96 Pro Death Penalty Quotes by Victims' Families whom justice was served in the U.S.A (2010 to 2012)

Summary: Just before 6:30 a.m., 11 year old Elissa Self left her house in St. Louis for the bus stop to a school for gifted children. When she did not arrive, the school called Elissa's parents, who called the police. Four days later, her body was discovered in the St. Francis River near a recreation area, 135 miles south of St. Louis. Link was later pulled over on a traffic stop, and after a high speed chase, officers found a jar of petroleum jelly with Link's fingerprints on the jar and flecks of blood embedded in the jelly. DNA tests conducted by two different labs showed that Link's DNA matched the DNA found in sperm cells on vaginal swabs taken from Elissa's body. The state's DNA expert set the odds of such a match at one in 6,600. The testing also revealed that Elissa's DNA matched the DNA in the blood found in the petroleum jelly jar seized from Link's car. The odds of that match were one in 48. The joint probability of both of these matches occurring by chance was less than one in 300,000. At trial, Link called two DNA experts to testify that the DNA tests performed by the other two laboratories were faulty, and that the probabilities were incorrect.

Elissa's mother, Pamela Braun, was among several of the girl's relatives who witnessed the execution. She thanked police, prosecutors, even lab workers, for bringing Link to justice. Pam Braun, mother of Elissa Self-Braun, holds up a photo of her daughter while giving a statement after the execution of Martin Link just after midnight on Wednesday morning at the Bonne Terre Correctional Center. "We have been truly blessed the justice system has worked for Elissa, whereas there are still many victims and homicide survivors still waiting for justice," Braun said.

Elissa’s family and I would like to thank everyone who has loved us and supported us throughout the past 20 years as we have waited for the final piece of this tragedy to occur.

We want to thank all the law enforcement officers who worked on this case, specifically Detectives Miek Flaherty and Bill Roach who worked diligently to solve the case and gather the necessary evidence to convict him; the labs for all the work that they did in processing the evidence, particularly Harold Messler; the courts and attorneys who handled the legal aspects of prosecuting him; particularly Joe Warzycki and Jeff Hillard.

We have been truly blessed that the justice system has worked for Elissa, whereas there are still many homicide survivors and victims still waiting for justice.

I’m looking forward to being reunited with Elissa when this time on earth is through.

"It's been so long we had to deal with all of this," said Becky Washa, the victim's sister, of Sioux Falls, S.D. "Now it's finally over. I don't have to think about him any more."

"Closure has finally come to the family," John Washa said. "Why he did what he did to my daughter Holly I guess I'll never understand."

There have been only five executions since the death penalty was reinstated 30 years ago. The most recent was Cal Brown, who was put to death for the torture-murder of Holly Washa.

Holly's father, John Washa, said he still very much favors the death penalty.

"You do the crime, you pay for it," he said. "And if it's as bad as it was with my daughter, Holly, they need the death penalty."

Washa said even with the lengthy appeals process, it was worth it to watch Brown die.

"It took a long time, but I'm glad it's over with," he said. "We don't have to hear about him anymore."

Besides the savage attacks, the case was known for Powell's boastful jailhouse letter to Prince William County's chief prosecutor, which provided the crucial evidence that resulted in Thursday's execution. But it was Kristie Reed's eyewitness account that led to Powell's arrest and admission just hours after the slaying. She is left with decade-old memories of her sister and a neck laced with what she calls "battle scars." Formerly against the death penalty, Kristie eagerly awaited Powell's execution.

"I need to know that he's gone, that we don't have to deal with this anymore," said Kristie Reed, now 25 and an advocate for rape victims. "I was totally against the death penalty before this happened, and I didn't know why people would want to do it. But those people haven't been through what we've been through. Now I'm totally for it. He definitely deserves to die. He needs to die for what he did to Stacie."

Wednesday 21 November 2012 - "I just broke down and cried because it brought it all back, it's a heartbreaking experience for everybody," says Kia Scherr who lost her husband and daughter in the attack.

They had travelled to Mumbai for a meditation retreat from the United States and were killed as they dined at the Oberoi Hotel.

"Qasab's death is a kind of closure that brings peace, after a lot of unrest in the city. Now it's time to move on," she said.

Ms Scherr forgives Qasab for his actions: "Forgiveness is a bridge to peace... It doesn't mean I'm not outraged but I'm not going to spend my life in anger and resentment."

That said, Ms Scherr does support the death penalty on this rare occasion. "It's just appropriate," she says.

Ms Scherr spends much of her time in Mumbai now and has set up a charity, One Life Alliance, to promote peace and positivity among people, following the attacks. She says she wants a good outcome from something so horrific.

For her and other victims of the attacks, the 26/11 anniversary, which is just days away, will always be a painful one, but the sense that someone has been finally held accountable for the deaths makes the sense of injustice slightly more bearable than before.

Summary: In late May 1987, Richard Lynn Bible was released from prison after serving a sentence imposed in 1981 for kidnapping and sexual assault. At all times relevant to this case, Bible lived in Flagstaff, Arizona. In April 1988, the Coconino County Sheriff seized a dark green and white GMC "Jimmy" (or "Blazer-type") vehicle in Sedona, Arizona. The GMC had been used to deliver newspapers. A deputy who drove it to Flagstaff noticed rubber bands in the GMC, as well as damage to the left rear quarter panel. Another officer noticed the damaged quarter panel and saw bags of rubber bands in the vehicle. The Sheriff stored the vehicle in a fenced impound lot near Flagstaff, close to Sheep Hill. On June 5, 1988, Bible stole the GMC from the impound lot. A police officer saw the vehicle parked in Flagstaff later that day. The next day, June 6, 1988, shortly after 10:30 a.m., nine year-old Jennifer Wilson, began bicycling from where her family was staying in Flagstaff to a ranch a mile away. Jennifer's family passed her while driving to the ranch. When the child did not arrive at the ranch, her family began to search and found her bicycle by the side of the road. Unable to locate the girl, Jennifer's mother called the police at 11:21 a.m. The Flagstaff police arrived within minutes; they called in a helicopter, set up roadblocks, and alerted the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI"). Jennifer's mother told the police that she saw two vehicles on her way to the ranch. One was a royal blue Blazer-type vehicle. While at the ranch, she saw this same vehicle going the opposite direction at a high rate of speed. She described the driver as a dark haired, dark-complected Caucasian male, mid-to-late twenties, possibly wearing a white T-shirt. He had looked at her intently. That same day, Bible's brother was at his home near Sheep Hill. Bible arrived there shortly before 1:00 p.m., driving a dark green or dark silver, white-top Blazer-type vehicle with a dented left bumper — the vehicle Bible had stolen. Bible was wearing Levi pants, a plaid shirt, a camouflage baseball-type cap, and boots. He told his brother that the Blazer belonged to a friend. After Bible left, his brother — who thought that Bible had been stealing from him — called the police and described the vehicle. Shortly thereafter, a detective realized that Jennifer's mother's description of the Blazer-type vehicle and its driver approximated Bible and the GMC Jimmy. At about 5:00 pm, the GMC was discovered missing from the impound lot. At 6:20 pm, police officers saw Bible driving the GMC — although it had been painted a different color. The officers attempted to stop Bible, and a high-speed chase began. When finally cornered, Bible ran from the vehicle and hid. Using a tracking dog, officers found Bible hiding under a ledge, camouflaged with twigs, leaves, and branches. When arrested, Bible was wearing a "levi-type" jacket, jeans, a plaid shirt, boots, but no underwear. Bible also had wool gloves, and police found a baseball-type cap nearby. Police also found a large folding knife where Bible was hiding and another knife in one of his pockets. Within hours after his arrest, Bible confessed to stealing the GMC the previous day and painting the vehicle two hours before his arrest, but denied being in the area of the abduction. Bible had planned to drive the GMC to Phoenix, but a helicopter had him "pinned down." When Bible was booked, the police confiscated his clothing. Bible was incarcerated for the rest of the relevant time period. In the GMC, police found a green blanket and numerous rubber bands but no rubber band bags. The steering column had been cut open and one piece of metal had fallen to the floorboard. The GMC contained a case of twenty 50-milliliter bottles of "Suntory" vodka with two bottles missing. In the console was a wrapped cigar broken in two places, a "Dutchmaster" cigar wrapper and band were in the ashtray, and Carnation "Rich" hot chocolate packets were in the vehicle. Investigators found blood smeared inside and under the GMC, although testing did not reveal whether the blood was human. Following a large and unsuccessful police search, hikers accidentally found Jennifer's body near Sheep Hill nearly three weeks after her disappearance. Police secured the area and later videotaped the scene and processed evidence. Jennifer's naked body was hidden under a tree, mostly covered with branches, with her hands tied behind her back with a shoelace. Police found one of Jennifer's sneakers, without a shoelace, near the body. Jennifer's panties were in a tree nearby. An unwrapped, unsmoked cigar with two distinctive breaks in the middle was on the ground near the body. The cigars near the body and in the GMC looked very similar, had consistent breaks, and had identical seals. Microscopic analysis showed that the cigars had similar thresh cuts and tobacco mixtures. The cigars also had similar sieve test results and pH values. Although the nicotine values and ash content were slightly different, the cigars were from the same lot and were similar to, and consistent with, tobacco residue found in Bible's shirt pockets. An empty ten-pack box of Carnation "Rich" hot chocolate — matching the packets in the GMC — was near the body. Also nearby were two empty 50-milliliter "Suntory" vodka bottles — one approximately fifty feet from the body. Testing, which revealed no fingerprints, washed away the lot numbers on these empty bottles. In all other respects, these bottles were identical to the full bottles found in the GMC. Rubber bands were everywhere: on a path near the body; over, on, and under the body; in the tree where the panties were hanging; near Jennifer's other clothing; in the brush covering the body; in a tree above the body; and under a tree where one of Jennifer's shoes was found. Visual observation as well as testing revealed that the rubber bands in the GMC were round rather than oblong and were identical to those found near the body. A rubber band bag containing a few rubber bands was found five feet from the body. A patch of blood-matted grass was near the body. Testing revealed that this blood was human and was phosphoglucomutase ("PGM") subtype 2+, the same subtype as Jennifer's blood. Luminol spraying revealed a faint blood trail leading from the blood-matted grass to the body. Testing showed blood on the top of the branches covering the body. Near the body, police found a piece of metal that fit the GMC's steering column. In Flagstaff, at the location where the GMC was seen parked the day before Jennifer disappeared, police found another piece of metal from the vehicle's steering column. The three metal pieces (found inside the GMC, near the body, and where the GMC had been parked) fit together like jigsaw puzzle pieces. An investigator concluded that the three metal pieces were part of the GMC's steering column. An autopsy revealed that portions of the body (including the head and genital area) were severely decomposed, consistent with having been on Sheep Hill for approximately three weeks. Multiple skull fractures and a broken jawbone indicated that blows to the head caused Jennifer's death. The blood-matted grass near the body was consistent with the blows being inflicted there. Although the body was naked with the hands tied, suggesting sexual molestation, no sperm or semen was found. The physician performing the autopsy took pubic hair and muscle samples. Near the body were several clusters of golden brown hair approximately six to ten inches long. Although the hair found at the scene appeared to be lighter in color, it was microscopically similar to Jennifer's hair and could have come from her. In one of the locks of hair, an examiner found a pubic-type hair. This pubic-type hair was similar to Bible's pubic hair samples. Long brown hair found on Bible's jacket, shirt, and in his wallet were similar to Jennifer's hair and could have come from her. Investigators found hair similar to Bible's on a sheet used to wrap the body, and hair found on Jennifer's T-shirt was similar to Bible's. Hair on a blanket in the GMC was similar to Jennifer's, with a total of fifty-seven hairs in the GMC being similar to Jennifer's hair. Some of the hair found near the body, as well as the hair on Bible's shirt and in his wallet, was cut on one side and torn on the other. The investigator had never before seen such a cut/tear pattern but was able to duplicate the pattern by using the knives Bible possessed when arrested as well as other sharp knives. Twenty-one of the twenty-two hairs on Bible's jacket had similar cut/tears. Fibers found at Sheep Hill were identical to the GMC's seat covers, and similar to fibers from Bible's jacket lining and the green blanket in the GMC. Fibers in the lock of hair containing the pubic-type hair were similar to fibers from Bible's jacket. Fibers similar to those from the green blanket in the GMC were located in the branches covering the body. Microscopically, a green fiber on the sheet used to wrap the body was similar to fibers from the green blanket. A blue or purple fiber on the shoelace tying Jennifer's hands was similar to the lining in Bible's jacket. Investigators found blood on Bible's shirt, pants, and boots. The spatter pattern on the shirt was consistent with beating force. Testing could not determine whether the blood on his boots was human but revealed that the blood on Bible's shirt was human and PGM 2+ subtype, the same subtype as Jennifer's blood. Less than three percent of the population has PGM 2+ subtype. Because Bible is PGM 1+ subtype, the blood could not have been his. Testing performed by Cellmark Diagnostic Laboratories, Inc., showed that the deoxyribonucleic acid ("DNA") in the blood on Bible's shirt and Jennifer's DNA were a "match." Cellmark concluded that the chances were one in fourteen billion or, more conservatively, one in sixty million that the blood on Bible's shirt was not Jennifer's. While still in jail for stealing the GMC, Bible was charged with first degree murder, kidnapping, and molestation of a child under the age of fifteen. In April 1990, a jury convicted Bible on all charges and Bible was sentenced to death on the murder conviction.  

"Today needed to happen," said Jennifer's father, Rich, after the execution.

Rich, Nancy and family, holding hands, left the crowded little room and into the heat of the day to be escorted away. The family made statements a short time later. "We'd like to offer our condolences to the Bible family," Rich said. "We know it must be a hard time for them also."

He thanked the communities of Flagstaff and Yuma for their support and prayers. "We could not stay intact as a family (without the support)," he said. "We could not have seen this through to fruition." Rich also thanked the law enforcement and criminal justice officials who helped. "Twenty-three years has been a very, very long time," he said, later adding. "The system does work." The system may be slow, cumbersome and frustrating, but it does work, Rich said. "As a family, we've started the healing process now," he added.

Nancy, flanked by sons Adam and Brian and daughter Michele, said, "Justice is served today." The anguish felt on June 6, 1988, went far beyond them as a family and into the communities of Flagstaff and Yuma. "We want to thank everybody for their support and prayers," she said.

Susan Wilson believes the execution of Bible, 49, will bring the family long-awaited “closure” for an “evil act.” “It's justice. It's sad it happened. It's not an easy feeling for any of us. We are just thinking about Jennifer. I wish it had never happened. We never got to see her graduation and the life things that should have been. It's very sad.”

Although the execution will bring closure, “we will never forget Jennifer,” Susan said. “The pain is still there. The pain of Richard and Nancy losing their daughter will always be there. We have to just go on. “Jennifer suffered and that's not right. The pain is there, but it's going to be over.”

Summary: After a night of bar hopping and injesting crack cocaine, LSD, and alcohol, at 6:00 a.m. Williams returned to the Paravicini trailer in Irvington where he had been temporarily living with the family. After talking to his estranged wife on the phone, Williams grabbed a .22-caliber rifle and shot Gerald Paravicini. He then beat Paravicini's wife with the gun and shot her 16-year-old son in the face. He then walked to a neighbor's house about 200 yards away and gunned down Linda Barber, who was getting ready for work at the U.S. Postal Service, and Freddie Barber, who was drinking coffee in the kitchen. He walked into a bedroom and shot the couple's 22-year-old son Bryan as he slept. A younger brother, 16-year-old Brad, was shot in the hand before he ran away. Williams stole the family van, cash and credit cards and fled the scene. He was apprehended in Mississippi, telling law enforcement that he had thrown the rifle over a bridge and that he did not remember the shootings.

“Ill be 75 years old in a few months and I never did think I would live to see this day, but I did, and I thank that good Lord for it.”

 

For Louie Barber, watching this execution was closure.

"I feel now that my brother and his wife and his son can rest in peace,” said Barber.

Family members of the victims, including some who witnessed the execution from the front row in the death chamber, said the execution provided a measure of closure. But Paul Chapman, who is Martha's brother and Lisa's uncle, said he was upset that Ford's final words didn't include an apology. "A weight has been lifted off of my shoulders," said Paul Chapman, a New Jersey pastor. "I was hoping to hear at the end he would apologize and ask for forgiveness. I believe a good Christian would ask for a prayer."

Summary: Paul Ezra Rhoades had been loitering around convenience stores in the Blackfoot and Idaho Falls area, including the Red Mini Barn in Blackfoot. Stacy Baldwin worked at the Red Mini Barn and began her night shift around 9:45 p.m. on February 27, 1987. Some time before 11:00 p.m., Carrie Baier and two other girls rented videos at the Mini Barn from Stephanie Cooper, Baldwin’s co-worker. Cooper’s shift ended at 11:00 p.m, which left Baldwin alone. When Baier returned around midnight, she noticed a man leave the store, get into a pickup truck (it turned out to be one used by the Rhoades family), and drive recklessly toward her. Baier saw a passenger next to the driver, but neither she nor her friends could identify the driver or the passenger. Baier went into the Mini Barn but could not find Baldwin, though Baldwin’s coat was still there and her car was outside. The last recorded transaction at the store was at 12:15 a.m. $249 was missing from the cash register. Rhoades and another male had coffee at Stan’s Bar and Restaurant, near the Mini Barn, sometime between 1:30 a.m. and 2:00 a.m. on February 28. Baldwin’s body was found later that morning near some garbage dumpsters on an isolated road leading to an archery range. She had been shot three times. According to a pathologist, Baldwin died from a gunshot wound to the back and chest, but may have lived for an hour or so after the fatal shot was fired. On March 22 or 23, Rhoades’s mother reported her green Ford LTD had been stolen. Rhoades was seen driving a similar looking LTD on March 22, and on March 24, truckers saw the LTD parked on a highway median in Northern Nevada. They also saw a person matching Rhoades’s description lean out of the car, fumble with a dark brown item, and run off into the sagebrush. A Nevada trooper responding to the scene found a .38 caliber gun on the ground near the open door of the car, and a holster about forty-five feet away. Ballistics testing would show that this weapon had fired the bullets that killed Baldwin. Rhoades turned up about 11:00 in the morning of March 25 at a ranch a mile and a half from where the LTD was found. Later that day, he got a ride from the ranch to Wells, Nevada, where he was dropped off at the 4 Way Casino around 9:00 p.m. Nevada law enforcement officers arrested Rhoades while he was playing blackjack. They handcuffed him, set him over the trunk of the police car, and read him his Miranda rights. Meanwhile, Idaho authorities were alerted to a Rhoades connection when the LTD was discovered. They had previously obtained a warrant for Rhoades’s arrest for burglary of Lavaunda’s Lingerie, and arrived at the 4 Way Casino shortly after Rhoades was arrested. As the Idaho officers — one of whom Rhoades knew from home — approached, Rhoades said: “I did it.” Rhoades was advised of his Miranda rights by an officer from Idaho, Victor Rodriguez, and searched by another Idaho officer, Dennis Shaw. Rhoades had a digital wrist watch in his pocket, which he claimed to have found in a “barrow pit.” It was just like the one Baldwin was wearing the night she was killed. During the booking process at the Wells Highway Patrol Station, Shaw remarked something to the effect: “If I had arrested you earlier, Stacy Baldwin may be alive today.” Rhoades replied: “I did it.” Shaw then said, “The girl in Blackfoot,” and Rhoades again replied, “I did it.”3 Forensic analysis would show that footprints found in the snow near Baldwin’s body were consistent with the size and pattern of Rhoades’s boots, and that Rhoades’s hair was consistent with a hair on Baldwin’s blouse. Rhoades also admitted to a cellmate that he kidnapped Baldwin, took her to an archery range intending to rape her but was unable to do so because she was hysterical, and shot her twice in the back. II Based on this evidence, the jury found Rhoades guilty of murder in the first degree, kidnapping in the first degree, and robbery. The state court held an aggravation and mitigation hearing, after which it sentenced Rhoades to death on the conviction for first degree murder and the conviction for first degree kidnapping. In 1987, Paul Ezra Rhoades was charged with the rape and murder of Susan Michelbacher as well as the murder and robbery of Nolan Haddon. Rhoades pleaded not guilty to all charges and filed a motion to sever the charges, which was subsequently granted. Rhoades was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death on the charges relating to the Michelbacher rape and murder. The parties subsequently entered into a plea agreement relating to the Haddon murder/robbery wherein Rhoades entered an “Alford” plea, maintaining his innocence in the case but conceding that “a conviction may be had on the charges as presently filed.” Rhoades was sentenced to serve concurrent indeterminate life sentences for the Haddon murder and robbery. The evidence that would have been introduced at a trial for the Haddon murder included the gun used to kill Haddon found in the vicinity of a green car abandoned by Rhoades, statements made by Rhoades at the time of his arrest, and statements allegedly made to a jailhouse informer. Further evidence would have included witness testimony placing a car matching the description of the car in which Rhoades was found at the scene of the Haddon murder, law enforcement officers' testimony that items found in Rhoades' possession were similar to the items taken at the time of the Haddon robbery, and testimony regarding Rhoades' purchase of bullets matching the caliber of those used in Haddon‟s murder. The gun is notable in the present case as the same gun was presented as the murder weapon in the case relating to the rape and murder of Susan Michelbacher. Nolan Haddon worked the night shift at Buck’s convenience store in Idaho Falls, Idaho on March 16, 1987. The next morning, Buck’s owner found Haddon lying on the floor in a pool of blood. He had been shot five times. He was still alive at the time, but unconscious. He died at the hospital. An inventory of the store showed that some BIC lighters, Marlboro cigarettes, and $116 in cash were missing. The police suspected Rhoades of a string of burglaries, including one at Lavaunda’s Lingerie, and obtained a warrant to arrest Rhoades for that burglary on March 23, 1987. They learned that he was in Nevada when, on March 24, a Nevada state trooper responded to an accident involving a green Ford that was reported stolen by Rhoades’s mother, Pauline Rhoades. The next evening, two Nevada law enforcement officers arrested Rhoades inside a Wells Casino. They handcuffed him, placed him across the trunk of the police car, and advised him of his Miranda rights.3 Idaho officials were contacted and went to the Casino. As the Idaho team approached, Rhoades stated “I did it” without being questioned by anyone. Officer Victor Rodriguez, from Idaho, again advised Rhoades of his Miranda rights. Rhoades was asked if he understood those rights, and said something to the effect of “I do, yes.” Detective Dennis Shaw, also from Idaho, searched Rhoades, and found two packages of Marlboro cigarettes and five BIC lighters similar to those taken from the store. Shaw also found a ten dollar bill, a one dollar bill, and a one-hundred dollar bill. He told Rhoades he had found three dollars, to which Rhoades responded: “It better be $111.” Rhoades was then taken to the Wells Highway Patrol substation for booking. At the station, Shaw remarked that he wished he had arrested Rhoades on an earlier occasion, and that he would probably have saved the last victim’s life. Rhoades raised his head and said, “I did it.”

