Gaskin was born in 1967 and lived in Flagler County, Florida. He was known as Pappa.
In December 1989 he broke into houses in Palm Coast, shooting at people through windows before entering. On December 20 he shot Robert Sturmfels, fifty-six, and his wife Georgette, fifty-five, at their home, killing both, and took a small amount of property including a television and a microwave. Other shootings that month wounded two people. He was arrested on December 30, 1989.
He was convicted and sentenced to death on June 19, 1990. The press called him the ninja killer, from the dark clothing he wore.
He was executed by lethal injection at Florida State Prison on April 12, 2023, aged fifty-six, having spent thirty-three years under sentence of death.
His was among the death warrants signed in Florida in 2023 as executions there resumed at a pace not seen for years, and his case was argued on the ground that the jury recommendation had not been unanimous, a feature of Florida practice at the time that later law changed and then restored.
The figure of five covers the two convictions and the other shootings from that month.