026 earlier this year. Florida maintains one of the largest death row populations in the country.

Those developments mean capital prosecutions carry more practical significance than they did during periods when death sentences were rarely imposed and even more rarely carried out. Prosecutors deciding whether to seek death, and juries deciding whether to recommend it, are operating in a system where the sentence is more likely to be executed than it was a decade ago.

Polk County juries will hear all of this only in the abstract. The penalty phase instructions address the aggravating and mitigating circumstances in the specific case, not the broader policy context.

What it means for Polk County

Capital trials are expensive and consume significant judicial resources. Polk County has a busy criminal docket, and a five-week trial occupies a courtroom, a judge and court staff for that entire period.

The Polk County Sheriff's Office under Grady Judd has been among the most publicly visible law enforcement agencies in Florida, and the sheriff's early characterization of the case shaped how the community understood it. That visibility is one reason jury selection required careful attention to what prospective jurors had already heard.

Florida has resumed executions in recent years after a period of relative inactivity, carrying out its first execution of 2026 earlier this year. The state's death row population and the pace of capital prosecutions have both drawn renewed attention.

The families and the wait

Six years between a killing and a trial is a long time for the people most affected, and Florida's court system provides specific mechanisms intended to address that.

Marsy's Law, added to the Florida Constitution by voters in 2018, gives crime victims and their families rights including notice of proceedings, the opportunity to be heard at relevant stages, and the right to confer with prosecutors. In a homicide case, those rights extend to the victims' immediate family members.

Victim advocates employed by the State Attorney's Office and by the sheriff's office work with families through the process, explaining continuances, accompanying them to hearings and preparing them for testimony where applicable. That support is one of the few constants across a case that can span years of procedural delay.

In a capital case, families are also affected by the penalty phase, where they may provide victim impact statements after a conviction. That testimony addresses the harm the loss caused rather than the defendant's culpability, and it comes at the end of a process the families did not choose and cannot control.

What's next

The trial continues over the coming weeks. If the jury convicts on first-degree murder, the penalty phase follows, adding time to the proceedings.

The cases against the two co-defendants arrested in 2020 proceed on their own tracks, and the outcome of Wiggins's trial may affect how those cases resolve.

A first-degree murder conviction carrying a death sentence in Florida triggers an automatic appeal to the Florida Supreme Court, a process that takes years. Whatever this jury decides, the legal proceedings in this case will continue well beyond the verdict.