The Haddons agreed that the death penalty is necessary.

“I believe the death penalty would be the best sentence,” Julie Haddon said. “It won’t bring Nolan back, but it seems after all the things (Rhoades) did (it should proceed).”

Wes Haddon agreed.

“I would like to see a death penalty on it because of what he did to the two other victims,” he said. “(Rhoades) lived so long now, I’m sick and tired of hearing about it. It keeps going on and on.”

Stacy Baldwin’s mother-in-law, Evelyn Baldwin of Salmon, said she believes Rhoades must be punished for his crimes.

“He needs to pay for the horrible things he did and the hurt he caused to this family,” she said. “Not only that of the people that were (victims’) relatives, but the whole southeastern Idaho.”

 

Summary: Hooper dated Cynthia Jarman for more than a year until the summer of 1993. Their relationship was physically violent, and Hooper threatened to kill Cindy on several occasions. Cindy began dating his friend, Bill Stremlow and later began living with him. On December 7, Cindy drove Stremlow to work and used his car. Later that night, Stremlow's truck was found burning in a field in northwest Oklahoma City. An accelerant had been used. Cindy was never seen again. Hooper's fingerprints were later found on a whiskey bottle inside the Stremlow residence. An area rancher reported discovering blood and shell casings on his property. Police found the bodies of Cynthia Jarman and her two children, Tonya (5) and Timothy (3) buried in a shallow grave. Each had been shot twice in the head or face. Police arrested Hooper and searched his parents' home. The police recovered a .9 mm weapon Hooper had purchased several months prior to the murders. Ballistics confirmed that the shell casings near the gravesite were a match to this weapon. Police also recovered two shovels with soil consistent with soil from the grave site, and tennis shoes that matched the footprints found there. A witness testified that Hooper had visited this field several times in the past.

“It’s not going to change what happened. But justice will be served,” said Diane Roggy, Cynthia Jarman’s mother and grandmother to her children.

CASE: Michael Edward Hooper met Cynthia Jarman in early 1992, and they dated through the summer of 1993. Their relationship was physically violent, and Hooper threatened to kill Cindy on several occasions. Cindy had called the police during their fights on more than one occasion. At one point, each had a victim's protective order against the other.

In July 1993, Cindy began dating Hooper's friend, Bill Stremlow. Hooper bought a Smith & Wesson 9mm pistol on July 15, 1993. During a traffic stop the next day the Oklahoma City Police Department [OCPD] confiscated the gun. The OCPD returned the gun on October 23, 1993, but kept the ammunition. Hooper went target shooting with friends in fields northwest of Oklahoma City the day he bought the gun and after it was returned. He took the gun when he worked out-of-state in late October and November and refused a co-worker's offer to buy it.

A day or two before the murders, Hooper showed a 9mm pistol to a neighbor. In November, three weeks before the murders, Cindy and her children began living with Stremlow. He told Cindy that Hooper was not welcome in their home. Before moving in with Stremlow, Cindy told a friend that Hooper had previously threatened to kill her if she ever lived with another man. On December 6, 1993, Cindy confided in a friend that she wanted to be with Hooper one last time and then stop seeing him.

On the morning of December 7, 1993, Cindy and her children dropped Stremlow off at work and Cindy borrowed his truck for the rest of the day. Cindy picked up her daughter, Tonya, at school at 3:30 that afternoon. At that time, Tonya's teacher saw Tonya get into Stremlow's truck next to a white man who was not Stremlow. Cindy failed to pick up Stremlow from work that evening as planned, and Stremlow never saw Cindy again. Cindy had Stremlow's only house key and he had to borrow his landlord's key to get in his house that night. Later that night, Stremlow's truck was found burning in a field in northwest Oklahoma City. The truck's windows were broken out. An accelerant had been used to set the truck on fire. Stremlow recovered the vehicle the next day.

When Stremlow returned to his house, although there were no signs of forced entry, a dresser drawer was disturbed, a Jim Beam whiskey bottle was on the dresser, and ten dollars in cash was missing. Hooper's fingerprints were later found on the Jim Beam bottle, and other evidence showed Hooper and Cindy drank that brand of whiskey. Cindy and her children were reported missing on December 9. Police attempted to interview Hooper; he failed to come to the station and denied seeing Cindy for the past six months. Hooper appeared nervous and had a fresh scratch on his arm. Also on December 9, an area rancher noticed damage to his gate leading to a northwest Oklahoma City field. Inside the field he found broken glass, tire tracks, a bloody sock and a pool of blood. After hearing the missing persons report, the rancher contacted police. The next day police searched the field and found broken glass, tire tracks, a footprint, shell casings, a child's bloody sock, a pool of blood near a tree with a freshly broken branch, a blue fiber near the tree, and a shallow grave site covered by limbs, leaves and debris. The grave appeared to be soaked with gasoline. Tonya, Timmy and Cindy were buried atop one another. Each victim had been shot twice in the head or face. There was a hole in the hood of Tonya's blue and purple jacket, and the white fiber lining protruded. A 9mm bullet pinned a white fiber to a branch on the grave. The branch appeared to have been broken from the tree near the pool of blood. The fibers were consistent with the white fibers in Tonya's jacket. Although investigators never recovered the bullets, the wounds were consistent with nine millimeter ammunition.

Police arrested Hooper and searched his parents' home. The police recovered a nine millimeter weapon Hooper had purchased several months prior to the murders. Police also recovered two shovels with soil consistent with soil from the grave site, two gas cans, and broken glass consistent with glass found in Tonya's coat and near the gate at the field. Police found a 9 mm bullet in Hooper's pocket. Police officers also seized Hooper's tennis shoes. The shoes made prints similar to those found at the murder scene, and DNA tests revealed the presence of blood consistent with Cindy's blood on the shoes. At trial, a ballistics expert testified that shell casings from the crime scene matched casings fired from Hooper's weapon. Hooper's former wife testified that Hooper was familiar with the field where the bodies were found, and that he previously had visited the field with her on several occasions.

Based on this evidence, the jury convicted Hooper of three counts of first degree murder. During the capital sentencing proceeding, the jury found two aggravating factors existed with respect to all three victims: (1) Hooper had created a great risk of death to more than one person, and (2) Hooper was a continuing threat to society. Additionally, the jury found a third aggravating factor existed with respect to Tonya Jarman: Hooper had committed the murder to avoid arrest or prosecution for the murder of Cynthia Jarman. After considering Hooper's mitigating evidence, the jury imposed the death sentence for each count.

UPDATE: It’s been almost 19 years since Barbie Jarman’s grandchildren were shot to death along with their 23-year-old mother, but she still has vivid memories of the children whom she described as so very, very precious. "The fact that they were murdered doesn’t lessen what they were to you,” Jarman said. “They still are very, very close to my heart. That doesn’t ever change.” For family members of the victims, Hooper’s execution will culminate a long journey that began with the trauma of learning about their violent deaths. “It’s not going to change what happened. But justice will be served,” said Diane Roggy, Cynthia Jarman’s mother and grandmother to her children. “The loss is still there. The pain never goes away,” said Cynthia’s sister, Renee Weber. “It will never be over, in my mind, until they close my casket,” Roggy said. Cynthia Jarman, a cosmetologist, “was just a beautiful person, full of life,” Weber said. “She was a very good mom. Timmy was a very bubbly little kid. He was just very playful,” she added. “Tonya was very smart.” The children’s uncle, Jeramy Jarman, said they “were amazing kids. These were my first experiences as an uncle. I was extremely proud. We had a lot of fun.” Jeramy Jarman said that after almost 19 years, he is ready for the case to come to an end. “This man is just an animal as far as I’m concerned."

The victims' family later issued a statement offering "our sincerest condolences" to Hooper's relatives. "This has been a long and arduous journey for all of the families," the statement said. "We hope to close this chapter in our lives." 

Summary: In October 1996, Trisha Stemple’s body was found near Highway 75 in Tulsa County, Oklahoma. Her death was briefly investigated as a hit-and-run accident, but as the investigation progressed, the Tulsa Police Department began to suspect that Timothy Shaun Stemple had orchestrated the death of his wife.

Stemple was ultimately charged in her death with First Degree Malice Aforethought Murder, Conspiracy to Commit First Degree Murder, and Attempted First Degree Murder. At trial, the prosecution put forth evidence that Stemple concocted a plan to murder his wife, mother of his two children, then ages 11 and 6, and collect the proceeds of her life insurance policy, worth almost $1,000,000.

Stemple was having an extra-marital affair with Dani Wood. Dani Wood had a sixteen year old cousin, Terry Lee Hunt. According to Hunt, Stemple offered him $25,000 to $50,000 to help kill Trisha (if they collected the insurance money). Hunt recruited another person, Nathanial Helm to assist in the plan. Helm and Hunt went to Wal-Mart where they purchased a baseball bat and plastic wrap. The plastic wrap was wrapped around the bat to keep the bat from getting bloody. On October 10, 1996, Hunt and Helm went to the designated location on highway 75 and waited for Stemple and his wife to arrive. A while later Stemple drove up and told Helm and Hunt that Trisha was ill and he could not get her to accompany him.

Two weeks later, Stemple arranged for Hunt to drive Stemple's pickup to a particular location on highway 75 and leave the hood up. Stemple and Trisha arrived in their black Nissan Maxima. Stemple began working on the truck and Trisha stood next to the truck. Hunt came up behind Trisha and hit her in the head with the bat. The blow did not render Trisha unconscious, so Stemple took the bat and hit her several more times. Stemple and Hunt then placed Trisha's head in front of the front tire of the pickup and attempted to run over her head, however, the tire would not roll over Trisha's head so her head was pushed along the pavement. After this, Trisha tried to get up. Stemple grabbed the bat and hit her several more times. The pair then placed Trisha's body under the truck and drove over her chest.

After this Trisha rose up on her elbows, so Stemple hit her again several times with the bat. Stemple then went back to the black Nissan and drilled a hole in the front tire to make it look as if Trisha's car had a flat. One expert testified that the hole in the tire had spiral striations consistent with drilling. Stemple and Hunt left in the pickup, but decided to turn around to make sure Trisha was dead. When they got back to the spot where they left Trisha, they noticed that she had crawled into the grass beside the road. Stemple then sped up and ran over Trisha as she lay in the grass. Trisha's body was found later that morning, after Stemple called reporting that she was missing.

The autopsy evaluation revealed that Trisha had fractures to her arm, ribs, pelvis, vertebrae and skull. The medical examiner concluded that Trisha died from blunt force trauma to the head. While in the Tulsa County jail awaiting trial, Stemple made numerous notes including confessions, lists of witnesses, etc. Inmates testified that Stemple tried to get them to arrange the death of several witnesses. The inmates also testified that Stemple gave them a copy of his confession. Included in these writings were sample letters for witnesses Terry Hunt and Dani Wood, detailing their involvement and exculpating him from the crime. Hunt and Wood were to be coerced into rewriting and signing the letters by persons hired by the other inmates.

Stemple claimed that he was at home when Trisha left during the middle of the night. Stemple testified that he believed that Wood was responsible for the murder of Trisha. Additionally, the prosecutor introduced a five-minute long videotape of an interview Tulsa police officers conducted with Stemple prior to his arrest, during which Stemple stated that he knew “how ugly this looks for me,” summarized the evidence which he believed the police would use against him, and eventually invoked his right to counsel.

Ultimately, the jury convicted Stemple on all three counts. During the separate penalty-phase proceeding, the jury found the existence of two aggravating circumstances: (1) Stemple committed the murder for remuneration or the promise of remuneration; and (2) the murder was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel. The jury therefore recommended that Stemple be sentenced to death on the murder conviction. The trial court sentenced him in accordance with the jury’s recommendations. Hunt pled guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

“Today is not about Shaun,” said Trisha’s little sister Deborah Ruddick-Bird. “Today is about justice and finality and closure for my gorgeous sister Trisha and my family.”

Trisha’s father was out of the country on a missionary trip but a lifelong friend wrote a statement on his behalf. A portion of the statement: “Before the judgment seat of Christ the Lord will determine the eternal outcome for his soul,” wrote Morris Ruddick.

Stemple will be a man they never have to face again.

“Today we put a period at the end of a chapter that has held us captive for far, far too long,” said Trisha’s sister.

They have a future without a woman they loved but also without the man who took her from them.

“Today we say all is well,” said Trisha’s sister. “Today we say it is finished.”

Summary: Nancy Hatten lived next door to her daughter, Mrs. Rhonda Hatten Griffis, age 28, in Petal. After not getting an answer on the telephone, she went to the trailer next door just as Rhonda;'s husband, David Griffis drove up to the trailer with their two children. As Nancy Hatton entered, she saw Puckett raising a club coming towards her. As she backed away, David entered the house. The Griffis family knew Puckett because he was once employed by David Griffis. Nancy took the children and ran out. David asked Puckett about the blood on the club and Puckett indicated he had hit a deer and stopped to use the telephone. David dialed 9-1-1, then struggled with Puckett, eventually getting the club away from from Puckett, who took off running. As he retrieved a rifle, he then saw Rhonda laying on the floor and dialed 9-1-1 again. Puckett's truck was recovered the next night in a wooded area and he was arrested two days later.

"Nothing will ever fill that void," Nancy Hatten said of the death of her 28-year-old daughter. "It will always be in our lives, the void that Matt caused. There will be closure to this on the side of justice, but there will never be closure for us for our daughter as part of our lives."

"He knew he murdered her," Nancy Hatten said. "He also knew the serious penalty for murder. He still committed murder, therefore accepting the penalty."

She said Puckett's decision not only caused her family great grief, but his own. Puckett's family did not witness his execution at his request.

"Our daughter was murdered in such a horrendous way, and it is so difficult to comprehend that anyone would ever or could ever do that to her, but we do know she is no longer suffering, that she is at peace and one day we will be with her again," Nancy Hatten said.

CASE: Mary Pal was a native of Sudan and lived with her aunt and uncle in Fort Worth. She worked at River Crest Country Club. On February 13, 2002, Cleve Foster and Sheldon Ward met Nyanuer "Mary" Pal at Fat Albert's, a Fort Worth bar where all three were regular customers. According to the bartender, Pal interacted primarily with Ward until the bar closed at 2:00 a.m. She then walked to the parking lot with Ward where they talked for a few minutes. Afterwards, Pal left in her car, which was followed closely by Foster and Ward driving in Foster's truck. Approximately eight hours later, Pal's nude body was discovered in a ditch far off a road in Tarrant County. She had been shot in the head. A wadded-up piece of bloody duct tape lay next to her body. Her unlocked car was later found in the parking lot of the apartment complex where she lived.

The police investigation focused on Foster and Ward once police learned that they had been with Pal that night. On February 21, 2002, police searched the motel room shared by Foster and Ward. Only Foster was present. He directed the police to a dresser drawer that contained a gun Ward had purchased from a pawn shop in August 2001. Later that day, Foster voluntarily went to the police department to give a statement and to provide a DNA sample. In his statement, Foster first denied Pal had been inside his truck. However, he then admitted that she may have leaned inside. Finally, he admitted that "they" went cruising, but that "they" brought Pal back to her vehicle at Fat Albert's. Police also obtained a DNA sample from Ward sometime on the night of February 21, 2002.

In the early morning hours of February 22, 2002, Ward called a friend to ask if he could stay with him. Ward told the friend over the phone that he was in trouble because he killed someone. The friend arrived at the motel around 2:00 or 2:30 a.m. to pick up Ward. While in the truck, Ward told his friend that he followed a girl home from a bar, forced her into a truck at gunpoint, took her out to the country, raped her, and shot her. Ward did not mention Foster. The friend stopped the truck at a store and got the police to arrest Ward. Ward then told police that he had been drinking heavily and using cocaine the night of the offense. He claimed that he and Pal arranged to meet after Fat Albert's closed. Ward also told the police that he drove alone to Pal's apartment in Foster's truck to pick up Pal, and that he and Pal had consensual vaginal and anal sex on the front seat of Foster's truck before they drove back to the motel room where Foster was "pretty much passed out" on the bed. Ward claimed that he and Pal had consensual vaginal sex again in the motel room before they left to drive around. Ward recalled standing over Pal's body lying on the ground with a gunshot wound to her head and a gun in his hand. Ward claimed not to remember firing the gun. He told police that he stripped her body and dumped her clothes in a dumpster. Ward explained that he left a note in the motel apologizing to Foster for involving him. Ward also stated that he told his friend a few hours earlier that he had sex with a girl and killed her.

On March 22, 2002, Foster gave another written statement to police in which he claimed: (1) he and Ward followed Pal to her apartment after meeting her at Fat Albert's; (2) Pal voluntarily went with them to their motel room in his truck; (3) after taking sleeping pills and drinking beer, Foster fell asleep watching television while Ward and Pal kissed; and (4) Foster awoke to Pal performing oral sex on him. In addition to Foster's and Ward's statements, physical evidence also linked the two to the offense. DNA tests established that semen found in Pal's vagina contained Foster's DNA, and semen found in Pal's anus contained Ward's DNA. Ward may also have been a minor contributor to the semen found in Pal's vagina. DNA testing also revealed that Pal's blood and tissue were on the gun recovered during the motel room search. In addition, a police detective and medical examiner testified that Pal was not shot where her body was found because there was no blood splatter in the area. Since the soles of her feet indicated that she had not walked to the location where her body was found, the detective testified that he was "very comfortable" with stating that two people carried Pal's body to that location.

In support of his testimony, the detective noted that the raised-arm position of Pal's body suggested she may have been carried by her feet and hands. In addition, the detective noted that Pal was five-seven and 130 pounds and Ward is only five-six and 140 pounds, while Foster is six feet tall and around 225 pounds.

In February 2004, Foster was convicted of the rape and capital murder of Pal. Based on the necessary jury findings during the punishment phase, the trial court sentenced Foster to death. Sheldon Ward was also sentenced to death for Mary Pal's murder but he died of a brain tumor in prison in May 2009. The gun that was used as the murder weapon was also identified as the gun used in December 2001 to kill Rachel Urnosky, 22, at her apartment in Fort Worth. Both men were charged in Rachel's murder, but never tried. Foster told police they were both at her apartment but they left after she refused to have sex with them.

When she did not report for work at Buckle, a clothing store at a local shopping mall, her manager called police. They found the door to her apartment open and Rachel was found shot to death in her bed. Rachel was a magna cum laude graduate from Texas Tech and an officer with the Baptist Student Mission and spent her spring breaks on mission trips. She had recently gotten engaged.

Rachel's father Terry Urnosky said his wife and other three daughters were just taking life one day at a time, hoping some day they'll find new hope and the strength to continue. "She was just so cruelly and so quickly taken away it has just left a void that it can be a real struggle just to put one foot in front of the other. Her whole life she just wanted the best for people, to do anything she could possibly do to make their life a success, she was a blessing everywhere she went and she'll be so missed, so sorely missed by all of us."

The US Supreme Court granted a stay of execution to Cleve Foster in April 2011, just a few hours before he was supposed to face his punishment for the murder of Mary Pal. The court granted the stay based on claims that Foster's attorneys were ineffective. This was the second time Foster received a stay on the day of execution. Rachel Urnosky's family had traveled to Huntsville from Lubbock. "I just want it to be over," said Rachel's mother, Pam. "This is astounding to me. The irony is that my daughter didn't get such consideration. I have been so upset. Sickened. We buried her four days before Christmas. I have not done as much good as she did in her short life." She also said, "It's not about revenge," she said. "To us, it is about justice. I'm not his judge, but I know what he did, and they both had a part in it, and it happened not only once, but twice. I want him to admit he did it. Admit his guilt." "It's like our hearts just dropped to the floor," Terry Urnosky said. "The thing that hurts so much is the unfairness of it. They gave my daughter no stay of execution. In this particular case, when justice is carried out, it will be a vindication of my daughter's life. We just hope justice will be served quickly."

Urnosky, his wife, and Pal's uncle and aunt stood a few feet away from Foster and watched the execution through a window.

"It's like ripping off a deep scab each time, preventing the wound from being able to start healing," Urnosky said. "Now the wound can start closing."

Summary: Foster and his co-defendant, Sheldon Ward, raped and killed execution-style 28-year-old Nyanuer “Mary” Pal. Foster’s semen was found on the victim’s body, and the gun used to kill Pal was in Foster’s hotel room. The defense theory was that Foster’s co-defendant acted alone in the killing, and Foster only had consensual sex with the victim. During the penalty phase, the prosecutors linked Foster to a 1984 robbery and the killing of another woman. In mitigation, the defense argued Foster suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder from being in the Army, and was abused by his alcoholic father.

"It wasn't the violent death that both Mary and my daughter experienced," her father said. "I feel it was way too easy, but it is what it is."

