ORLANDO, Fla. — Tommy Zeigler — who has been on Florida’s death row for nearly 50 years — is asking an Orange County court to dismiss his convictions in the brutal killings of his wife, parents and customer in his furniture store on Christmas Eve 1975 and grant him a new hearing.

It’s the latest move by Zeigler’s attorneys, who have fought for decades to exonerate the now 80-year-old former Winter Garden business man. Zeigler has been on Florida’s death row longer than any other inmate.

On March 9, Circuit Judge Leticia Marques ruled that the evidence presented during a five-day hearing last December had not proved that Zeigler would be acquitted if he were granted a new trial.

On Monday, Zeigler’s lead attorney, Terry Hadley of Winter Park, responded to Marques’ ruling by filing a motion claiming the judge “overlooked several critical facts” that would “compel a different result” in her ruling.

“The evidence in this case has always indicated strongly that multiple perpetrators were involved” and that Zeigler was a victim, Hadley said in his motion. “28 bullets were fired from eight different guns. Five people were shot. And all that activity took place in a large furniture store that would have made it extremely difficult for a lone gunman to control so many victims.”

Zeigler was the owner of a furniture store on Dillard Street in 1975. According to prosecutors, Zeigler shot and killed his wife, Eunice, and mother-in-law, Virginia Edwards, after the store had closed for the day.

He then beat and shot to death his father-in-law, Perry Edwards, and later Charlie Mays, a Black laborer and frequent customer, according to authorities.

When police arrived, they found Zeigler laying on the floor near the front door with a gunshot wound in his stomach.

In their latest motion, Zeigler’s attorneys say that Marques’ and other judges over the years have overlooked Felton Thomas and Edward Williams — two Black laborers who testified against Zeigler at his 1976 trial — as culprits.

Zeigler has long claimed that Mays worked with Thomas and Williams to rob the furniture store after it had closed on Christmas Eve afternoon, but were surprised when Zeigler, his wife and in-laws walked in during the robbery.

“The evidence in the case shows that Mays was merely one of at least three perpetrators who committed the murders,” Hadley wrote in his motion. Mays’ accomplices “could have delivered the fatal blows to Mays to ensure he did not remain alive to identify them or testify against them,” the motion states.

Zeigler said he intended to give his in-laws — who had driven to Winter Garden from Georgia to visit their daughter — a new recliner chair from his store as a holiday gift. And they arrived to pick it out.

Prosecutors have said that Zeigler lured Thomas and Williams to the store that night in an attempt to frame them for the murders. Zeigler shot himself to make it look like he was a victim, according to authorities.

He was arrested days later while in the intensive care unit at a local hospital.

For decades, the Zeigler case has fascinated the public around the world, leading to television shows, books, documentaries and a variety of crime sleuths creating various conspiracy theories.

Many of Zeigler’s supporters still claim he is innocent and have asked why a 30-year-old successful business owner who was actively involved in his community would suddenly kill his wife, her parents and a customer in such a horrific way — and then shoot himself in the side.

But prosecutors have maintained that Zeigler was in debt and purchased two life insurance policies on his wife totaling $500,000 a month before the killings. They added that the Zeiglers were having marital difficulties, and his wife was considering a separation.

It was clear at the December evidentiary hearing that Zeigler is in poor health. He was wheeled into the courtroom in a wheelchair and used an oxygen cannula to breathe.

As of Friday, the State Attorney’s Office had not responded to Zeigler’s latest motion.

“The jury got it right in 1976,” Assistant State Attorney Joshua Schow said in December regarding Zeigler’s convictions.

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