CASE: Garry Thomas Allen shot and killed his girlfriend, Lawanna Gail Titsworth on November 21, 1986, three days after she moved out with their sons, six-year-old Anthony and two-year-old Adrian. Angry confrontations punctuated those three days, as Allen tried repeatedly to persuade Gail to come back to him. Their last argument occurred when Gail came to pick up their sons at Beulah's Day Care Center in Oklahoma City. Allen confronted Gail inside the center, and the two moved to an empty room to argue. Allen left just ahead of Gail and the boys. When Gail opened the door of her truck, Allen came up behind her and shut it. She opened it again; again he shut it. This argument ended when Allen reached into his sock, pulled out a .38 caliber snub-nosed revolver, and shot Gail Titsworth twice in the chest. After she was shot, Gail began begging Allen not to shoot her again and then fell to the ground. Allen asked Gail if she was alright. He then lifted up her blouse, apparently attempting to figure out the extent of her injuries. She fell, and he looked under her blouse before walking away. At the time of the shooting, some of the daycare employees were in the parking lot and several of the children were in a van parked a few feet from Gail's truck. A day care employee ran to Gail to help her into the day care center. Just as she and Gail Titsworth reached the front door, Allen shoved the other woman inside and pushed Gail down on the outside steps. Allen then shot her two more times in the back at close range and walked away.

He was captured in an alley less than a block away by the police officer who responded to the 911 call. Officer Mike Taylor of the Oklahoma City Police Department was on patrol in the area and responded to the 911 call within minutes of the shooting. As Officer Taylor was nearing the daycare center, a witness to the shooting directed him to an alley where Allen was apparently hiding. Officer Taylor spotted Allen as he drove into the alley. Officer Taylor drew his service revolver and ordered Allen to stop and remain still. Allen initially complied with Officer Taylor's order but then began walking away. Officer Taylor followed Allen and reached out to place his hand on him. Allen quickly turned around and grabbed Officer Taylor's gun. A struggle ensued, during which Allen obtained partial control of Officer Taylor's gun. Allen attempted to make Officer Taylor shoot himself by applying pressure to Taylor's finger which was still on the trigger. Ultimately, Officer Taylor regained control of the gun and shot Allen in the face. Allen was rushed to the hospital where a CT scan revealed an air pocket in the front part of his brain and cerebral spinal fluid leaking from his nose and ear. Allen remained in the hospital approximately two months for treatment for injuries to his face, left eye, and brain. As a result of the gunshot wound, Allen lost his left eye and suffered permanent brain damage.

'Our beloved Gail, daughter, sister and mother of two young boys, was taken from our family tragically and senselessly due to domestic violence,' the statement said. 'For over 25 years, we have waited for justice to be served and for this sentence to be carried out. We are thankful to close the book on this chapter today but we will never stop grieving the loss of Gail.'

Summary: On May 9, 1984, thirteen-year-old Christy Ann Fornoff disappeared at a Tempe, Arizona apartment complex while making collections for her newspaper route. Donald Beaty, a maintenance person for the complex, actively assisted the police in searching for Christy Ann. Although the police located her collection book near the complex, she was nowhere to be found. In the early morning of May 11, Joseph Kapp, a tenant, encountered Beaty while throwing out his trash. Beaty told Kapp that he had found a body behind the dumpster and that he had called the police. Kapp observed the body, spoke with Beaty for a few minutes, and then returned to his apartment. The police later arrived and determined that the body was Christy Ann's. A medical examiner concluded that Christy Ann had been asphyxiated by smothering and that she had been sexually assaulted, either contemporaneously with or shortly after her death. The examiner also opined that she had died within two hours of her disappearance. The police focused their investigation upon Beaty. Vomit smeared on the body matched a substance found in Beaty's closet. The blood, semen, and hair found on the body was consistent with Beaty's. Hair found on Beaty's closet carpet, couch, bedroom, and bathroom was consistent with Christy Ann's. Fibers found on the body matched Beaty's carpet and a blanket in his bedroom. Ferret hair was found on the body; the tenant who lived in Beaty's apartment a few months prior to the murder owned a ferret. Police records showed that Beaty had called the police at 5:52 a.m. According to Kapp, he had returned to his apartment at 5:50 a.m. The timing suggested that Beaty had lied to Kapp about having called the police. The police also speculated that Beaty had moved the body after speaking with Kapp. Robert Jark drove his truck in front of the dumpster at approximately 4:50 that morning. As with Kapp, Jark was sure that a body was not visible from in front of the dumpster. However, when the police arrived, the body stuck out noticeably beyond the dumpster's edge. Beaty told police that he was with George Lorenz, a tenant, at the time Christy Ann disappeared, and that Teresa Harder, another tenant, saw them together. However, Lorenz denied being with Beaty that night, and Harder similarly denied seeing them together. Beaty also claimed that the police had searched his apartment the night Christy Ann disappeared. However, the two officers who searched the complex claimed that they did not enter Beaty's apartment. Finally, the police found it suspicious that Beaty had attempted, unsuccessfully, to borrow a friend's car at 11:30 p.m. the night after Christy Ann disappeared. The police speculated that Beaty wanted to borrow a car to move the body. On May 21, 1984, Beaty was arrested and charged with Christy Ann's murder and sexual assault. A day later, Dr. George O'Connor, a prison psychiatrist, met with Beaty for about an hour. O'Connor routinely met with newly admitted, high-profile inmates to determine whether they were a threat to themselves. The record does not reveal much about their conversation. O'Connor apparently inquired whether Beaty felt depressed and whether he wished to talk with someone on a regular basis. O'Connor and Beaty also discussed a medical problem Beaty was having with his foot and Beaty's family's reaction to his arrest. After the conversation, O'Connor concluded that Beaty was not suffering from any significant psychiatric problems. Nonetheless, O'Connor decided that he would occasionally drop by and check up on him. The following day, O'Connor spoke with Beaty about his foot and arranged for him to be seen by an orthopedic doctor. The record does not reveal whether O'Connor and Beaty discussed anything other than Beaty's foot problem. Approximately two months later, O'Connor recommended transferring Beaty from the main jail to the jail's psychiatric facility. O'Connor's supervisor approved the recommendation, and Beaty did not object to the transfer. Several factors motivated O'Connor's recommendation to transfer Beaty. First, Beaty needed space to rehabilitate his injured foot. Beaty had been confined to his cell from the time of incarceration because of several death threats from other inmates. Second, the jail's psychiatric facility offered a safer place for Beaty because it was isolated from the jail's general population. Third, Beaty was becoming increasingly agitated and depressed, perhaps because of his confinement to his cell. Indeed, Beaty underwent a hunger strike, and he also repeatedly complained that inmates were harassing him. The record is unclear as to the nature and the extent of the treatment Beaty received while at the psychiatric unit. In any event, Beaty participated in a “counseling group” moderated by O'Connor. The group consisted of five female and five male inmates, including Beaty. The purpose of the group was to foster respect between male and female inmates by bringing them together in a small group. O'Connor described the group's purpose as “bringing men and women prisoners together to explore the difficulties that they may have had in interrelating with members of the opposite sex in their personal lives.” O'Connor chose Beaty for the group. while Beaty had the option of not participating, he likely would have been transferred back to the main jail if he had refused. Beaty, along with the rest of the group participants, signed a document entitled “Interpersonal Relationships Group Contract.” The document stated that any information disclosed to the group would be kept confidential. Specifically, it stated, “I understand that all group communication is confidential and therefore group business cannot be discussed outside of group. Only in this way can I feel free to express my feelings.” The group met twice a week and each session lasted between an hour and an hour-and-a-half. During these sessions, group members occasionally harassed Beaty regarding the nature of his crime. In particular, some group members called him “cold blooded.” After a few weeks, Beaty approached O'Connor at the end of a session. It was about five to ten minutes after the session had formally ended, but some of the group was still milling around. Beaty and O'Connor were conversing casually. when Beaty suddenly complained that the group had unfairly labeled him a “terrible thing.” He told O'Connor that he did not mean to kill Fornoff. He explained that he accidentally suffocated her when he put his hand over her mouth to muffle her screams. While O'Connor was surprised by Beaty's confession, he described the statement as an “overflow of feelings from that particular group.” O'Connor did not immediately disclose Beaty's confession to anyone, and the case proceeded to trial. The state's case rested primarily on the physical evidence tying Beaty to the crime. The state also stressed the events surrounding Beaty's discovery of the body and the fact that two witnesses discredited his alibi. Beaty, in turn, attacked the reliability of the state's physical evidence. He stressed that Kapp had been playing a “drinking game” that morning. Beaty suggested that another unknown tenant committed the murder and he faulted the police for not thoroughly investigating the other tenants. Finally, Beaty emphasized that he had actively assisted the police in searching for Fornoff the night she disappeared. On March 18, 1985, the trial court declared a mistrial after the jury deadlocked ten to two in favor of guilt. On May 8, 1985, Beaty's second trial commenced. Two days later, O'Connor went to state court to testify in an unrelated case. While waiting to testify, O'Connor spoke casually with a detention officer. During the course of the conversation, O'Connor disclosed Beaty's confession. The prosecution quickly learned about the conversation and contacted O'Connor. O'Connor refused to testify but, after an evidentiary hearing, the trial court ordered him to do so. During the second trial, the state presented much of the same evidence as it had offered at the first trial, but with the addition of O'Connor's testimony. The jury unanimously found Beaty guilty of first degree murder and sexual assault. The judge thereafter conducted a sentencing hearing without a jury. The judge imposed the death penalty after finding one aggravating circumstance and no mitigating circumstances. Specifically, the judge found that the murder was committed in an especially cruel, heinous, or depraved manner. The judge also sentenced Beaty to a consecutive twenty-eight-year term for sexual assault. Christy Ann's parents, Carol and Roger Fornoff, became involved in victims support groups such as Parents of Murdered Children and created "Christy's House in the Pines," a mountain retreat for victims' family members. They also worked for the passage of a Victim's Bill of Rights in Arizona in 1990. They described Christy Ann as a "dream child" and decorated their cabin with butterflies, which remind them of Christy.

UPDATE: An emotional Donald Beaty used his last words to apologize to the family of his victim, 13-year-old Christy Ann Fornoff, moments before he was put to death by lethal injection Wednesday at Arizona State Prison Complex-Florence. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Beaty, 56, said, his lips quivering as he lay on the death gurney awaiting the injection of a lethal three-drug cocktail. "God will let you see her again." After the execution, Fornoff's family spoke to the media. "We are here to bring closure to the loss of our beloved daughter and sister, Christy Ann Fornoff," said the victim's mother, Carol. "Her life was not in vain. Even in death, she has brought light to the darkness of evil that surrounded her when she was murdered."

"We are here for many reasons," Carol Fornoff said. "Some for closure, some to pray for Mr. Beaty's soul with the hope that he has asked to be forgiven, all of us to represent Christy and the love our family shares as we travel the ups and downs of our lives. We would like to thank all of our friends and family who have given us support and love throughout the years."

She added, "We just, as a family, are going to be peaceful about this, and we just want you to know that we feel peace right now."

CASE: Steven Michael Woods and Marcus Rhodes shot Ronald Whitehead and Bethena Brosz in a secluded area in The Colony, Texas, in the early morning hours of May 2, 2001. Early in the morning of May 2, 2001, two golfers driving down Boyd Road at the Tribute Golf Course near The Colony, Texas, found the bodies of Ron Whitehead and Beth Brosz. Beth was shot in the right knee, her throat was slashed three times, her shoulder was sliced and she had been shot in the head twice. Ron Whitehead was dead when emergency personnel arrived on the scene at 6:55 am and was shot in the head 6 times, and his throat was cut.  Beth died about 24 hours after she was taken to the hospital. That evening, police received several anonymous tips that Woods was involved in the killings, along with Marcus Rhodes. Detectives interviewed Woods, who admitted to being with the victims the night before their bodies were found. He said that he and Rhodes had agreed to lead Ron and Beth to a house in The Colony owned by someone named "Hippy," but that their two vehicles became separated during the trip, so he and Rhodes returned to the Deep Ellum section of Dallas. Woods was not arrested as a result of his interview. Detectives then interviewed Rhodes, and after a search of his car revealed items belonging to Ron and Beth, Rhodes was arrested. Woods left the Dallas area, traveling to New Orleans, Idaho and California, where he was finally arrested. Several witnesses testified that before the killings he told them about his plan to commit the murders, and after the killings, he told them about his participation in them. Woods, Rhodes, Ron Whitehead, David Samuelson, and Staci Schwartz all knew each other from Insomnia, a coffee shop they frequented in downtown Dallas. Samuelson testified that he had talked to Rhodes at Insomnia on the evening of May 1, and Rhodes stated that “he had a job to do” for Woods that night and that he did not want to do it. Schwartz testified that she had had a conversation with Rhodes at Insomnia on the afternoon of May 2, during which Rhodes stated that he and Woods had used Beth's credit card to make an online purchase of tickets to an anime festival. Rhodes told Schwartz that they had attempted to make Samuelson look responsible for the murders by buying the tickets in his name and having them sent to his house. On April 18, 2002, Woods was indicted for capital murder for the killing of more than one individual in the same criminal transaction, for which he was found guilty by a Denton County jury. During a separate punishment hearing, the State, in addition to evidence about the circumstances of the crime and Woods's moral culpability, presented evidence that Woods was involved in the murder of another individual in California one-and-a-half months prior to the murders of Ron Whitehead and Beth Brosz; that Woods got into a fight with another inmate in the Denton County Jail; that Woods, Rhodes, and two other accomplices planned to rob a clothing store in Deep Ellum; that Woods may have planned to murder a woman who was coming to pick up vials of "acid" to sell; and that Woods made "bottle bombs" as a juvenile. The jury found beyond a reasonable doubt that (1) there was a probability that Woods was a continuing threat to society; (2) Woods actually caused the death of the victims, intended to kill the victims, or anticipated that the lives of victims would be taken; (3) there was no sufficient mitigating circumstance to warrant a sentence of less than death after taking into consideration the circumstances of the crime and the evidence of Woods's character, background, and personal moral culpability. In accordance with state law, the trial judge sentenced Woods to death.

"This has been a long road, and a hard one," Janet Shires, Brosz's mother, said Tuesday after watching Woods die. "We will miss her forever, of course. There is no sentence that would change that. But I feel such a profound relief today -- relief that he can never hurt anyone anywhere ever again."

April 12-19, 2012

Florida Hisang Huang Ling, 48

Ying Hua Ling, 17

Judith Kaye Daley, 35

Angelica Lavallee, 14

Barbara Ann Byer, 14

Lynn Carol Elliott, 17

Cousins David Allan Gore and Fred Waterfield began abducting and raping women in the 70s. Soon they graduated to murdering their victims. In February 1981, Gore flashed a badge he had from his job as an auxiliary sheriff's deputy and tricked 17-year-old Ying Hua Ling into getting into his car. After driving her to her home, Gore pretended to arrest her mother, Hisang Huang Ling, 48, and handcuffed her to her daughter. He phone Waterfield and then drove the women to a citrus orchard. Gore raped both of them while waiting for his cousin, and when Waterfield arrived, he tied up Hisang in such a way that when she struggled, her bindings choked her to death. Waterfield raped and murdered Ying Hua Ling and told Gore to get rid of the bodies in another orchard nearby.

Five months later, on July 15, 1981, Gore abducted Judith Kaye Daley after disabling her vehicle and pretending to be a Good Samaritan. She accepted a ride to a telephone, but once inside, Gore pulled a gun on Judy and handcuffed her before calling Waterfield. They again met at the orchard where they raped and murdered Judy Daley. Gore said he fed the body to the alligators in a nearby swamp.

Gore spent a short time in prison after being convicted of armed trespass when police found him crouched in the back seat of a woman's car with a pistol, handcuffs and a police scanner. Two months after being paroled, the cousins picked up two hitchhikers, Angelica Lavallee and Barbara Buer. The first were raped and then shot to death. Barbara's body was dismembered and buried in a shallow grave and Angelica was dumped in a canal. On May 20, 1983, Gore kidnapped and murdered Angelica Lavallee and Barbara Byer.

On July 26, 1983, Gore and his cousin Freddy Waterfield picked up teenagers Lynn Elliott and Regan Martin, who were hitchhiking to the beach. Soon after, Gore took a gun out of the glove compartment and handcuffed the two girls while Waterfield drove to Gore’s parents’ house. Once there, Gore bound each of the girls and placed them in separate bedrooms. Regan Martin testified that Gore cut off her clothes and forced her to perform oral sex on him while he threatened to kill her, and that Gore kept going back and forth between the two rooms. Regan heard Gore tell Lynn that he would kill her if she did not shut up. At one point when Gore was out of the room, Regan heard gunshots from outside. Michael Rock, a teenager riding his bike by Gore's house on the day in question, testified that he saw Gore and a naked woman (Lynn Elliott) running up the driveway toward the road. Rock watched as the also naked Gore caught up with Lynn and dragged her back toward the house. He then saw Gore throw the girl down and shoot her.

When Gore returned he placed Regan in a closet and then tied her to the rafters in the attic and threatened to kill her if she tried anything. Michael Rock sped home told his mother, who called 911 and police arrived in time to save Regan from a similar fate. Soon after, police arrived and found blood dripping from the trunk of the car. The house was surrounded and Gore surrendered to the police and directed them to Regan in the attic. Lynn’s nude body was found in the trunk of Gore’s car. Lynn Elliott had been shot twice, once in the back of the head and once in the jaw.

After Lynn's autopsy, her father Carl Elliott insisted on seeing his daughter's body. Carl told the police that he wanted "to see every mark on her, where he drug her in the driveway and all the skinned-up parts on her knees and elbows, and every damn bullet hole. I want to see every scrape and every bruise. I want to remember in case I ever get soft on this thing. 'I want to remember, by God, that's what this bastard did to my daughter.' It was awful, but I have never regretted doing it.'"

Almost three decades later, Carl is now 81 years old and says that the signing of the death warrant by Governor Rick Scott was a huge relief, "like a big burden that slid off the shoulders." Lynn planned to become a hairdresser after she graduated from high school. Through interviews with Gore and Waterfield, police discovered that five other women had been killed since February 1981. Gore was sentenced to five consecutive life terms for the other murders. Waterfield, for his involvement in the murder of Lynn Elliott, was sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment on one count of manslaughter. Waterfield is also serving two consecutive life sentences for the murders of Barbara Ann Byer and Angelica LaVallee.

Tim Mccullers planned to ask Lynn Elliott to marry him on July 26, 1983.

Instead, when he arrived at her parent's Vero Beach house after he couldn't find her at the beach, he learned his 17-year-old girlfriend had been tortured, raped and murdered by a 29-year-old man he had gone fishing with - a regular guy who turned out to be a serial killer.

Today, barring a last-minute stay from the U.S. Supreme Court, David Alan Gore is to be put to death for shooting Elliott as she ran naked down his parent's driveway, desperately trying to escape his demented and murderous grasp. It happens to be Mccullers 52nd birthday.

"I don't want anything but him dead for my birthday," said Mccullers, who still lives in Vero Beach. "It would be the best birthday present ever."

Summary: Gore was condemned to death for the rape and murder of 17-year-old Lynn Elliott, who was hitchhiking to the beach with a friend on a summer day in 1983 when Gore stopped and picked them up. After assaulting Elliott repeatedly at the home of his vacationing parents, Gore shot the girl in the head as she ran down his driveway with her hands tied. A boy riding by on his bicycle witnessed the killing and called 911. On Thursday evening, Elliott's father, Carl, sat in the center of the front row of a small observation room as Gore lay a few feet away, visible through a large window. Elliott was Gore's final victim. The others were Hsiang Huang Ling, 48, and her daughter Ying Hua Ling, 17; Judy Kay Daley, 35; Angelica LaVallee, 14, and Barbara Ann Byer, 14. Gore's cousin and accomplice Fred Waterfield is serving two consecutive life sentences for his role. Through interviews with Gore and Waterfield, police discovered that five other women had been killed since February 1981. Gore was sentenced to five consecutive life terms for the other murders. Waterfield, for his involvement in the murder of Lynn Elliott, was sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment on one count of manslaughter. Waterfield is also serving two consecutive life sentences for the murders of Barbara Ann Byer and Angelica LaVallee.

Not that Mike and Nancy Byer, whose 14-year-old daughter Barbara Ann was killed by Gore in May 1983, wanted an apology.

"I want nothing from that man except to have him out of my life and gone. This does that," Mike Byer said. "He had no remorse at all."

Nancy Byer said Elliott's death was what helped the families of other victims find their loved ones' bodies. It also stopped Gore from hunting more victims.

"The killing would have gone on and on," she said after the execution.

Watching were the family and friends of at least four of the women Gore killed.

“It was a long wait, and I’m so glad I was here and I came for my daughter and all the other victims,” said victim Barbara Ann Byer’s mother, Nancy Byer, after watching Gore being pronounced dead at 6:19 p.m. “He can’t hurt anyone else, ever, and it’s over and I’m glad I came.”

Summary: Matthews and Tracy Dyer stormed into the home of Matthews' 77 year old great uncle, Otis Short, east of Rosedale intending to rob him. Matthews shot Short once in the head at close range with a .45-caliber pistol and Dyer cut the throat of Short’s wife, Minnie Short. The men fled in Otis Short’s truck with $500 in cash and a .32-caliber pistol. Minnie Short survived and died later of natural causes. The murder weapon was found buried in a field behind Matthews house, and found a prescription bottle of xanax issued to Minnie short in his home. Dyer, 36, pled guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He testified against Matthews at trial. In 1996 he recanted, and after Matthews case was reversed on appeal, testified on his behalf at the retrial. The result was the same.

“I do not believe in killing people, but when someone so close to you is taken away, you realize there are some people in this world that deserve justice, and he is one of them.”

Last year when Hall's execution date was set, Amanda Robinson, the victim's sister, told the Star-Telegram that the punishment would allow her sister to finally rest in peace.

"I'm sad for his family, but he's got to pay the price," she said. "You can't go out and kill people."

Robinson's sister Amanda refused to forgive him and said she attended the execution Tuesday night so her face would be the last face Hall saw. "It was fake; he wasn't sincere," she said of Hall's apology. "He was really scared. You could tell. ... I just don't think he was remorseful. What about the pain he caused Amy? I'm glad [the execution] was on Feb. 15, but it should have been a lot sooner."

Hall was executed 13 years to the day Robinson was killed. "They turned a bad day into a good day," said Ruth, another sister. "I feel like a weight's been lifted off my shoulder."

Summary: In 1985, Mark Wayne Wiles burglarized the Klima family home and killed Mark Klima. In 1982, Wiles went to work as a part-time laborer for Charles and Carol Klima on their horse farm in Rootstown, where they lived with their son Mark. One day in early 1983, the family learned that $200 in cash was missing and the home had been ransacked. That same day, Wiles had reported for work and was the only other person on the farm that day, but he could not be found after the Klimas learned of the missing cash, and he did not return to collect his paycheck or for that matter return to work any longer on the farm. In the spring of that year, Wiles began serving a 4-to-25 year sentence in an Ohio prison for an unrelated burglary he had committed the previous year. On August 7, 1985, after serving eighteen months of this sentence, Wiles returned to the Klima farm, entered the unlocked house while the family was gone and began to search the house for valuables. While he was still in the house, 15-year-old Mark Klima returned and confronted him. Wiles stabbed the boy 24 times with a 12-inch kitchen knife, stole approximately $260 and fled. Carol Klima returned home to find her unconscious son lying on the floor with a knife buried in his back. Later that day, Mark Klima died in a hospital emergency room. Wiles initially fled from the authorities. Five days after the murder, however, he turned himself in to the police in Savannah, Georgia, telling them that he was wanted for murder in Ohio. After being informed of his rights, he told the police what he had done and signed a confession admitting that he had killed Mark. A state grand jury indicted Wiles for aggravated murder and two counts of aggravated burglary—one for the 1985 home invasion, one for the 1983 $200 theft. He waived his right to a jury, and a three-judge panel heard his case. After the guilt phase of the proceedings, the court determined that there was insufficient evidence that he had committed the 1983 burglary but convicted him on the aggravated-murder and the other aggravated-burglary count. After a mitigation hearing, the court determined that neither Wiles' youth (he was 22-years old at the time of the murder) nor his confession outweighed the aggravating circumstances of his crime. The court imposed a death sentence, and the Ohio Court of Appeals and the Ohio Supreme Court affirmed his conviction and sentence. Mark Klima was a straight A student who was about to enter his sophomore year of high school. UPDATE: The Ohio Parole Board has unanimously rejected a clemency request from Mark Wiles. In a statement, members of te board wrote, “While Wiles does express remorse and admits to committing the offense, that remorse and acceptance of responsibility does not mitigate nor outweigh the brutal attack on a defenseless young man who was beaten and stabbed repeatedly in his own home. Wiles’ remorse, acceptance of responsibility and good institutional conduct do not equate to a substantial enough reason to recommend clemency.” Wiles was uncooperative during an interview with the state parole board earlier this month, telling members that he didn’t deserve clemency and refusing to answer questions. According to documents, “Wiles was noticeably nervous, emotional and seemed overwhelmed by the process. Wiles left the interview room. The board remained several minutes to see if he would change his mind, but prison staff informed the board that Wiles had chosen to leave the building.” Wiles's attorneys had a taped apology from Wiles sent to the family of the murder victim — a move parole board members criticized as insensitive. Mark Klima’s parents turned the recording over to prosecutors without watching it.

John Craig, a cousin of Wiles' victim Mark Klima and a witness of the execution, appeared briefly before reporters to respond to Wiles' last words.

"It's my opinion that Mark Wiles gave up his citizenship to Ohio when he murdered my cousin and became an inmate, more or less a condemned man," Craig said.

Summary: On the morning of September 24, 2006, Cameron Hamelin was shot intentionally and killed while seated in his vehicle at the intersection of Jessup and Vandever Streets in Wilmington. Lakeisha Truitt, who was in the passenger seat of Hamelin's vehicle, was not struck. Lakeisha called 911 and identified Shannon Johnson, the father of her child, as the shooter. Johnson was not apprehended immediately. Weeks later, on November 10, 2006, Lakeisha Truitt was driving her vehicle in Wilmington, near her home on 35th Street, when she was shot intentionally. She survived and identified Johnson as the person who shot her. On November 15, 2006, Johnson was arrested in Wilmington at the home of a female friend, Rima Stewart. In sentencing Johnson to death, the judge noted his long criminal history, including the 2002 rape of a teenager who was seven months pregnant.

Vandrick Hamlin, the father of Cameron Hamlin, said it does not matter to him if Johnson goes willingly or not.

"The way I feel is he was going to die anyway," he said. "I don't care. ... He did me a favor by doing that."

'Now it's time for us to focus on putting our lives back together,’ said his father, Vandrick Hamlin.

 

Summary: Along with accomplice Richard Cobb, Adams robbed a convenience store in Rusk, Texas. At the time of the robbery, Candace Driver and Nikki Dement were working in the store, and the only customer present was Kenneth Vandever. Adams and Cobb were wearing masks and after getting cash from the register, forced the two employees and the customer into a Cadillac parked in the lot and drove to a remote location. After forcing Driver and Vandever into the trunk, Adams and Cobb sexually assaulted Dement. They later made all three victims kneel on the ground, shooting all three with a shotgun. Believing all were dead, both fled the scene. Vandever died from his wounds, but Driver and Dement survived and testified against Adams and Cobb. Accomplice Cobb was convicted and sentenced to death in a separate trial eight months before Adams. Evidence tied the two, met as ninth-graders at a boot camp, to a string of robberies that happened around the same time.

"He asked for forgiveness and I forgive him, but he had to pay the consequences."

CASE: On September 15, 1975, a U-Tote-M store in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was robbed. One of the store employees, Clayton Chandler, was shot to death and the other, Ina Morris, was shot and wounded. Michael B. Selsor and Richard Dodson were arrested for the robbery and shootings. Selsor was charged in state court with robbery with firearms; shooting with intent to kill; and murder in the first degree. Dodson was charged with robbery with firearms, after former conviction of a felony; shooting with intent to kill, after former conviction of a felony; and murder in the first degree.

At trial Ina Morris, the U-Tote-M employee wounded in the robbery, testified about the ordeal. She stated that she had gone into the store's walk-in cooler, and that while in there "a man walked up to the first window of the cooler and opened it up and looked at me." She said the man then walked around to the big walk-in door and pointed a revolver at her. He told her to get on her knees on the floor. She testified that she "just looked at him" because she "couldn't believe it." She said to the gunman "You've got to be kidding." The gunman then fired a shot at her, hitting her in the right shoulder. She got down on her knees. The gunman told her that if she looked up he would kill her. Three to five minutes later Morris raised her head and saw the gunman standing outside the window, holding both hands on the gun. She then saw him pull the trigger and heard the bullets hit the window. She ducked. She heard more than two bullets fired. Her body went numb. She lay down and lost consciousness. She was wounded in her right shoulder, on the right side of the back of her head, on top of her head, underneath her jaw, in her back and in her neck. Two bullets were left in her neck. Morris regained consciousness approximately five to seven minutes later. She walked north in the cooler and looked out to see Clayton Chandler lying on the floor of the U-Tote-M. Mr. Chandler died as a result of his injuries.

Morris identified Dodson as the man who shot her. She gave no testimony about seeing any assailant other than Dodson, nor did she testify that she heard any shots other than those from Dodson. She did state, however, that the door to the walk-in cooler was closed and that she heard the cooler fan, a noise she described as "very loud." Ms. Morris was the only eyewitness to the crime and her testimony did not implicate Selsor. The evidence against Selsor instead was based on his and Dodson's confessions as presented through the testimony of two police officers, Officer Evans, a major crimes investigator for the Santa Barbara, California Police Department, and Officer Roberts of the Tulsa Police Department. Officer Evans testified that on September 22, 1975, he and a Sergeant Williams interviewed Dodson at the Santa Barbara Police Department. Officer Evans testified that Dodson stated that he and Selsor were driving a green '67 Pontiac.... He stated that they had been together in this car on the evening of September 15th around 11:00 P.M. and had passed by this U-TOTE-M store which he thought was located at 66th and 33rd, in that vicinity. He stated that both of them were in the car as they passed by this store a couple of times and Dodson stated that he noticed that the traffic was light around the store and the outlying area and that there was a light fog or something. He then stated that they both were armed.

.... Q And, what did he say in that regard? A Dodson was armed with a nine shot .22 caliber revolver, black and silver and Mr. Selsor was armed with a .22 automatic Lugger Blackhawk. Q Now, did he say anything in regard to any plan concerning this matter on 33rd West Avenue other than what you have thus far related? A Yes, he did. Q What did he say in that regard? A He stated that prior to entering the store in a conversation with Selsor there was discussion of taking these people out. .... Q Did he ever indicate in the conversation what he meant by taking them out? A Later in the conversation it was shown that taking them out meant killing them. Q And, when you use the expression, taking these people out, did you know at the time he told you this who he had reference to? A By name or incident? Q Well, by perhaps position with the store? A Yes, meaning the proprietors of the store.

Officer Evans also testified about an interview that he and a Detective Martin had with Selsor subsequent to the interview with Dodson. Officer Evans stated that Selsor said "that he and Dodson had approached the U-Tote-M store at 61st and 33rd Street and they were in a green '67 Pontiac which belonged to Selsor." Selsor stated that they "didn't intend to have any witnesses around and had planned on killing the proprietors after the robbery." Evans testified that Selsor said "that he was armed with a .22 caliber Lugger Blackhawk automatic, had a nine shot clip, and that Dodson was armed with a nine shot .22 caliber revolver." Officer Evans then recounted Selsor's description of the robbery: Selsor stated he demanded the money in a sack and he said the elderly gentleman complied and gave him the money from the cash drawer, the cash register and the safe. Selsor stated that he told the guy to quit piddling with the change as he was putting the money in, he wasn't interested in that. I asked Selsor what then occurred and he stated that he had off-set his position, showing me in the interview room, and fired several shots from this .22 automatic into the elderly man. According to Evans, Selsor "stated that all the bullets went into the chest area and it must have hit the heart."

In addition to the testimony of Officer Evans, Officer D.A. Roberts of the Tulsa Police Department testified about a conversation he had with Dodson at the Tulsa County Jail on September 30, 1975. Officer Roberts said that We started the conversation off, I advised him I'd like to know how it went down and the order that it happened. He related it started with a conversation between himself and Selsor, that Selsor had said, We got to take out the witnesses involved in this case. .... At that time I asked him if he felt Selsor really meant that. He said, Well, he convinced me of it. He said, I thought he did, he looked serious. The state introduced the .22 caliber revolver used by Dodson. The .22 caliber automatic allegedly used by Selsor was not introduced. However, Officer Roberts testified that Dodson told him Selsor threw the gun into some body of water along Interstate 80. In addition, the state introduced spent shell casings recovered from the crime scene which an expert testified came from an automatic weapon.

The defense made no opening statement. The only witness called by the defense was Dr. Garcia, a forensic psychiatrist from Eastern State Hospital at Vinita, Oklahoma, who testified only about Dodson's mental condition. The defense closing argument was brief, constituting a mere two pages of the trial transcript and in essence simply asserting that the jury should not take the defendants' lives. Selsor was convicted of armed robbery, shooting with intent to kill, and first degree murder. He was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment for shooting with intent to kill, 25 years' imprisonment for armed robbery, and for the murder conviction, he was sentenced to death. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Selsor's convictions and sentences except the death sentence which was modified to life imprisonment. Dodson was convicted of shooting with intent to kill after former conviction of a felony and robbery with firearms after former conviction of a felony, but was acquitted of first degree murder. Dodson was sentenced to 199 years for shooting with intent to kill and 50 years for the armed robbery conviction.

Debbie Huggins, one of Chandler's daughters, said her family has waited for almost 37 years for justice.

"Today, we got that justice," she said. "We're glad that it's finally over. Be at peace. The race is finally over."

She said she thought about her father as she watched Selsor die.

"This was much kinder what we did to him today than what he did to my dad," Huggins said.  

Summary: 25-year-old Angela Cagle worked as a clerk in a Huntsville convenience store. Mason entered the store in the early morning, directing Cagle to a backroom at gunpoint. Accordng to Mason, he was trying to force her to tell him how to turn off the camera when he ordered her to take her clothes off. He then shot her in the face twice with a handgun. Mason claimed the first shot just went off, and the second shot was to keep her from identifying him. He then opened the cash register and fled. A few days after the murder, an unidentified man later told police that Mason committed the crime. The informant described the gun used, told police that Mason was "out of control" and "trying to make a name for himself," and then led authorities to Mason's car. Inside, police found a gun later determined to be the murder weapon. After he was arrested, Mason confessed to committing the murder. The jury voted 10-2 to sentence him to death, a recommendation the trial court accepted.

Cagle's mother, Anne Larrivee, was among four members of Cagle's family who witnessed Mason's execution in Holman Correctional Institute here.

Larrivee and the family said in a written statement issued after the execution that Mason accepted the consequences of his actions after showing Cagle no mercy.

"We extend our sympathy to his family and pray his death will make others think twice before committing such a heinous crime," the statement said. "We praise God for giving justice to Angie, and a measure of closure. We will miss Angie until we see her in heaven. We are grateful for the prayers and support we have received for 17 1/2 years in dealing with having her ripped from our lives but never from our hearts."

Mason also thanked Cagle's father, Steve Worsham, for "reaching out to me" several years ago. Mason apologized to Worsham and said that he had given his life to God. Worsham replied in a letter that as a Christian he forgave Mason, but he still had to face the consequences of his actions.

"The execution was extremely difficult for us to watch," Cagle's family said in a second statement written after the execution. "Mr. Mason made an apology, the first time we have heard from him, not knowing of the communication with my ex-spouse until today. We firmly hope that he had accepted Christ and will not have to suffer for his deed any further. We certainly wish he had made a different decision on 3/27/94, then neither of our families would have had to have been here tonight."

 

In a written statement handed out after the execution, Cora Warford, the mother of the youngest victim, said: "In memory of my baby boy, Brian Warford, I can finally say justice has been served. If one can this brings closure, I can say it is peace of mind for me and my family."

 

 

In a statement, the Sheehan family said they will continue to celebrate Timothy Sheehan's life. Brendan Sheehan, Timothy's son and now a Cuyahoga County Common Pleas judge, and other family members who did not witness the execution were at a nearby church Thursday morning. "Today, we chose to celebrate the life of husband and father, Timothy Sheehan, not the death of Frank Spisak," the statement said. "We are grateful that the justice system has worked and appreciate those in the criminal justice system whose diligent efforts have helped bring this matter to a final resolution."

Despite the last-ditch attempt to delay the execution, Hardaway said he is relieved Spisak is headed for the execution chamber at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville. He feared Spisak would outlive him as the appeals process carried on and on. "I'll go down on my knees, on the side of my bed every night, to pray and see if I would be able to live," Hardaway said. "I didn't know if I'd be living this long after all that happened."

"The 18th will be a day of closure."

After the hearing, Otterstrom's cousin, Craig Watson, said he wants the execution to go through as scheduled. "It's about time justice is served," he said. (3 June 2010)

A police officer with 35 years on the job, Watson said Gardner accepted the punishment "like a man." Gardner, he noted, seemed calm before the hood was slipped on.

"There was no crying, no wimpering," Watson said Friday. "When it was over with, I just had this feeling that he's gone and we can move on."

Thursday 15 November 2012 - Craig Watson said he didn’t know if “closure” was the proper word.

But as he witnessed the 2010 execution of Ronnie Lee Gardner, who killed Watson’s cousin Melvyn J. Otterstrom at a bar in 1984, a feeling of peace came over him: It was, finally, over.

As Utah lawmakers weigh the cost of executing men like Gardner versus keeping them in prison for life, Watson asked them on Wednesday to remember there are some things that no amount of money can touch — a message also shared by Barbara Noriega, whose mother and sister were killed by another man now on Utah’s death row.

“With the death sentence, there are no recurring offenders and we can go on with our lives,” Watson said, his voice breaking at times as he addressed the Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Interim Committee.

Watson agreed the legal process is too lengthy and often painful, an argument for streamlining rather than doing away with the death penalty.

For more than two decades, as they waited for justice to be carried out, Watson said he and other relatives had every “stupid” move Gardner shoved in their faces — among them, feigned illnesses and escape attempts, including one at a courthouse in 1985 where Gardner fatally shot attorney Michael Burdell and wounded bailiff Nick Kirk.

“We got to hear about it, we got to see it, we got to relive it,” said Watson, a 37-year veteran law enforcement officer.

Since Gardner’s execution, Otterstrom’s widow and son have finally been able to move on with their lives, he said.

“In my opinion, there isn’t enough money to make a difference,” Watson said.

Summary: On Sunday, June 4, 1989 at approximately 9:30 a.m. boaters discovered three decomposed female bodies floating in South Tampa Bay. The bodies were later identified as Mrs. Joan Rogers and her daughters, Michelle and Christe. At the time of their deaths in 1989, Joan was 36, Michelle 17 and Christe was 14. Dr. Edward Corcoran, an Associate Medical Examiner, performed autopsies on all three women on June 4 and determined that the cause of death to each was asphyxiation caused either by strangulation from the ropes tied around their necks or by drowning. Dr. Corcoran estimated that the women had died sometime between the evening of June 1 and the morning of June 2, 1989. He described the bodies as being bloated and decomposed. Each was nude from the waist down. There was duct tape on the face or the head of Christe and Michelle. Christe and Joan's hands were each tied behind their backs with clothesline-type rope. Michelle's right hand had clothesline-type rope around the wrist but the left hand was free with only a loop of rope. Michelle's ankles were bound with clothesline-type rope. Joan and Michelle each had a yellow nylon rope around their neck which was attached to a concrete block. The concrete block around 1 Joan's neck had three holes in it. The object tied to the yellow nylon rope around Christe's neck had been cut.  Christe and Joan's ankles were each tied together with yellow nylon rope. There were no fractures of the hyoid bones. Besides ligature marks and discoloration behind the upper esophagus and darkening and hemorrhaging in the neck tissues of each woman, no other injuries were determined. Dr. Corcoran looked for and did not find any genital injuries. He did not look for semen nor did he expect to find any as semen would have decomposed or been washed away by the action of the water. From the contents of Joan Rogers' stomach, Dr. Corcoran was able to estimate that she last ate four to eight hours prior to her death. Dr. Bernard Ross, an expert regarding the characteristics of water movement in Tampa Bay, testified that all three of the bodies were dumped in Tampa Bay at the same location. Based on his study, Dr. Ross opined that none of the bodies could have been thrown from a land mass such as Gandy Bridge or Howard Frankland Bridge. At the time of their deaths, the Rogers were vacationing in Florida. The evidence showed that on Thursday, June 1 at 9:34 a.m. the Rogers checked out of the Gateway Inn in Orlando and went to Tampa, They checked into the Days Inn in Tampa shortly after the noon hour on June 1, 1989. Phone records from the hotel show that two calls made from the Rogers' room on June 1. One was placed at 12:37 pm for nine minutes and another call was placed locally in Tampa at 12:57 pm for less than a minute. Harold Malloy, a guest at the Days Inn, saw the Rogers in the hotel's restaurant on June 1, between 7:00 and 7:30 p.m. The Rogers left the restaurant at about 7:30 or 7:35 p.m. The general manager of the Days Inn, Rocky Point on the Courtney Campbell Causeway was alerted by housekeeping on June 8 that the Rogers' room did not appear to have been inhabited for a few days. After an inspection of the premises, he contacted law enforcement who came out, secured the scene and obtained records from the hotel regarding the occupants. Officers identified numerous personal articles, clothing, suitcases and papers belonging to the occupants. There were canisters of film which had been exposed. These were developed and the last three pictures on the last roll of film showed the Days Inn Hotel, Room 251 and one of Michelle standing on the balcony of the hotel. Dr. Kendal Carder, a professor of oceanography at the University of South Florida opined at trial that the photograph of Michelle was taken sometime between 6:20 p.m. and 8:20 p.m. on June 1, 1989. Neither the camera nor the clothing depicted in the picture of Michelle was found in the victims' vehicle or among the evidence seized from Room 251 of the Days Inn. The police found the Rogers' locked car parked at a boat ramp on the causeway. There was sand wedged around the tires of the vehicle indicating it had been there for some time. Detectives later found a set of car keys belonging to the victims' car in a purse known to belong to Michelle Rogers in the motel room. A search of the vehicle revealed several exhibits, including a piece of Days Inn, Rocky Point stationery; an index card with directions to Gateway Inn, Orlando; notebook paper with personal notes; a key to Days Inn Room 251; a Clearwater Beach brochure; a Hampton Inn coupon; a Jacksonville Zoo receipt and a road atlas. FBI Agent James Henry Mathis determined that a note handwritten on Days Inn stationery found in the victims' car was written by Joan Rogers. The note read, "Turn right. West W on 60, two and one-half miles before the bridge on the right side at light, blue w/wht." Theresa Stubbs, an examiner of questioned documents for the FDLE at the Tampa Regional Crime Laboratory, examined the handwriting on the Clearwater Beach brochure and identified Oba Chandler as the writer. From her analysis, Ms. Stubbs determined that the "Boy Scout, Columbus" portion of the writing on the brochure may have been written by Joan Rogers. Rollins Cooper worked as a subcontractor for Oba Chandler in 4 the spring of 1989 for 3-6 months. He testified that on June, 1,1989, between eleven and twelve a.m. Chandler brought him some screen. Cooper asked Chandler why he was in such a big hurry and Chandler told him he had a date with three women. Cooper met Chandler the next morning at 7:05 a.m. Cooper thought Chandler was kind of grubby. When Cooper asked him why he looked like that he said that he had been out on his boat all night. Oba had a place next to his house where the scrap aluminum from the different jobs would be left. There were also some eight-by-sixteen building blocks laying there and a boat trailer. The state also presented the testimony of Judy Blair and her companion Barbara Mottram concerning Chandler's sexual battery of Judy Blair in Madeira Beach. Judy Blair testified that she and Barbara were in Florida on vacation from Ontario, Canada, when they met Chandler at a convenience store. Chandler told them that he knew the area and that he worked in the area; that it was a highcrime area and that two young girls should be very careful. He said his name was "Dave" and he worked in the aluminum-siding business. He said that he had a boat and because he knew the area so well, he would take them out on the boat and show them the area from the water. After they told him they were from Canada, he told them he was from upstate New York. His demeanor was very friendly, very warm. They made plans for the next day and what time he would pick them up. Chandler invited both Judy and Barbara out on the boat. The next morning Barbara insisted that she did not want to go and Judy told her that the plans were made and that she had no way to get hold of the person. Chandler had told Judy that he would be coming from approximately two hours away. She decided to go even though Barbara would not be going. Wearing a white T-shirt, a pair of cotton shorts, sneakers and a bathing suit underneath, Judy met Chandler at 10:30 a.m. He was in an older blue and white boat. The interior bottom was white or off-white. There was a space under the bow; a storage area with equipment. She saw white ropes in the compartment down below. Judy did not remember seeing any concrete blocks on the boat. When Judy explained that Barbara wasn't coming, Chandler seemed disappointed. He pulled some duct tape from the storage area and taped the steering wheel. He told Judy that he kept his boat lifted up out of the water on davits. At approximately 4:30 he returned Judy to the docks. He said that he had some difficulty with his boat and he had to attend to it. He told her to go home and get dinner, her camera so she could take pictures of the sunset and get Barbara. He specifically asked Judy to get Barbara. They were to meet back later at the same dock after dinner. Judy could not convince Barbara to go and Judy went back to the dock by herself. She took her camera with her. The man was already at the dock. He seemed "ticked off" that Barbara did not come. It was still daylight when they got on the boat and went under the bridge into the gulf. They drove through the gulf and stopped to take pictures of the sunset. Dave was in some of the pictures and Judy was in some of the pictures. They started to fish and Judy expressed concern that it was getting dark and she needed to get back; that people were waiting for her back on land. He started complimenting her and asked for her to give him a hug, She thanked him for the compliments and declined to give him a hug. He pulled Judy towards him and started touching her arms and around her body. He told her he was going to have sex with her. She told him "no" and asked him to take her back home. She started screaming and he said, "You think somebody is going to hear you? " Judy was panicky and was pleading with him to take her back. At one point he started the boat; she thought to return to the shore. He took her further out in the water instead. Chandler stopped the boat and told her, "You're going to have sex with me. There's no way around it. What are you going to do, jump over the side of the boat?" Judy continually screamed and tried to get away from him. He sat on the passenger seat and pulled his pants down and took the back of Judy's head and made her perform fellatio on him. He put a towel down on the bottom of the boat and forcibly put her down. Judy was screaming and crying and he told her to "Shut up. Shut up. If you don't shut the fuck up, I'm going to tape your mouth. Do you want me to tape your mouth?" He pulled down the bottom half of what she was wearing and said, "You're going to have sex with me." Judy was kicking and screaming and crying and he was saying, "I'll tape your mouth. I'll tape your mouth." At that point she became fairly quiet. He also made reference to the fact that, "Is sex really something to lose your life over?" He started fondling her vaginal area. She was menstruating and he found the tampon and he pulled it out. At some point Chandler rolled Judy over onto her knees and attempted to penetrate her anally. She pleaded with him not to do that; that she had rectal cancer. He turned her over and penetrated her vaginally. He ejaculated, immediately pulled out, pulled his pants back up. He threw her a thermos bottle filled with water and told her to wash herself out. He took the camera, ripped the film out and threw it overboard. Then he wiped down the camera. He told Judy, "I know you're going to report this, but please give me a chance to go home to tell my little old mother." He took her back to shore. He dropped her off on the other shore of the channel from Don's Dock. Judy walked home. She did not say anything to her mother or aunt or uncle when she got back. She just wanted to have a bath and go to bed. After her mother and aunt and uncle left the condominium, Judy told Barbara what happened. She ultimately reported it to the police later that evening of the 16th. Judy gave a description of the clothing "Dave" was wearing the evening he assaulted her and identified it at trial. Barbara confirmed Judy's testimony concerning how they met Chandler, that he was driving a black or very dark vehicle which resembled a Jeep Cherokee, that he was from upstate New York but resided in Florida and that he had to travel a little bit of a ways to get to Madeira Beach. Barbara confirmed that Judy came back to retrieve Barbara to go out on the boat. Judy said that both she and "Dave" (Chandler) wanted her to go on the sunset cruise. Barbara declined this second invitation. Judy took a camera with her. The next morning Judy related to Barbara what had happened to her the night before on the boat. Barbara testified that Judy was devastated. She was in shock. She was in tears and sobbing all day long. Barbara picked Oba Chandler's photograph out of a photo pack, identified him in a lineup of people and in the courtroom. Barbara also identified a photograph of Chandler's car and a photograph of Chandler as being more consistent with the what he looked like in 1989 than in the courtroom. Detective James Kappell, of the St. Petersburg Police Department testified that in September, 1989 he became aware that a rape had occurred in Madeira Beach involving two Canadian tourists. Kappell traveled to Canada to interview Judy Blair and Barbara Mottram. Kappell obtained a composite drawing of "Dave" . The description of the suspect's vehicle, boat and his composite was released to the press and seen by Chandler's neighbor Joann Steffey. Ms. Steffey thought of Chandler when she saw the composite. She was aware that Chandler had a boat. It was blue and white with a blue top cover. Chandler had a black four-wheel drive vehicle. In May, 1992 Ms. Steffey observed another newspaper article talking about the rape and the Rogers' homicides. The article contained a picture of the handwriting involved on a brochure. Upon seeing this second newspaper article, Ms. Steffey obtained a sample of Chandler's handwriting and concluded that it was the same. Ms. Steffey called the Task Force in St. Petersburg to notify them of her belief. Her neighbor FAX'd the handwriting sample to the police for their comparison. Derek Galpin testified that he sold Chandler his boat. When he sold the boat to Chandler he told him that the English translation for the German name on the back of the boat meant GYPSY * The steering wheel was in pretty bad shape and had a black, very tacky sort of covering. Galpin also sold the residence to Chandler. There were six, seven, or eight rough gray concrete blocks with two square holes in them on the side of the house. Robert Carlton bought the blue and white boat from Chandler in July/August, 1989. The boat trailer was parked on the side of Chandler's house and was sold with the boat. The boat had a V-6 engine in it and a VHF radio in it. When Carlton got the boat from Chandler the interior was real clean. "It was spotless". Carlton recalled seeing concrete blocks at the Chandler house and that some of the concrete blocks had three holes and some had two. Oba Chandler's daughter, Kristal Mays testified that she lived in Ohio. Chandler left when she was 7 and she did not see him again until the mid-eighties when she hired a detective to find her him. When the detective found Chandler he was incarcerated in Florida. Kristal and her sister, Valerie Lynn Troxell, visited him in the Spring of 1986. Lynn was also Chandler's daughter. Kristal was closer to Chandler than her sister. After Chandler was released from prison, Kristal and her family visited with the Chandler's in Florida. In November of 1989 Chandler called her in Cincinnati and left a number at a Cincinnati motel where he could be reached. Kristal did not know he was coming to visit. Chandler told her that he wanted her and her husband to come to the motel; it was very important. Chandler's Jeep was backed in front of another building, not the building he was staying in. The license plate was up against the building. Kristal remembered that Chandler had a dark colored Jeep vehicle in 1989. Upon entering the motel room, she observed numerous coffee cups, the ashtrays were overflowing with cigarette butts and her father was very anxious and nervous. She had not seen him act like that in the past. Chandler told them he couldn't go back to Florida because they were looking for him for a rape of a woman. Kristal remembered that Chandler's words were "I can't go back to Florida because the police are looking for me for the rape of a woman." Chandler later called and apologized for the way he had been acting. Chandler did not have luggage or appropriate clothing for that time of year. They had to buy him some clothes. He later told Kristal, she couldn't remember whether he said "dock or pier, but he said that he picked a woman up, and she got away." Chandler did not give Kristal any further explanation of that statement. He told Kristal, "I can't go back to Florida because the police are looking for me because I killed some women." During none of these conversations did Chandler indicate that he was innocent of the things he was talking about. He never once indicated that the police had the wrong man. Chandler never said, "I am 12 innocent of the crime and never said I am the one who murdered the women." Kristal said that Chandler "did not directly to me say, I murdered the women. He did not say that directly to me." After that night, Kristal did not talk about this any more with her father. Chandler directed Kristal not to tell anyone where he was, including his wife, Debbie. Chandler wanted to trade the Jeep he had for the car Kristal had. Chandler did not indicate why he wanted to get rid of his vehicle. While he was there, Chandler sold Kristal some jewelry. At a later point in time, Chandler contacted Kristal and asked her to set up a phone call between he and his wife Debbie. According to the telephone tolls for Kristal's number in 1989, there were a series of phone tolls to Tampa on November 10. Oba had called Kristal and wanted her to call Debbie and tell her to go to a phone booth. He said he couldn't call her at home; he was afraid his lines were tapped. (V91, T1148) After Kristal called her, Debbie went to the phone booth, called Kristal and told her she was at the phone booth. Chandler called Kristal back, told her to tell Debbie to go to another phone booth because he thought someone might be following her. Kristal saw Chandler again in October, 1990. Chandler had Kristal's husband set up a drug deal. Chandler wound up taking some money from the drug dealers and leaving her husband literally holding the bag. Kristal's husband was badly beaten up and almost killed. Their house was attacked by the drug dealers at some point. She was in nursing school at the time and she had to drop out and move her family out of the house. Prior to Chandler's going back up to Cincinnati in 1990 and the incident with her husband, Kristal talked with Debra Chandler and Lula Harris about what her father had told her. Kristal asked them if there was any such crime in the state of Florida. They said there was nothing like that going on. Debbie thought he was having a nervous breakdown and told Kristal to tell him to go home. As a result of what they told her, Kristal told her sister Valerie Troxell, but did not call the police. Kristal said that she was upset with her father for what he had done but that she did not hate her father. Kristal wanted Rick to call the police on Chandler; to report to the police that he had put a gun on him. She said that she still did not understand why he did it, but that she was not angry with him anymore. stop Chandler was arrested on September 24, 1992 and this incident occurred in October, 1990. After Chandler was arrested Kristal cooperated with law enforcement to try to tape conversations that she had with him. Kristal admitted lying to her father by denying to him that she had cooperated with law enforcement. The purpose of taping the conversations was to try to get some sort of an admission out of Chandler that he had done "this". Kristal had previously been convicted of a crime involving dishonesty. She went on national television, Hard Copy, on January 26, 1994. They paid her $1,000 for her story. Kristal declined an offer to appear on the Maury Povich show. She was aware there was a $25,000 reward for Chandler's conviction but she did not consider herself "in the running for that".Two years before, on October 6, 1992, she gave a sworn statement to the State Attorney's Office concerning the case. Valerie Lynn Troxell was Kristal Mays' sister and lived in Ohio. She was also Oba Chandler's daughter. Valerie recalled a time in the fall of 1989 when Chandler appeared unexpectedly in Ohio. She remembered him being very anxious. He was extremely upset. He was chain-smoking cigarettes and was different than he was on other occasions when she contacted him. Valerie asked him several times why he was acting that way and Chandler avoided the conversation. Then, he finally said that he had to get rid of a woman in Florida. That she was trying to say that he raped her. He never gave her any more details and he did not indicate that he was innocent or that he hadn't done it. Chandler had not brought any luggage or clothing with him to Ohio that was appropriate for that time of year. He was trying to trade or sell his vehicle. Valerie recalled that it was one of the all-terrain, Jeep-type vehicles. He gave instructions for them to say that they had not seen him if anyone was trying to find him or look for him. Valerie said that Kristal related to her what her father had said to her during his visit to Ohio in 1989. Valerie went on national television, Hard Copy, and received $1,000. She went on the show for the money. The only reason Valerie was upset with Chandler at the time of the trial was because he wrote a letter to her employer telling her the things she had disclosed to the FBI and put Kristal's job in jeopardy. James Rick Mays lived in Cincinnati and was Kristal Mays's husband. He vacationed at Chandler's house in late July and early August, 1989. While Rick was visiting, Chandler took him on a couple of aluminum jobs during the day. Chandler took Rick to John's Pass on Madeira Beach. During their travels, Chandler at some point began to talk about sex. As they were crossing the bridge, Chandler pointed off to the right, which was John's Pass and said that he picked up a lot of women at that point. He said that he had forcible sex with a lady that he had picked up from that area. Chandler told Rick that he raped somebody and one of them got away. Rick recalled a time in the fall of 1989, approximately November 7 or 9th, when Chandler showed up unexpected in Cincinnati, Ohio. Over the next day or two Rick had contact with Chandler. They rode together on an errand to Dayton. Kristal was not in the car. On the way to Dayton, Rick remembered Chandler saying that he told him they were looking for him for the murder of three women in Florida. The way Chandler talked, Rick thought that he actually did it. In none of the conversations did Chandler indicate to Rick that he was innocent or that the police were looking for the wrong man. Another time during this period Chandler came to their house one evening and Kristal was there. Chandler said he could not go home because of the murders of the women in Florida. When they got back to the house, Chandler was talking a little bit about the either the rape or murders although Rick did not recall exactly what he said at that time. Chandler told them to tell anyone who called looking for him that they hadn't seen him. Rick was aware that his wife arranged a phone call between Mr. Chandler and his wife. Subsequently, in 1990, Chandler went back to the Ohio area. He showed up at the door and said he ripped off the Coast Guard for some marijuana and that he had it tucked away and he wanted to know if Rick knew anybody that he could sell it to. Chandler said he'd pay Rick $6,000 to help him. Rick put Chandler in touch with a guy and they worked out a deal. Rick's role in the transaction was to pick up the money ($29,000) and bring it back to his house. When Rick arrived with the money, Chandler was sitting in the front yard in his pickup and he had his gun out. Rick said, "You know, this isn't the way it's supposed to go." The guy walked around the other side and dropped the money into the other side of the truck and Rick was trying to get the keys away from Chandler so he couldn't start the truck and take off. Chandler brought the gun up to Rick's forehead and said, "Family don't mean shit to me." Chandler hit Rick with the gun and he had to let go. Chandler got the truck started and left with the money. m91, T1.239) The guys took Rick back to their place. They thought Rick and Chandler were partners. They put a shotgun in Rick's mouth and threatened him. During this time, Chandler called and said, "Guess you know by now, you have been ripped off" and again, "Family don't mean shi+ to me." Chandler wanted to trade the money back for cocaine. The guys who were the purchasers let Rick go. When Chandler visited Mays in November, 1989, Rick said that Chandler may have said "accused" or "looking" for the raping of three women, Mr. Kebel testified as to the phone bill of March 31, 1989 for the telephone number 813-854-2823. There was a collect call from Gypsy One in Clearwater billing area on May 15, 1989. The call was placed by the marine operator. There were four calls made on November 10, 1989 from Kristal Mays to the 813-854- 2823 number subscribed to Debra Chandler. Ms. White discussed a toll ticket dated July 5, 1989. A marine call was placed from the boat Cigeuner to 813-854-2823 in Tampa, Florida. The ticket was filled out by the operator at the time the vessel was providing the information to make the call. The name given was Obey, O-b-e-y. The call started at 12:38 a.m. and was a two-minute-and-thirty-one second call. Ms. White testified as to a toll ticket for May 15, 1989 showing a toll call of two minutes eight seconds. This particular call connected at 5:49 p.m. Ms. White testified as to a toll ticket for June 2, 1989 showing a toll call made at 1:12 a.m. Ms. White testified as to a toll ticket for June 2, 1989 showing a connect time of 1:30 a.m. The call was a one-minute call. The length of the call made at one-twelve was five minutes. There was another call made on June 2, 1989 at 8:11 a.m. and the duration was for four minutes. Another call on that same date was made at 9:52 a.m. That call was for one minute. According to the phone bill for 813-854-2823, subscriber Debra Chandler, several marine calls were indicated. The first one was for May 15, 1989. There were others for March 17, 1989 and five calls on June 2, 1989. There was one marine call on July 5, 1989.  MS White actually went through and found the toll tickets on the microfiche in 1994. Soraya Butler was a marine operator for GTE in 1989. Ms. Butler received a call on May 15, 1989 at about 5:49 p.m. The caller identified himself as Oba and his boat at Gypsy One. She placed a call for him to Tampa. Elizabeth Beiro was a marine operator for GTE for 31 years. Ms. Beiro received a call on June 2, 1989 at about 1:12 a.m. The caller identified himself as being boat Gypsy One. The caller did not give a first name. The call was placed to 854- 2823. Toll ticket for 1:30 a.m. on June 2, 1989 was placed by Gypsy One. The caller did not identify himself with a personal name. The collect call was sent to the same number as before. The boat that placed the call on July 5, 1989 at 12:38 a.m was the Zigeuner. The caller gave a personal name of Obey. The call went to 854-2823. Carol Voeller was a marine operator for GTE in 1989. She testified as to toll ticket dated June 2, 1989 at 8:11 a.m. The name of the boat calling was the Gypsy and the person calling did not give a personal name. The collect call was to Tampa number 854-2823. Frances Watkins was a marine operator for GTE in 1989. She testified that a collect call was made on June 2, 1989 at 9:52 a.m. from the boat Gypsy One. The caller identified himself as Obie. In September, 1992 Detective Halliday interviewed the victim, Judy Blair in the rape case that occurred in Madeira Beach. She described the shirt, shoes and hat that Chandler wore on that occasion. Subsequent to that interview in September, 1992, Detect ive Hall day participated in a search pursuant to warrant of Chandler's residence in Port Orange. During the search law enforcement located a shirt matching the description given by Judy Blair. Detective Halliday also removed a hat and shoes that matched the general description given by Ms. Blair. The search warrant was issued in the Madeira Beach rape case. It was the next morning that he returned to Mr. Chandler's house and searched. Law enforcement performed a meticulous search of the house. They did not find any ladies' purses, material coming from the purses, or clothing relating to the Rogers' case. The green mesh shirt, hat and shoes were seized in the Madeira Beach case based on Judy Blair's description. Arthur Wayne Stephenson, an inmate in the Florida State Prison System was in the same cell as Chandler on October 23, 1992 and November 3, 1992. At a point in time something was mentioned on the TV concerning the three women they found in the bay and the fact that a note had been found in their car by whoever had given them directions. There was a period of about 3-4 days when the TV would show pictures of recovering the bodies and the note and the handwriting. Chandler would say that he had met these three women somewhere in the area of the stadium on Dale Mabry and sometimes talked about the note. Chandler openly told Stephenson that he had met the three women. Chandler said he gave the women directions to a boat ramp on the Courtney Campbell Causeway. Chandler said he lived in the area of the causeway. Chandler talked about having a boat. Chandler was questioned by detectives about duct tape and the rape case that was mentioned on TV. Chandler told Stephenson that when he met the three women they were from the same state or the same area as he was. Chandler said one of the girls was very attractive. Stephenson identified Oba Chandler in the courtroom. All of the statements made by Chandler to Stephenson were made in a period of about a month. William Katzer, an inmate in the Florida State Prison system shared a jail cell pod with Chandler from January 16, 1993 to February 25, 1993. It was a four-man pod. Katzer shared a room with Daniel Toby and Chandler and David Rittenhouse shared the other room. At some point in time the program A Current Affair came on the TV. All four inmates were present. After the program aired, Chandler said that "if the bitch didn't resist" he "wouldn't' be here". Chandler said that he had an alibi to cover himself. He said that he had a duped videotape that his wife had where they were going to falsify the date so he would have an alibi for the case that was pertaining to the murders. Katzer became a witness after detectives approached him at the facility where he as at. Katzer identified Chandler in the courtroom. Blake Leslie, an inmate at the Pinellas County Jail with Chandler in the fall of 1992, testified that Chandler told him that 22 he took a young lady from another country for a ride in this boat. Her friend didn't want her to go. Once he got out 20-30 miles, he told her, "f*ck or swim." He said the only reason she is still around is because somebody was waiting at the boat dock for her. Leslie was approached by law enforcement officers to see if he knew something about been convicted heard Chandler Chandler and he initially lied to them. Leslie had of 9 felonies. Leslie never say anything about any murder, just about rapes. Oba Chandler took the stand and testified that at the end of May, beginning of June, 1992 he was living with his wife, Debra, and daughter, Whitney, at 10709 Dalton Avenue, Tampa, Florida. At the time, he was an aluminum contractor and the name of the business was Custom Screens. The boat that he owned at the end of May and June, 1989, was a 21-foot Bayliner. It had a blue hull, white interior, blue canvas top. His only hobby was fishing. He said that he did not drink. He bought this 1976 Bayliner from Mr. Derek Galpin for $2,100 and sold it to Mr. Carlton for $5,000. Bob Foley went over to Chandler's house on Memorial Day, 1989. They went out in the boat. It had a marine radio and Chandler knew how to use it. That weekend Chandler sold Mr. Foley a couch and when he returned home, Chandler, his wife and his daughter followed him back to about Sanford because the lights weren't working on his trailer. They turned right around and drove home. Chandler testified that he worked the week after Memorial Day, but he could not remember exactly what he did on May 31 or on June 1, 1989. Chandler did recall meeting Michelle Rogers on June 1. According to him Christe was hanging out of the car and he never met Joan. He only spoke with Michelle; he never spoke with anyone else. Chandler was returning from an estimate and he stopped at a gas station on 50th and I4. When he came back out, Michelle asked him if he knew where the Days Inn on Sixty was. There was a Days Inn right there where they were talking. He pointed it out to her and Christe stuck her head out of the car hollering, "Rocky Point. Rocky Point." Chandler told them they did not want this one. They wanted the one on Courtney Campbell Causeway. He said that he was very familiar with it. He gave them directions. He said to take the expressway and go around. He did not pay any attention to where they went. He said the conversation took a total of two minutes. Chandler indicated on a map introduced by defense counsel the directions he gave to the women. According to the map and his directions, in order to get on the interstate, one would have to go onto Columbus Drive; which was less than a mile away. Chandler said that he did not write the directions. That they had a pamphlet and he just wrote it on top of the pamphlet. He simply printed on the top of the brochure, "Route Sixty, Courtney Campbell Causeway, Days Inn." That's all he said he did. He did not draw any directions. Chandler testified that he never saw those people again in his life. He did not kill those people. He did not take them out on his boat. Chandler testified that he probably gave screens to Rollins Cooper on June 1 but he could not say so for sure because his memory was not like that, Chandler never told Rollins Cooper that he had a date with three women. Nor did he have a date with three women. Chandler did not recall whether he paid Rollins Cooper that day for the Betancur job but that based on the records, he obviously did. Chandler was surprised to see the records which indicated that he was out on his boat that night. He thought it was the weekend before the Fourth of July. He recalled the night the calls were made and he was out fishing at the Gandy Bridge. He did not kill anybody that night. He went out about 9:30 or 10:00 that night. He doesn't remember exactly what time it was when he got ready to go home, but when he started his engine up and was pulling his anchor in, the engine died. He started it again, it ran for a second and stopped. He got out his spotlight and started looking to see if he had an electrical problem. He started smelling gas. He pulled his big hatch away from my engine section and could smell a lot of gas in the bilge. It was obvious the bilge pump was pumping, he had busted a hose and was totallIy out of gas. A The boat had an inboard/outboard; with the inboard tank bu ilt into it. It had a forty-gallon tank below the deck. The top on the boat was fiberglass. He had a cover over the top of the engine which was hinged. The hinges would have to be loosened and the whole section would slide. He slid it forward and at that time he smelled a lot of gas. He called home about three times. His purpose was to get assistance and none came. He did not have anyone he could contact to go and get him and tow him. He was stuck on the boat and he just sacked out on the boat. It got daylight and he called home. The Coast Guard came by and he flagged them down. They told him they would come back to give him assistance if they could. They couldn't. Another boat went by and he asked them for a tow to the marina. With daylight, Chandler could see what his problem was and he proceeded to tape the hose where it was leaking. It didn't hold too well, but it did okay. Two guys gave him a tow to the Gandy Bridge Marina, he got five bucks of gas and went back home. He called home again. Chandler testified that he kept tape and spare parts on his boat. The next day was June 2 and Chandler picked up two orders for jobs. Eventually Chandler sold his boat to Mr. Carlton and bought a 26-footer with a cabin cruiser. Before he sold the boat he replaced the steering wheel because it was broken. Chandler said there were no concrete blocks at his house. When he bought the house it was immaculate.  During the next week, Chandler testified that he and his wife went to a Fourth of July party, birthday parties, Memorial Day parties, out to dinner once or twice. Normal, everyday living.  In the beginning of June, 1989 the only child around Chandler was his daughter, Whitney. His wife's son, Jay, came down later in the summer from school in Rhode Island. To Mr. Zinober's final direct question, "Did you kill these ladies?" Chandler answered, "I have never killed no one in my whole life. I have never--it's ludicrous. It's ridiculous." On cross examination, Chandler admitted that he had been convicted of a felony six times. He had been in custody since September, 1992. He said that he was not on the stand to talk about the rape trial; that he was not answering "no questions of the rape trial". He said he would talk about the Rogers homicide but that the rape case was still pending. Assistant State Attorney Doug Crow asked Chandler if he was taking the Fifth Amendment and he replied, "Yes, I am." To which Mr. Crow replied, "You are afraid your answers may incriminate you, is that why you refuse to answer?" Chandler responded, "I have invoked my Fifth Amendment from the rape case from Madeira Beach. I will answer no questions, sir, that relates to that case." Mr. Crow continued, "You are afraid your answers may incriminate you?" Chandler, "NO." "Then you can't take the Fifth Amendment." At this point during the exchange between the prosecutor and Chandler, the court injected, "That is correct." Chandler was directed, "Answer the question, or else you will have to invoke the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination." To which Chandler replied, "I invoke the Fifth Amendment." Chandler testified that he left his fingerprints and handwriting on the pamphlet that the Rogers women had. He recalled the driver was Michelle as she had been standing on the driver's side of the car. Chandler remembered reading in the paper about three bodies floating up in Tampa Bay. Four days later he recalled seeing the two girls' pictures, along with the mother's, in the paper. He did not realize that they were two of the same women he had met on June 1. He thought the pictures looked entirely different from the people he met. In November, 1989 Chandler saw a composite in the paper and it was only then that he realized that the women were the ones he had given directions to. The composite related to the Madeira Beach rape. Until May, 1994 when Chandler saw the marine toll bills for the evening of June 1, 1989 and the morning of June 2, he did not have any idea where he was. Chandler testified that his boat has broken down before and he a has stayed out all night in Tampa Bay numerous times. He would go out fishing all night probably two nights a week. Chandler believed that it was about fifteen minutes from the time the boat died and he could not restart it that he made the first phone call. He did not think that he knew the line was broken until the morning when it got daylight, He kept his tanks topped off and a forty-gallon tank was empty. He knew he had not used forty gallons of gas. He knew he had a leak. After Chandler called home, there was another six or seven hours and that he slept during that time.  He said he called the Coast Guard and they told him to call a towing service. That it would cost $100 an hour to tow him. He declined.  Chandler did not call any commercial services nor any of his friends who had boats.  Chandler admitted that he had known since November, 1989 that he was a suspect in the murders.  He admitted that he fled the state because he was afraid of the Madeira Beach case. It's connection to the homicide did not worry him that much. Chandler testified that after the composite came out in the paper and on TV he went to Deltona for three days to visit Leslie Hicks, a prior live-in girlfriend. He did not tell her that he was a suspect in a rape and murder.  He said that he went up to Ohio to make money to obtain an attorney. He was afraid the police were looking for him and had his phone tapped.  While in Ohio he got with Rick and Kristal and obtained about a thousand dollars and two ounces of cocaine. He did not give it to a lawyer. He returned to Deltona. He had Kristal arrange to have a phone call made to his wife, Debbie, through a pay phone. He wanted to see if the cops had been to his house on the Madeira Beach case. He was concerned about the Rogers' case, but he was more concerned about the Madeira Beach case. Chandler did not recall whether it was he who asked his wife to go to a second pay phone or if it was Kristal's idea. Chandler admitted to Kristal that he was a suspect in a rape case. He said that he also mentioned to her that they were trying to link the Rogers homicide to the rape case. He told her that because he was nervous about it. He was scared. He did not want to go to jail. He needed money. He was not afraid of going to jail on the Rogers homicide. Chandler said that he told Kristal that he was innocent of both crimes. He denied that Kristal ever went to the bathroom. He said that she never left the room.  Chandler testified that neither Kristal nor Rick were shocked or upset with what he was telling them. He thought they were concerned about helping him obtain a lawyer. He was chain-smoking cigarettes, but he said that he always did. He smoked two, three packs a day. He said he also always drinks a was positive that he did not back his car up that the tag wouldn't be visible.  Chandler denied tell ing Rick and Kristal to lie if anybody lot of coffee. He to the building so called looking for him. He was concerned that the police might have had his phone tapped, but he did not think they might try to contact his two daughters in Cincinnati.  To the prosecutor's question, "Were you on Madeira Beach on May 14, 1989, Chandler replied, "I plead the Fifth, sir." He did admit to being familiar with the John's Pass area.  He said that he had been out to that area prior to May, 1989. He did not have any jobs or friends in that area. Chandler plead the Fifth on response to five consecutive questions regarding the Madeira Beach rape.  Chandler admitted to keeping duct tape over the broken steering wheel of his boat. Chandler invoked his Fifth Amendment privilege twice more in the presence of the jury regarding the rape case. The court admonished Chandler for refusing to answer the State's questions. He was told that because he had taken the stand, the State could ask him questions. He could plead the Fifth Or answer the questions. The State asked another question regarding the Madeira Beach rape and, once again, Chandler plead the Fifth. Defense counsel requested a side-bar conference and asked for a continuing objection. This request for a standing objection was overruled because the court maintained that she had heard him answer some questions when she thought he might have taken the Fifth. He was not taking the Fifth every time.  Chandler said that he kept a knife on the boat but that he did not keep any other weapons on the boat. He said the knife was not a weapon; that it was used for fishing, cutting line, cutting rope, He kept anchor line on the boat. He had two 100-foot anchors on the boat. He also had tie-off line which he kept up front on the boat. The Bayliner boat did not have any carpet in it at any time that Chandler knew of. The boat had a Volvo engine. On the morning of June 2, in daylight Chandler discovered he had a broken fuel line and he put tape over it. His bilge pump had pumped out forty gallons of gasoline into the bay. He said that he did not know when the gas had leaked out. It could have leaked out at his dock. Chandler said that he had an automatic bilge on his boat. At daybreak he said that he saw three Coast Guard people in a Zodiac, two men and a woman. He flagged them down with his shirt. They came over to him and he asked them if the could tow him in. They replied that they had to--something like a body was on the rock or something was on the rock; and that they'd be right back. In the meantime, after about ten to twenty minutes, two guys came by Chandler in a boat. He flagged them. They came over and pulled him over to Gandy. He put five or six bucks of gas into the boat and went home. Chandler did not recall the time he was towed. The boat towed him to the Gandy Bridge Marina on the east side of Tampa Bay. He had been out about a quarter of a mile from where the boats have to go underneath the bridge. They towed him about three to four miles at idle speed. It took maybe an hour. Chandler testified that he arrived home probably twenty minutes to half an hour after he left the marina. Chandler said that after he got home, he went to work. Based on the documents Chandler previously looked at, he had shown up between 7:15 and 7:30 on June 2, 1989 at Ms. Capo's house. However, Chandler did not recall being there at that period of time. Chandler recalled that there were a series of phone tolls made while he was still out on the boat between one and two a.m. and eight fifteen to nine fifty-two.  Chandler could not say for sure what time of day he went to Ashley Aluminum or Ms. Capo's. He did not recall talking to Ms. Capo that morning. He said that Rollins Cooper could have picked up the materials that morning. However, Cooper's signature was not on the material sheets for June 2. At some point after his return to Deltona from Cincinnati, Chandler returned to his wife and daughter. He said that he didn't know why he returned. Chandler testified that he was still concerned that he could be arrested. He did not do anything to try to keep people from finding him. He went back to work. He admitted that he had fear in his head that he was a suspect and that his photograph was in the paper to the day he was arrested. In July, 1990 Chandler and his wife and daughter tried to move to California. He did not tell his friends, even Mr. Foley.  Chandler did not tell his daughter. He said that his sister did not know. That he was not close to his sister. He was not close to anyone in his family. They went to California for fifteen, twenty days. They found it was too expensive so they came back. They did not return to Dalton Avenue.  Chandler testified that his business was going under and he said that he couldn't afford the house. His wife's income was about a fourth of what she normally made. He had too many bills to pay. He had to let them foreclose on his house. Chandler testified that he left Cincinnati with twenty or thirty thousand dollars in his pocket as a result of the drug rip-off that he and Rick Mays did. He did not go to a lawyer to hire him. At that time getting money for a lawyer on the Madeira Beach rape case was of no concern of his. After the drug deal, Chandler took the money and they moved to Sunrise. After that they moved to Ormond Beach. They stayed there a year. Then they moved to Port Orange. He did not tell Mr. Foley, who was living in Port Orange, that he was there. His family did not know where he was. The phone was in his daughter's name. The phone was in her name because they had bad credit and couldn't get it in their name. He was concerned about being arrested in the Rogers homicide but he always thought it would be solved. He was more worried about doing a life sentence for a rape case. The Days Inn on Courtney Campbell Causeway was in the area where he lived when he lived on Dalton Avenue. Chandler testified that he had been in the canals back where the dock was at the Days Inn once or twice, but that he was not real familiar with it. With the aid of a photograph of the full view of the engine of the boat, Chandler testified that the broken line was in the front of the engine. The gas line came up from the gas tank which was under the floor. The gas tank was below deck. Although he repaired the gas line, he did not know whether it was busted before the gas tank or not. Chandler had not ever heard of an antisyphon valve. He was aware of a device that would prevent the gas from leaking out but that was with the engine, not the tank. The line went only to the fuel pump. There was no valve there that stopped it from coming out. Although he did not know if it was the top or the bottom of the gas tank, Chandler said that the break in the line was where it went to the gas tank. Chandler testified that when he gave directions to Michelle and Christe, Michelle was out of the car and Christe was coming out over top of the driver's side window. Then Chandler corrected himself and said that although he did not know where Christe was sitting, she stuck her head out of the front window. Chandler could not recall whether it was the passenger or backseat window. Michelle handed him the brochure he wrote the directions on. The Rogers were parked down by the pumps at the gas station and that is where he had pulled up. Chandler said that in giving Michelle directions, he never mentioned Boy Scout to them. He never mentioned Columbus to them. He could not recall what time of day it was. And he did not remember if they drove off while he was still there. He did not recall writing anything else on the brochure. He identified his handwriting in pencil on the brochure. He had used their pencil. His handwriting was in pen at the bottom also. He had used their pen. Oba denied switching from pencil to pen. He said that he may have written both in pen. Could have been either. Chandler denied drawing a line, the circle, the X, or the words on the brochure. They were not a part of the discussion with the girls.  He did not have any casual conversation with them about Busch Gardens; where they were from. He did not notice that the tags on their car were from Ohio. He estimated Michelle's age to be anywhere from seventeen to nineteen. She was pretty. He did not pay much attention to Christe. He did not give them directions to the Westshore Mall. Chandler had contact with Customs agents in 1991. He denied making repeated inquiries to them as to the status of the Rogers homicide investigation. The only case Chandler said he ever discussed with Customs was making money from selling drugs. He never discussed the Madeira Beach rape case with them. The State questioned Chandler twice about the Madeira Beach rape and he plead the Fifth both times in the presence of the jury. Defense counsel's motion for mistrial based upon Mr. Chandler being required to go over the privilege was denied in side-bar conference.  Chandler totally disputed what Kristal and Rick May said; it never happened. He also disputed what some of the people from the jail testified as to what he had said. The state presented several rebuttal witnesses. Among these witnessess was Detective Ralph Pflieger who testified that he reviewed all the evidence from the Rogers' hotel room and did not find any Maas Brothers receipts, bags, or merchandise tags. A cellmate of Chandler's, Edwin Ojeda, testified that he overheard Chandler tell another prisoner, Daniel Maxwell, that his biggest mistake was leaving the note in the car. Coast Guardsman Robert Wesley Shidner was recalled to the stand. He disputed Chandler's claim that on the morning after the Rogers were killed, he flagged down three Coast Guard people in a Zodiac, two men and a woman and that they told him they had "to-- something like a body was on the rock or something was on the rock; and that they'd be right back." Shidner testified that the Coast Guard does not make routine patrols and that on June 2, 1989, there was not a crew out on Tampa Bay looking for a body. He also testified that the standard crew is two on a boat at a time, but that they had a three-person crew on June 4 to help retrieve the Rogers' bodies and that on June 2, 1989, the Coast Guard boat never left the St. Petersburg station. To rebut Chandler's claim that he was out all night because he ran out of gas, the state presented a certified boat mechanic, James Hensley, who testified that Chandler's fuel line was possibly still the original, it was in good shape and showed no signs of repair. He also testified that gas dissolves tape so it would not repair a leaking gas line. Further, fuel does not leak out when there is a hole in the gas line because of the anti-syphoning valve. Even if the anti-syphoning valve failed, it would not have leaked because Chandler's tank was on the bottom of the boat with the gas line coming out of the top of the motor. If the gas line broke, the engine would suck air and stop, but the gas would stay in the tank. Customs Officer Whitney Azure testified that Chandler asked him several times about the Rogers investigation. At the close of the evidence the jury returned a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree, as charged. The penalty phase was scheduled for the next day. Chandler waived the presentation of any mitigating evidence. 38 Defense counsel put on the record that he would have called a mental health expert, as well as family members. Chandler confirmed that he did not wish to present any mitigating evidence. The state presented judgment and sentences for prior armed robberies. The state also presented the armed robbery victims, Peggy Harrington and Robert Plemmons, who testified as to the underlying facts of the prior armed robberies. Peggy Harrington testified that while she was at a jeweler's remount show Chandler robbed her and a partner at gunpoint of $750,000 in jewelery. FDLE agent John Halliday testified that the gun, as well as some of the jewelery, was recovered during the search of Chandler's house on September 25, 1992. Robert Plemmons testified that Chandler and another man kicked in the front door of his home in Holly Hill. Chandler hit him in the head with a pistol. Chandler took Plemmons' girlfriend in the bedroom where she was tied up on the bed and stripped from the waist down. Judge Schaeffer sustained an objection to Plemmons' testifying as to what his girlfriend told him had happened in the bedroom. Chandler presented some documentary evidence as mitigating evidence, including college credits. The jury returned three 12-0 recommendations for death.  

He did not speak with reporters afterward. Amanda “Mandi” Scarlett, Joan Rogers' niece, sat next to him during the execution and later read a statement at a news conference. “The family of Jo, Michelle and Chris are very appreciative of everyone that has brought us to this day,” Scarlett said. “The journey has been difficult for all of us involved. We have always been grateful to those who brought us to this place, and we were grateful that they were brought back home to us. Now is the time for peace.”

 

CASE: Mississippi executed a man Tuesday 12 June 2012 for fatally shooting his 3-year-old daughter, his ex-wife and her parents in a crime in which authorities say he also stole his slain mother-in-law's wedding ring and used it to propose marriage to his girlfriend. Jan Michael Brawner, 34, was pronounced dead at 6:18 p.m. CDT after receiving a chemical injection at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. Brawner had admitted to the killings and said he didn't deserve to live after shooting his daughter, Paige, his ex-wife, Barbara Craft, and her parents, Carl and Jane Craft, at their house on April 25, 2001.

Before the execution, Brawner appeared talkative and said he deserved to die for what he'd done, Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps said.

Brawner also said he wasn't on drugs or alcohol when he killed, but snapped under the stress of a divorce and restraining order, according to Epps.

Court records based on Brawner's testimony and statements to police describe the killings and the series of events leading up to them like this:

Brawner left his apartment in Southaven, just south of Memphis, Tenn., about 3 a.m. the day before the killings and drove an hour to the Crafts' house because he was having financial trouble and found out his ex-wife planned to stop him from seeing the child. He emptied bullets from a 7-mm rifle in his father-in-law's truck and fled when a dog began barking.

He drove back to the house the next day and knocked on the door, but nobody was home. He put on rubber gloves and went through a back door. He took a .22 caliber rifle from the house, then drove to Carl Craft's job and asked if he could go to the house to wait for his ex-wife so he could see his daughter. Carl Craft agreed.

Brawner went back to the house. When his ex-wife, her mother and his daughter arrived, Brawner became agitated. He shot his ex-wife's mother first, then shot his ex-wife. She had wounds to her hands from trying to protect herself.

He walked across the room to his former mother-in-law and "put her out of her misery." Then he shot his ex-wife again.

The child had blood splatter on her from the shootings and said, "Daddy, you hurt me."

He took his daughter to a bedroom and told her to watch television, but decided she could identify him as the killer. He shot her in the chin and head. He killed Carl Craft when he arrived from work.

He stole Carl Craft's wallet and took his former mother-in-law's wedding ring off her finger. He gave the ring to his girlfriend and proposed marriage later that day, records show.

A brother of Brawner's ex-wife witnessed the execution. None of his relatives were present.

Kathy Jaco Sigler, Jane Craft's sister, issued a statement afterward saying her family will never understand why the killings happened and referred to Christian scripture.

"Man has a choice of good and evil. Michael chose evil while my family chose good. God's peace prevails over this evil because we know in our hearts that my sister and her family dwell in heaven with the Lord," the statement said.

CASE: Danette Elg reported a prowling incident to the Blackfoot Police and identified Richard Leavitt as the prowler. Elg was acquainted with Leavitt, having met him through a mutual friend.

On or about July 17, 1984: Elg was murdered in her home. She had been attacked with a knife and sustained 15 separate stab and slash wounds. In addition, she had been sexually mutilated. Following her death, but before her body was discovered, Leavitt contacted the police and friends of Elg and expressed curiosity about her absence. Leavitt claimed that Elg?s co-workers and employer called him after she did not appear for work. These calls could not be confirmed.

July 21, 1984: After obtaining permission from Elg?s parents, Leavitt and Blackfoot police entered her home and discovered her body in a waterbed, which had also been slashed during the murder.

Former Bingham County Prosecutor Tom Moss did not witness Leavitt's execution. However, as the prosecuting attorney who handled Leavitt's case in 1984, Moss offered his comments on what he described as the lengthy nature of Leavitt's death penalty appeals process.

"The bottom line is that it takes a long time, but when someone's life is at stake, it's very important that we move carefully," Moss said, adding that Leavitt's case was examined "through a microscope," at every level.

Moss also said the Danette Elg's sister hugged him after the execution was over, saying "I feel real good."

Prison officials told KTVB that members of Leavitt's family were present, but did not watch his execution on Tuesday, because he had asked them not to.

Officials say Leavitt’s body will now be cremated, and the remains will be turned over to his family.   

Mathie and her family issued the following statement after the execution:

“We want to express thanks to everyone who has labored faithfully to uphold the laws of Idaho so that justice and retribution may be served. Closure is now possible for those of us who have lived with the horror of Danette's murder constantly overshadowing the joyful memories of her life. As family and friends of Danette we never have to think of Richard Leavitt again. Our memories can now focus on the brief time she was here sharing our lives and the joy of loving her.”

Summary: Turner and Paul Stewart had been drinking beer and smoking marijuana while joy riding in Stewart's car when they decided to rob some Carroll County convenience stores. They first drove to Mims Truck Stop, but left it after finding it was too crowded. Their next stop was Mims Turkey Village Truck Stop, about four miles down the road. The two entered the store carrying rifles and wearing masks. Turner shot the store clerk, Eddie Brooks, in the chest. Turner and Stewart tried to open the cash register by force and by shooting it. Then Turner shot Brooks in the head from only inches away. The two then went back to Mims Truck Stop, and while Stewart went inside the store, Turner robbed Curry, who was pumping gas outside. He shot Curry in the head. Stewart proceeded to rob the store, and Turner came in, pointing his gun at the people in the store. Stewart testified he told Turner since he had the money, there was no need to kill anyone else. The next day, police found the weapons used in the murders inside Turner's home, and the masks used during the robberies in the back of Turner's car. Stewart confessed to police, pleaded guilty to two counts of capital murder, and later testified against Turner. Turner tried to commit suicide when he was 18 by putting a rifle in his mouth and pulling the trigger. His face was left severely disfigured.

The sister and a cousin of victim Eddie Brooks watched the execution. The brother and son of his other victim, Everett Curry, also witnessed it.

One of Curry’s other brothers read a statement for the family afterward.

“I don’t think we will ever have complete closure because a void will always exist in our hearts,” said Roy Curry, who did not watch the execution. “At least we will have some consolation in knowing that the person who committed this cowardly and senseless act is finally gone.”

Summary: Simmons was convicted of the August 1996 murder of Jeffery Wolfe, 21. According to records from the Mississippi Supreme Court, Wolfe and his girlfriend had driven from Houston to Mississippi to collect a drug debt of between $12,000 to $20,000. But when they got to Simmons' house, Simmons and his accomplice, Timothy Milano, told Wolfe they did not have the drugs or the money, records showed. An argument erupted, and Milano fatally shot Wolfe with a .22-caliber rifle, records showed. Simmons then hog-tied and locked Wolfe's girlfriend in a foot locker, removing her later to rape her and "telling her that her life depended on how well she performed sexually," the court document said. Afterward, Simmons put the woman back inside the box and went into the bathroom, where he dismembered and gutted Wolfe's body in the bathtub using knives he had sharpened at work, the records showed. Simmons and Milano scattered the victim's remains in a bayou behind Simmons' property, according to documents. Wolfe's girlfriend managed to escape from the foot locker and ran to a neighbor's house to call police, records showed. Simmons was sentenced to death after being convicted in August 1997 of kidnapping, rape and capital murder. Milano was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the crime. (Editing By Colleen Jenkins and Will Dunham)

After the execution, Wolfe's step-mother Linda Wolfe says Simmons never apologized even with his last words.

"Did he tell us, 'I am sorry. I wish I could take it back'? No, He didn't take nothing back. Like he said, 'Let's get it over with. Let's get done so these people can go home'.  Well that is where we are going. We are going back to Houston, Texas and our hearts are proud. And we are proud of y'all. And thank y'all for every prayer, every thought and everything you have done the last 16 years," Wolfe said.

Wolfe's father Paskiel Wolfe reacted emotionally to the execution.

"Do you think God is going to forgive you for doing such a good deed? No. You are going to go to Hell. And that is where you are gonna be. And I hope you burn in Hell. When you take your last breath I will be leaving to go and have a cold beer," Wolfe said.

CASE: On October 29, 1986, Lopez broke into the apartment of 59-year-old Estafana Holmes. Lopez raped, beat, and stabbed Ms. Holmes. Her body was found nude from the waist down, with her pajama bottoms tied around her eyes. A lace scarf was crammed tightly into her mouth. She had been stabbed 23 times in the left breast and upper chest, three times in her lower abdomen, and her throat was cut. Lopez' body fluids matched seminal fluids found in Ms. Holmes' body.

                           

A family said they finally have justice after the man who killed their sister more than two decades ago was executed Wednesday morning.

Convicted killer and rapist Samuel Villegas Lopez was put to death at 10:37 a.m. A moment the murder victim's family has been waiting for, for more than 25 years.

"Our sister, Estafana "Ese" Holmes, was savagely raped and brutally murdered by Samuel Lopez," the victim's brother, Victor Arguijo said.

Lopez killed 59-year-old Holmes in October 1986, stabbing her 23 times.

"Though trying and challenging for our family, through God's help, we have endured this ordeal," Arguijo said.

"I know that this execution here today will not bring our beloved 'Stefo' back but hopefully it will bring closure," Arguijo said.

Summary: Frank Meziere had watched a Dallas Mavericks basketball game at a restaurant with a friend and before heading home decided to stop at a self-service car wash to clean his black Mustang convertible. The 23-year-old Plano stockbroker, a 1996 Texas A&M University graduate, never made it home. His body was found the next day, March 26, 1998, along the side of a road in an industrial area of Oak Cliff, an area of south Dallas. Evidence admitted at trial established that on March 25, 1998, then 19-year-old Yokamon Laneal Hearn and three others drove to North Dallas for the expressed purpose of making some money. The group carried with them two shotguns, a .22 caliber pistol, and a Tec-9 automatic. At about 10:30 p.m. the group observed Frank Meziere preparing to wash his 1994 Mustang in a coin-operated car wash. Hearn devised a plan to steal the car and instructed his accomplices how to proceed. Hearn and his companions abducted Frank Meziere at gunpoint and drove him to a secluded location where Hearn used the Tec-9 to shoot Meziere in the face. Meziere died as the result of twelve close-range gunshot wounds to the head and upper body. The assailants then took Frank's wallet and personal items. Hearn then drove away in Meziere’s Mustang in search of a “chop shop” for stolen cars. A city electrician discovered Meziere’s body in a patch of grass in a roadside field around 6:00 am the next morning. Two hours later a patrol officer discovered Meziere’s abandoned Mustang in a shopping center parking lot. Hearn and his companions were caught on videotape by a security camera at a convenience store adjacent to the car wash. Hearn and Delvin Diles were arrested several days later when police acted on a tip they received. Meziere's father said at the time, "I just hope justice can be done as soon as possible. I've always been in favor of the death penalty, and I stand by that now." Dallas County criminal records showed Diles had received 5 years of probation the previous summer after pleading guilty to a felony burglary charge; Hearn had been charged with misdemeanor theft, a case which was still pending at the time of Frank's murder. Physical evidence linked both Hearn and Diles to the car. Diles, 19 at the time, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to consecutive life terms for Meziere's death and an unrelated aggravated robbery. Teresa Shirley, then 19, and Dwight Burley, then 20, were arrested more than 8 months later. Each pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery and received 10-year prison sentences. At Hearn's trial, Shirley testified that she was the driver of the second car. She said that Meziere had his arms raised and appeared to be begging for his life as Hearn swung a Tec-9 semiautomatic rifle back and forth. The rifle, Shirley testified, had been stolen in an apartment burglary the previous day. Hearn fired at Meziere and kept shooting him even after he fell to the ground. Diles also shot at the victim several times with his revolver, she testified. Shirley further testified that Hearn later bragged about the killing. She said he waved around a newspaper account stating that Meziere had been shot in the head - or "domed" in street slang, and he told her, "I told you I domed him. I told you. I told you." At age 19, Hearn had no prior felony convictions. Testimony at his punishment hearing indicated that he had an unadjudicated history of burglary, robbery, sexual assault, and other offenses. A jury convicted Hearn of capital murder in December 1998 and sentenced him to death.

Frank Meziere’s father, brother and uncle were among those who witnessed Hearn’s lethal injection. “We did not come today to view this execution for revenge or to even the score,” the family said afterward in a statement. “What this does is give our family and friends the knowledge that Mr. Hearn will not have the opportunity to hurt anyone else.”  

CASE: Brett Hartmann met Winda Snipes at a bar in Akron, Ohio, sometime during 1997. Subsequently, they engaged in sexual intercourse on several occasions. During the late afternoon of September 9, 1997, Hartmann went to Wanda's apartment and brutally murdered her by tying her to the bed, stabbing her one hundred thirty-eight times, slitting her throat, and cutting off her hands. Around 2:20 a.m. on September 9, 1997,

Hartmann met Wanda at the Bucket Shop, an Akron bar. Hartmann kissed Wanda on the cheek and they talked. Thereafter, Hartmann and Wanda left the bar and they went to her apartment across the street. Around 3:00 a.m., David Morris, an acquaintance of Hartmann and Wanda, left the Inn Between, another Akron bar. While walking past Wanda's apartment on his way home, Morris observed Wanda and Hartmann through the upstairs window of her apartment. Morris testified that Wanda was yelling at Hartmann about touching stuff that was not his. Hartmann closed the window blinds and “obviously she wasn't very happy about it” because she “scolded” him and reopened the blinds. That afternoon, at around 4:30 p.m., Wanda was observed crossing a street in a nearby business district. She was never seen alive again.

Hartmann had the day off from work on September 9. According to Richard Russell, a bartender at the Inn Between, Hartmann entered the bar at around 8:00 p.m. and appeared nervous and hyper, and talked excessively. Thereafter, Hartmann was in and out of the bar five to six times between 9:00 and 10:30 p.m. Hartmann first contacted the police on September 9 with a series of anonymous 911 calls, which he later admitted to. His first 911 call at 9:59 p.m. reported the location of a mutilated body. The police officers dispatched to Wanda's address entered Wanda's apartment building and checked around, but left after finding nothing unusual. Meanwhile, Hartmann viewed the police unit's arrival and departure while hiding behind a tree across the street. Hartmann then made another 911 call telling the police to return to the apartment building and provided further instructions on the body's location.

Akron police officers responding to this call entered Wanda's unlocked apartment and found her naked, mutilated body lying on the bedroom floor. Wanda's leg was draped across the bed, a pair of pantyhose tied her ankle to the bed leg, and a white plastic chair was on top of her body. Wanda's hands were cut off and have never been found. Around 10:45 p.m., Hartmann was at the Inn Between with Morris, while police units were across the street investigating Wanda's murder. Morris, having learned that Wanda had been murdered, suggested to Hartmann that he should talk to the police, since Morris had observed Hartmann at Wanda's apartment the previous evening. Shortly before midnight, Hartmann approached Detective Gregory Harrison while he was at a mobile crime lab parked outside Wanda's apartment. Hartmann walked up to Harrison and said, “I hear it's pretty bad in there,” and asked if Harrison had “ever seen anything so gruesome.” Later that evening, Hartmann approached Harrison a second time and spontaneously mentioned that Wanda was a whore, “that she slept around a lot,” and that “he had slept with her * * * and he had even slept with her the night before at 3:00.” In their final contact at around 3:00 a.m., Hartmann was “kind of mumbling to himself” and Harrison heard Hartmann say that “she was a whore, she was a big whore, she got what she deserved.”

Between 11:30 p.m. and 12:15 a.m., Hartmann also approached Akron Police Lt. John A. Lawson near the murder scene and, “rather abruptly said, ‘You're going to find my semen in her and my prints over there.’?” When Lawson asked why, Hartmann said he “had been with her earlier that morning, the morning of the 9th,” and that he had had sex with her. At 12:15 a.m. on September 10, Hartmann spoke to Detective Joseph Urbank in front of the apartment building. Hartmann began their conversation by announcing that “he had sex with the victim the night before.” Moreover, Hartmann said he did not know her name but “only knew her as psycho bitch and that everybody knew that if you got drunk and were horny you went to go see her, you went to go see psycho bitch.” Hartmann also told Urbank that he went to Wanda's apartment at 2:30 a.m. on September 9, and “she started dancing a little bit.” He “lifted her onto the bed, undressed her,” and “they started having vaginal intercourse.” Hartmann said that he was disappointed because Wanda refused to have anal intercourse, and he left her apartment around 3:30 a.m. However, Hartmann claimed that he did not know anything about the murder until the bartender at the Inn Between told him about it on the evening of September 9. Around 6:00 a.m. on September 10, police took Hartmann to the Akron police station, where he was interviewed by Lawson and Urbank.

During his interview, Hartmann denied making the 911 calls, and denied hiding behind a tree across from Wanda's apartment. Then, Hartmann changed a part of his story and admitted hiding behind a tree near the murder scene. Following the September 10 police interview, the police searched Hartmann's apartment with his consent. The police seized Hartmann's bloody tee-shirt from underneath the headboard of his bed, a pair of his jeans, and his boots. Police found a knife on his dresser and Wanda's wristwatch on Hartmann's bed stand. Police took Hartmann to the police station after the search of his apartment. While awaiting transfer to the Summit County Jail, Hartmann approached Detective John R. Gilbride and blurted out, “I was the one that called the police” and “I'm the one that found the body.”?Hartmann told Gilbride he had been sexually involved with Wanda since February 1997, and had sexual intercourse with Wanda during the early morning hours of September 9. Hartmann stated that “after having sex the psycho bitch threw him out of the apartment stating that her boyfriend was coming over.” He left around 3:30 a.m. and returned to his own apartment.

According to Gilbride, Hartmann said that he slept until 6:00 p.m. on September 9, and then took the bus to the Inn Between bar around 7:30 p.m. Gilbride testified that while going into the Inn Between bar, Hartmann noticed a light on in Wanda's apartment and decided to visit her. According to Gilbride, Hartmann gained entry to the apartment through an unlocked door and claimed that he found her dead body in her bedroom. Hartmann said that he unsuccessfully tried to pick her body off the floor, noticed that her hands had been cut off, and “freaked out.” Thinking “I'm going to get busted for this,” Hartmann washed her blood off his hands and clothes, tried wiping down everything he touched, removed evidence linking him to her apartment, and went home. Wanda was stabbed one hundred thirty-eight times. Bruising on her ankles indicated that she was alive when she was tied to the bed. Additionally, sperm was found in her vagina and anus. The medical examiner concluded that Wanda had died from strangulation and a slit throat either in the late afternoon or early evening of September 9.

Police found Hartmann's bloody fingerprint on the leg of the white chair draped over Wanda's body, and police found another of Hartmann's fingerprints on Wanda's bedspread. An expert witness testified that the long linear blood patterns found on Hartmann's tee-shirt and Wanda's bedspread were applied by a long-bladed knife. Further, the blood patterns found on Hartmann's tee-shirt were applied while the tee-shirt was lying flat, and not while Hartmann was wearing it. At trial, the prosecution introduced a set of Hartmann's knives, including a meat cleaver, a knife, and a knife sharpener that Hartmann kept at the Quaker Square Hilton, where he worked as a chef. Christopher Hoffman, a Hilton co-worker, testified that he talked to Hartmann in August 1997 about the O.J. Simpson trial. According to Hoffman, Hartmann said that Simpson could have disposed of evidence against him by cutting off the victim's hands and eliminating “fibers and hair and skin that might be found on the fingernails.” Bryan Tyson, a fellow inmate at the Summit County Jail, testified that during a jailhouse conversation, Hartmann admitted that he had killed Wanda. According to Tyson, Hartmann said that “he pushed himself on her, something in his mind snapped, she was hitting him, he lost his temper, did things he regretted, killed her.” Then, Hartmann said that he had “tried to make it look like a burglary,” admitted cutting off Wanda's hands, and mentioned a hacksaw, and jokingly said “?‘Don't leave home without it,’ like the credit card commercial.”

 

A former co-worker and friend of Snipes who witnessed the execution said afterward that the family was relieved the case was over and that the continuous rounds of appeals and media reports about the case were at an end. Jacqueline Brown of Doylestown in northeast Ohio also flatly dismissed Hartman’s innocence claim.

 

‘‘He’s very, very, very guilty,’’ she said afterward. ‘‘Now Winda can be at peace, and that’s what it’s all about.’’

Summary: Cook, John Matzke, and Carlos Froyan Cruz-Ramos worked at a restaurant in Lake Havasu City and shared an apartment. On July 19, 1987, Cook stole some money from Cruz-Ramos. When Cruz-Ramos began searching the apartment for the money, Cook and Matzke tied Cruz-Ramos to a chair and began beating him with their fists and a metal pipe. Cook also cut Cruz-Ramos with a knife, sodomized him, and burned his genitals with cigarettes. After several hours of this torture, Matzke and Cook crushed Cruz-Ramos' throat with the pipe. When Kevin Swaney, another co-worker, arrived at the apartment, Cook forced him upstairs and showed him Cruz-Ramos' body. Cook and Matzke then tied Swaney to a chair. Matzke went to sleep while Cook sodomized Swaney. When Cook was finished, he woke Matzke and the two men strangled Swaney to death with a bed sheet. Matzke later went to the police, confessed to the murders and implicated Cook. Matzke was allowed to enter a guilty plea and was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment. He was released from prison in July 2007.

After doctors had set up the line to administer the lethal drug, witnesses who had been watching that process on a TV saw the black curtains removed from the room and Cook spoke.

“I’d like to say I’m sorry to the victims,” Cook said. “I know that’s not enough.”

“To me, they were hollow,” said Lester, 39, later Wednesday at the Holiday Inn Express in Florence where she and family members were staying. “I do not feel he truly had any remorse.”

“People need to know that it was a rightful execution,” Lester said. “He’s not an innocent man.”

CASE: On July 19, 1987, Daniel Wayne Cook and John Eugene Matzke were living together in a two bedroom apartment in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. Carlos Cruz-Ramos, a co-worker at a local restaurant, who recently had moved in with Cook and Matzke, slept on the floor. After Matzke returned from work that afternoon, Cook told Matzke that he knew Ramos had a lot of money and that he wanted to take it. At approximately 6:00 p.m., Cook suggested that Matzke take Ramos upstairs to show him the view from Matzke's bedroom balcony.

After Matzke and Ramos returned downstairs, Ramos discovered his money pouch was missing, and Cook suggested that Ramos look for the pouch upstairs. When Ramos went upstairs, Cook grabbed him, Matzke ripped up some bedsheets, and they tied Ramos to a chair in Cook's bedroom. Cook punched and taunted Ramos before putting Ramos in Cook's closet so that Cook and Matzke could look through Ramos's other possessions. Ramos escaped from the closet, but Cook chased him down, took him back upstairs, and re-tied him to the chair. Cook and Matzke began beating Ramos with a metal pipe and a stick. Cook and Matzke also burned Ramos's chest, stomach, and genitals with cigarettes. Cook cut Ramos's chest with a knife, and Matzke put a bandage on the cut to stop the bleeding.

At around 9:45 p.m., Matzke went to the Acoma Stop and Shop to buy beer. When Matzke returned to the apartment, he saw Cook sodomize Ramos. Cook also used a mini-stapler on Ramos's foreskin, stapling it to the chair. Matzke asked Cook why he was torturing Ramos, and Cook replied, “I'm having fun.” At around 11:00 p.m., Matzke told Cook that they could not let Ramos go, and Cook responded, “Well, you can kill him at midnight; ?the witching hour.” Cook and Matzke continued torturing Ramos until midnight, then Matzke attempted to strangle Ramos with a sheet and the pipe. Matzke eventually placed Ramos on the floor, placed the pipe across Ramos's neck, and stood on the pipe until Ramos's heart stopped beating at around 12:15 a.m. After throwing Ramos's body down the stairs, Cook and Matzke placed the body in Matzke's closet.

At around 2:30 or 3:00 a.m., Kevin Swaney arrived at Cook's apartment. At first, Cook told Swaney to leave but then Cook asked Swaney to come into the apartment. Cook told Swaney that they had some drugs they wanted to get rid of, and pushed a couch in front of the door so nobody would come into the apartment. Then Cook and Matzke told Swaney about the dead body. Cook took Swaney upstairs to show him the body and, when they returned downstairs, Cook told Matzke to get bindings and a gag. Cook forced Swaney to take off his clothes, and Matzke and Cook tied Swaney to a chair. Matzke asked Cook what Cook was planning to do, and Cook said he was going to talk to Swaney. Matzke told Cook that if he was going to torture Swaney, Matzke did not want any part of it. Matzke went to the living room and fell asleep. At around 4:30 or 5:00 a.m., Cook woke Matzke. Swaney was still tied up and crying. Cook told Matzke that he sodomized Swaney so now they had to kill him. Cook took a sheet from around his neck and wrapped it around Swaney's neck. Matzke and Cook each took one end of the sheet and pulled, but Matzke's end kept slipping out of his hand. At that point, Cook said “This one's mine,” put Swaney on the floor, and strangled him. Matzke and Cook took Swaney's body up to Matzke's room and placed the body in the closet. Matzke and Cook went back downstairs and slept.

That afternoon, Matzke went to work for two and a half hours before quitting because he was concerned about what Cook would do if he was not there. When Matzke got home, he and Cook went to a bar and drank for several hours. At 10:30 p.m., they returned to the apartment and met Byron Watkins and other friends by the pool of their apartment complex. Cook and Matzke invited their friends into the apartment. The next morning, Matzke showed Watkins the bodies. Watkins convinced Matzke to go to the police. Matzke and Watkins went to the police department, and Matzke gave a videotaped confession. Officers responded to the apartment and arrested Cook at around 4:50 a.m. After Detective David Eaton gave Cook Miranda warnings, Cook said, “we got to partying; things got out of hand; now two people are dead.” Cook then said that “my roommate killed one and I killed the other.” He admitted to choking Swaney to death. After making those admissions, Cook refused to make any further statements.

Although the lethal drug took longer — about 35 minutes — than what some media witnesses of previous executions said they experienced, it was a far better death than what Swaney and Ramos experienced, Lester said.

“It was less painful and they were concerned about his comfort,” Lester said. “I guarantee you that no one (neither Cook nor John Matzke, who admitted to killing Ramos in exchange for testimony against Cook) was concerned about Swaney’s or (Ramos’) condition when they brutally murdered them.”

A doctor entered the room at 11:03 a.m. and declared Cook dead.

The execution viewing process — which had been the subject of a federal appeals court ruling — was open whether on the flat screen TV above or through the windows to the room from the time Cook was seen on the padded gurney to the time he was declared dead.

Swaney family members, including Lester, Lynne Pattee (sister) and Shean Stewart (brother) did offer formal comments directly after the execution.

Stewart offered an opinion that some family members clearly do not agree with.

“I felt sorry for him,” Stewart said. He paused for several minutes after making that statement and being asked to elaborate.

“What he did was brutal and wrong,” Stewart said. For a lot of years, I used to hate (Cook). The man I saw laying there on that gurney was scared.”

Lester clutched a photo of her brother Kevin at the press conference and later detailed thoughts on how she’s dealt with his murder through the years.

“For me personally, he’s always been with me,” Lester said. “But it doesn’t consume my every moment. It can’t. That doesn’t mean I love him any less.”

As the execution process moved along from searching for the best vein in his arms (left arm chosen) to administering the drug, Cook gulped several times, appeared to cry and his pupils became wide toward the end.  

Greg Gordon, McBride's brother-in-law, said Burns' death brought some closure to their family. "For nearly 16 years the wheels of justice have had our family on a nightmare of a roller coaster ride," he said. "Today, justice was served for that senseless act, and the ride has finally come to an end."

"As sad as this may be, and it's very sad, justice has been served," said Terri Rasul, Salman's sister. "I just hope that this is a lesson for the young children today that they will learn not to do what Mark Brown did to my brother."

 

Patty Solomon, Foster's granddaughter, read a statement afterward that said, in part, "The law has been upheld and justice has been served. ... It is time to put this behind us and move on with our lives. It is now our time to heal."

Summary: Christopher Thomas Johnson was sentenced to death for capital murder in the death of his six-month-old son, Elias Ocean Johnson. Johnson's wife, Dana, gave birth to their son, Elias Ocean Johnson, on August 22, 2004. In February 2005, the Johnsons lived in a duplex in Atmore, Alabama. On February 19, 2005, Suzanne Mims and Jason Mims, along with their infant, Sophie, arrived at the Johnsons' duplex around 8:30 p.m. to play board games. While playing board games, the Johnsons and the Mims drank alcoholic beverages. At approximately 1:00 a.m., the Mims left. At around 9:00 a.m., Dana woke up and found Johnson and Elias on the couch in the duplex. Dana stated that Elias had bruises on him and that he appeared to be dead. At that point, Dana ran over to feel Elias. Dana testified that Elias felt cool so she tried to check his pulse; however, she could not find one. Worried about Elias, Dana grabbed the telephone and called emergency 911. Tim Grabill, a paramedic with Atmore Ambulance Service, received a call to go to the Johnsons' duplex. When Grabill and his partner, Jareth Heibert, arrived at the duplex, Johnson was holding Elias. Grabill observed that Elias was "very pale, limp and his extremities were cool to the touch." Based on Elias's appearance, Heibert carried him to the ambulance where the paramedics checked his vital signs. At that point, Elias was not breathing and had no heartbeat. Although Grabill believed that Elias was already dead, he performed CPR and rushed Elias to the emergency room at Atmore Hospital. When they arrived at the hospital, Grabill carried Elias into the emergency room, still performing CPR, placed him on a trauma bed, and turned him over to Dr. Steven Michael Sharp. Dr. Sharp testified that Elias appeared to be dead when he arrived at the hospital. Dr. Sharp described several injuries he observed on Elias's body. Specifically, Dr. Sharp noticed several bruises on Elias's face, a bruise on the bridge of Elias's nose, and ruptured blood vessels around Elias's eyes and chin. Dr. Sharp also noticed a bite mark on one of Elias's arms. Although Elias appeared to be dead, the hospital staff attempted to resuscitate him. Because Elias was unresponsive, Dr. Sharp cleared his airway and placed an endotracheal tube in his throat so that medical personnel "could breath for the child." While attempting to place the endotracheal tube, Dr. Sharp noticed blood in Elias's mouth. Dr. Sharp also testified that Elias had blood in his stomach. After all attempts to resuscitate Elias failed, he was pronounced dead. Investigator Chuck Brooks and Police Chief Jason Dean, with the Atmore Police Department, went to Atmore Hospital to investigate the circumstances of Elias's death. One of the law-enforcement officers asked Johnson and Dana to come to the police station and give statements relating to the death of their child. Dana rode to the police station with a member of her church, and Johnson rode to the police station with Chief Dean. During the ride to the police station, Johnson spontaneously stated that he had something to do with Elias's death. Once at the police station, Johnson gave a statement to Investigator Brooks and Irene Johnson, a social worker with the Alabama Department of Human Resources. After being informed of and waiving his Miranda rights, Johnson indicated that Elias had been crying so Johnson laid on top of him to try to quiet the child. When Elias did not stop crying, Johnson stuck his fingers in the child's mouth and hit him. Johnson stated that "last night was the hardest that he ever hit Elias and he was pretty sure Elias's death was his fault." Johnson also stated that after the event that night, he did not think that he had seriously injured Elias. Dr. Kathleen Entice, a medical examiner who was formerly with the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences, performed the autopsy on Elias and testified that it would be reasonable to estimate that Elias had suffered 85 separate injuries, including a bite mark on his arm. Dr. Entice testified that Elias had multiple bruises on his face and head. She stated that both of Elias's ears were swollen and bruised which was consistent with a "boxing blow" and squeezing. Dr. Entice testified that Elias's lower lip was swollen and bloody from a blunt-force injury. Dr. Entice explained that Elias had three impact injuries to his forehead. She informed the jury that Elias's ethmoid bone, which is in the sinuses, was broken and that Elias's sinuses were full of blood. Dr. Entice testified that Elias had deep contusions on his head and that his brain had hemorrhaged as a result of blunt-force trauma. Dr. Entice also testified that Elias had hemorrhages in both eyes and had injuries to his inner lips and nose that indicated that he had been smothered by the "forceful covering, sealing off of his mouth and nose." According to Dr. Entice, Elias's injuries had been inflicted within 24 hours of his death. Dr. Entice finally testified that in her opinion, Elias died as a result of blunt-force trauma and smothering. In addition to the State's evidence, Johnson testified that he intentionally murdered his son because he hated his wife. Johnson explained that he would have left his wife long before the murder if it had not been for Elias. According to Johnson, he did not want "to worry about her threats of putting me in jail for alimony or child support" so he intentionally inflicted wounds on Elias that caused Elias's life to expire." Johnson stated that his final words to Elias were: "You go see Jesus." Johnson’s ex-wife Dana said that she welcomes Christopher’s death. "Although I normally do not agree with capital punishment, I will not lose any sleep over this particular execution. Whether it is right or wrong I feel that a weight will be lifted from my soul on Thursday, and finally I will feel relief.  I am scarred by this, and Christopher took away my son, my trust in other people, and even my desire to ever have another child. I still have a hard time being around children because of the sorrow it makes me feel. Everyday I see children that are Elias’s age, and I wonder what he would have been like." She has since moved away and is studying to become a nurse. "My son was the most delightful, calm little boy I have ever known. Christopher Johnson took him from me. I have spent years trying to heal from this unimaginable pain," she said.

“Thursday I will be granted closure finally,” Dana Johnson told NorthEscambia.com in an exclusive interview. “Although I normally do not agree with capital punishment, I will not lose any sleep over this particular execution.  Whether it is right or wrong I feel that a weight will be lifted from my soul on Thursday, and finally I will feel relief.”

“My son was the most delightful calm little boy I have ever known.  Christopher Johnson took him from me.  I have spent years trying to heal from this unimaginable pain,” Dana Johnson said. “I am scarred by this, and Christopher took away my son, my trust in other people, and even my desire to ever have another child.  I still have a hard time being around children because of the sorrow it makes me feel.  Every day I see children that are Elias’ age, and I wonder what he would have been like.”

Dana Johnson won’t be able to attend Thursday’s execution. She now lives far from Atmore in the western United States where she is studying to become a nurse.

“I can tell you one thing, Thursday will be a day of closure for me, whether that is wrong or right.  I curse the day that I met that man,” Dana Johnson said, adding that she feels sorry that Atmore is associated with this heinous crime.

The sight of Elias Johnson's smile will forever remain a memory, and his mother, Dana, wants the whole world to take a good look at it.

"I wanted people to see Elias and maybe then they could understand why it's not such a bad thing that Chris is being put to death on Thursday," said Johnson.

"We can get on with our lives now and have peace," said Stotler's mother, Mary Ann Bockwich.

Stotler's daughter, Lisa Stotler Balloun, said the day "was not a good day no matter what anyone says" and expressed sympathy for Perry's family. But she said his last statement validated the jury's death sentence. "I needed to look into his eyes and see if he was the monster I had made him out to be, because he was just a 19-year-old kid at the time," Balloun said. "When he said that, I knew that he was. I knew that justice had been served."

CASE: In February of 1980, Ronnie Lee Gardner was sent to prison for the first time, on a robbery conviction. On April 19, 1981, Gardner escaped from prison with another inmate. Two weeks later, Gardner finds and confronts a man who was sleeping with Gardner's girlfriend. Gardner is wounded by gunfire and is eventually arrested and returned to prison. Serving sentences in the Utah State Prison for convictions of robbery, burglary and escape, Gardner is already a career criminal. On August 6, 1984, he was taken to the University of Utah Medical Center for a check-up where he overpowered a guard, stole his pistol and escaped again. On October 9, 1984, Melvyn John Otterstrom was shot and killed by Gardner as he tended bar at the Cheers Tavern in Salt Lake City. Mel Otterstrom was a husband and father who worked at the Utah Paper Box Company as a controller and moonlighted as a bartender part-time in the evenings. The medical examiner testified in a pre-trial hearing that Otterstrom was probably lying on his back on the floor when he was shot in the face. The bullet went through his skull. Darcy Perry McCoy testified under a grant of immunity in the Otterstrom case that she helped Gardner plan a robbery and waited for him in a car outside Cheers the night of the killing. Gardner was captured in November 1984. On April 2, 1985, Ronnie Lee Gardner was under a $1.5 million bail and was transported from the Utah State Prison to the Metropolitan Hall of Justice in Salt Lake City for a pretrial hearing on a second degree murder charge for killing Melvyn Otterstrom. As Gardner and his guards entered the courthouse basement, Darcy Perry McCoy's sister, Carma Jolley Hainsworth, walked up and handed Gardner a gun. It was later discovered that she had also hidden a bag containing men's clothing, duct tape and a knife in a tote bag under a sink in the women's bathroom in the basement of the courthouse. The guards exchanged gunfire with Gardner, shot him through the lung, and then retreated from the area. In attempting to escape, Gardner entered the archives room, where he saw two attorneys, Robert Macri and Michael Burdell, hiding behind the door. Gardner pointed the gun at Macri and cocked the hammer of the gun. Burdell exclaimed, "Oh, my God!" Turning, Gardner shot Burdell, who died in surgery 45 minutes after the shooting. Gardner then forced prison officer Richard Thomas, who was also in the basement, to conduct him out of the archives room to a stairwell leading to the second floor. As Gardner crossed the lobby, he shot and seriously wounded Nicholas G. Kirk, then 58, a uniformed bailiff who was unarmed and had just stepped off an elevator. Gardner climbed the stairs to the next floor, where he took hostage Wilburn Miller, a vending machine serviceman. As Gardner exited the building, Miller broke free and escaped. Outside, Gardner was surrounded by half a dozen waiting policemen with drawn weapons. Ordered to drop his weapon, he threw down his gun and lay down, surrendering to the officers. Gardner's attorneys, brothers Andrew and James Valdez of Salt Lake Legal Defenders Association, were to meet Gardner that day at 9:00 a.m. for the pretrial hearing. Andrew Valdez was walking toward the courthouse when he saw Gardner go down to the ground. As Andrew ran across the street, he could see that Gardner was bleeding from the chest. Andrew spoke with Gardner and then left. James Valdez arrived at the courthouse soon after. He immediately approached Gardner and asked him if he was all right; Gardner responded that he was in pain. Gardner was later transported to the University Hospital. Wayne Jorgensen, a prison officer assigned to guard Gardner at the hospital, testified at trial that Gardner told him he shot Burdell because he thought Burdell looked as if he would jump on him. According to Jorgensen, Gardner also declared that he would have killed anyone who tried to stop him from escaping. Both Andrew and James Valdez represented Gardner at trial. The thrust of the defense was that Gardner was in such pain and physical distress after he was wounded that his shooting Burdell was only a reaction and therefore the killing was unintentional. In preparation for trial, defense counsel spoke with the emergency room doctors who treated Gardner. The doctors told counsel that Gardner was not in shock when he came into the emergency room, did not have excessive bleeding, was lucid and demanding, and was aware of the situation. Robert Macri testified at trial that after Gardner shot Burdell, Macri ran around the door and closed it behind him as a shield. However, at the preliminary hearing, Macri testified that he could not remember how the door shut. After the preliminary hearing but before trial, unknown to either the prosecution or defense counsel, Macri underwent hypnosis to help him remember how the door shut. Macri could not recall that detail while under hypnosis but asserted that while driving to California some months later, he suddenly recalled that he had shut the door. In all other respects, Macri's testimony at the preliminary hearing and at trial were the same. It was at the post-conviction proceeding while Gardner's appeal was pending that defense counsel first became aware that Macri had been hypnotized prior to trial. At trial, Gardner took the stand and testified on direct examination that he had been convicted of various crimes, including crimes of violence. Defense counsel elicited this information, according to the testimony at the habeas hearing, because he believed that the prosecution would use those convictions to impeach Gardner and he wanted to "steal the prosecution's thunder." Carma Jolley Hainsworth pleaded guilty to aiding in an escape and was sentenced to one to 15 years in prison. In September 1994, Gardner attacked and stabbed another inmate with a homemade knife several times.

George "Nick" Kirk, was a bailiff at the courthouse the day of Gardner's botched escape. Shot and wounded in the lower abdomen, Kirk suffered chronic health problems the rest of his life. Kirk's daughter, Tami Stewart, said before the execution she believed Gardner's death would bring her family some closure. "I think at that moment, he will feel that fear that his victims felt," she said.

Barb Webb, daughter of Gardner victim Nick Kirk, sobbed when news of the execution came. "I'm so relieved it's all over," she said, hugging her daughter, Mandi Hull. "I just hope my sister, who just passed away, and my father, and all of the other victims are waiting for his sorry ass. I hope they get to go down after him."

"Everybody said it would be gruesome and it would affect me," said Jamie Stewart, the 27-year-old granddaughter of Salt Lake County sheriff's bailiff Nick Kirk. "But it wasn't bad whatsoever. You didn't see hardly any blood. He was dressed all in black. I just feel like justice has finally been served. He deserved it."

Roland has said the execution would bring closure. "Once this is over, I will never bring this up anymore," she told the Tulsa World this month. "It will be a closed book in my life."

 

She said she supports the state's carrying out the execution, saying it ensures that Young will never be released from prison. "That was my only daughter and her only son," she said.

Other family members and friends of the victims' also attended the execution. Morgan's father, Willie Walker, 59, of Tulsa, took issue with Young's final words. Young should have asked for forgiveness instead of denying the murders, he said. Nevertheless, "justice has been served," he said. 

Relatives of Kleber Santos and his wife, Lilian, did not speak with reporters afterward, but the parents of both victims issued statements saying they were grateful justice had been done. “For many people facing such tragedy, life would be worthless. For us, however, we have faith and we find meaning in an eternal life that our merciful God will provide us. We really believe that we will meet our dear son and daughter-in-law one day in heaven,” Jonas and Lizete Santos, Kleber Santos’ parents, said in their statement.

Summary: 79-year-old Grace Blackwell drove to the drive-through teller window of her bank in Jasper County. She presented a blank check and asked the teller to fill the check out in the amount of $1200. The teller's view of the car's back seat was blocked by hanging clothes. The teller testified that after giving her the money, she heard Blackwell say, "I'm hurrying, I'm hurrying." The teller notified the police, and they went to Blackwell’s home only to find the front door open and the phone disconnected. Witnesses testified that they saw Blackwell's car later being driven by a young black male, and one witness identified the driver as Rodney Gray. Police found Blackwell's body at the end of a bridge in Newton County at 1:40 p.m. Her car was found elsewhere in Newton County. Investigators determined that Blackwell had been killed by a shotgun blast to the mouth. Later, an autopsy revealed that Blackwell had also been raped and that her body had been run over by a car. Investigators questioned and arrested Rodney Gray that same day. While in jail, Gray phoned his girlfriend, Mildred Curry, to tell her that he had hidden money in a bathroom vent. A search of Curry's trailer turned up $1,123 hidden in the bathroom air duct. The bloody clothes and boots which Gray had been wearing on the day of the murder were found in a bucket behind Curry's trailer. DNA of the semen found on Blackwell had less than a 1-in-446 million chance of coming from someone other than Gray, according to FBI experts.

In a statement, Blackwell's family said they continue "to live with the scars of this cruel and senseless attack on such a kind and loving person who never bore any ill will toward anyone." "Although we will never re-gain what we have lost or fully heal from the pain and suffering inflicted on our family, we will take some comfort in the knowledge that no one else will come to harm at the hands of Rodney Gray," the statement said.

 

 

 

Among those who witnessed Beuke's execution were Susan Craig, the widow of murder victim Robert Craig, 27, and Dawn and Paul Wahoff, the children of Greg Wahoff, 28, another of Beuke's victims. Greg Wahoff was paralyzed and wheelchair bound after he was shot in the face and back by Beuke, to whom he had given a ride. Susan Craig said afterward, "It's been a really long time. I was pregnant at the time he was murdered. Now we can talk about Bob and have happy memories and not talk about Michael Beuke."

“I didn’t take it lightly that a person died today," Susan Craig said during a news conference following the execution. “This is his debt to my family and Joann (Wahoff’s) family and today he paid it.”

 

"It's pretty much surreal," said Bobby Craig. "It's like we went full circle, we closed the circle today," said Susan Craig.

"I thought this day would never come," said Crane's sister, Renee Lander, who witnessed the execution, speaking at a news conference after the execution. "We waited a long time to see him put to death. I'm very glad to have seen him take his last breath. I wish it could have been brutal like Rhonda's death."

As soon as death was declared at 10:36 a.m., Wesley Brewer, an uncle of the slain girl, said to the victim's mother, Norma Godsey, "That son of a bitch is dead. It was too serene. I'd rather have seen him die in the electric chair for what he did to your daughter."

Godsey, who apparently thought the killer's mother was present, tried to quiet Brewer. She said, "I'm a mother, I understand what she's going through now."

Godsey, who was on oxygen, wheezed and sobbed throughout the exection. As she was leaving, she sighed and said, "Oh, I'm so glad."

Summary: On the morning of 01/03/80, St. Petersburg police responded to a call that the nude body of an unidentified woman had been found in the mud flats of Tampa Bay. There was evidence that the woman had been dragged from a grassy area on shore into the water at high tide. An examination of the body revealed severe lacerations on the head and rectum, and bruising on the throat. Medical examiners determined that drowning was ultimately the cause of death. Additionally, there was an adequate amount of acid phosphotase found in the woman’s rectum to suggest the presence of semen. The lacerations in her rectum were determined to be cause by the insertion of a large object. Unable to identify the body of the woman, St. Petersburg police turned to the public for help. An anonymous caller gave police of the license plate number of Robert Waterhouse and suggested that they should investigate him. The body of the woman was identified as Deborah Kammerer by her neighbors, Yohan Wenz and Carol Byers. Wenz and Byers reported that on the evening of 01/02/80 they accompanied Kammerer to the ABC Lounge. They later left the lounge, while Kammerer stayed behind. Kyoe Ginn, a bartender at the ABC Lounge, testified that he saw Kammerer talking to Robert Waterhouse and that the two left the lounge together around 1:00 a.m. The two of them left together from the old ABC Lounge on Fourth Street N, a witness said, the night of Jan. 2, 1980. Her body was found the next morning by a man walking his dog. She was face down and naked in the Lassing Park surf in southeast St. Pete. The autopsy took seven hours because of the severity of what had been done. She had been battered so badly she was unrecognizable. Teeth broken. Nose broken. Eyes swollen. She had been sexually mutilated with a bottle. She had a bloody tampon jammed down her throat. Wounds on her fingers suggested she tried to fight back. She didn't die until she drowned. Police found dried blood in his 1973 Plymouth. They found hair that matched hers and fibers that came from her clothes. He knew her, he told them. He'd smoked marijuana with her. He'd had sex with her. He never confessed to killing her and insisted until the end that he was innocent, but he did tell detectives he was a rageful drunk with "a real strong sex drive." Sometimes, he said, "it feels like something snaps," like "flipping a lever," and all of a sudden he was doing bad things he could not control. On the evening of 01/07/80, Robert Waterhouse was asked to go to the police station voluntarily for questioning. Waterhouse told the investigators that he did not know the victim and did not leave the bar with a woman. Waterhouse was permitted to leave the police station, but his car was impounded with a search warrant. A search of his car revealed bloodstains and a luminol test showed that more blood had been wiped up. The blood found in the car was consistent with the blood type of Kammerer and inconsistent with the blood type of Waterhouse. Additionally, investigators found strands of hair that were similar in characteristic to the samples taken from Kammerer. There were also fibers in the car that matched fibers from the Kammerer’s coat and pants. Waterhouse was arrested on 01/09/80 for the murder of Deborah Kammerer. During a subsequent interrogation, Waterhouse was shown a picture of Kammerer and admitted that he did, in fact, know her. Additional Information: In 1966, Robert Waterhouse was indicted on charges of First-Degree Murder and Burglary in New York. He was charged with breaking into a home and killing 77-year-old Ella Carter. Waterhouse pled guilty to Second-Degree Murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment. He was on lifetime parole at the time of the Kammerer murder.

Her sister, Linda Cope, was among those who witnessed Wednesday's execution.

"I came here today hopefully to find closure and feel that justice has been done," Cope said tearfully afterward. "Maybe she will rest better now. She didn't deserve to die that way, nobody does. May God forgive me, because I can't forgive Robert Waterhouse."

Walker and her twin sister, Malissa King Adams, spoke to the media after Holland's execution. They held a picture of the smiling teenager with flowing, shoulder-length blond hair. "We had 11 years with our sister," Walker said. "I'm not having nightmares anymore."

“It took 24 years, 24 of my personal years, to get to this point to see the man die who killed my sister," Walker said. "I can really say it is over with. My sister will finally have peace. I believe that."

Summary: On June 6, 1999, Guadalupe Esparza abducted Alyssa Vasquez from her home while her mother was out and the babysitter was next door. He raped and strangled her, and abandoned her body in a nearby field.On the night of the murder, before Alyssa Vasquez was discovered missing, Esparza telephoned her residence several times and came by looking for her mother and asking when she was going to return home. The babysitter discovered that Alyssa was missing at around 2:30 a.m. and later observed Esparza running down the street away from the residence. Police found Esparza at his residence, which was one and one-half to two miles from Alyssa Vasquez’s apartment, at approximately 4:00 a.m., and found Esparza’s blood-spotted shirt and boxer shorts in a trash can outside the residence. The evidence also showed that Esparza admitted his involvement in the offense to a detention guard and to a fellow inmate at the Bexar County Jail, and implied his involvement to another inmate; the only contrary evidence was Esparza’s own testimony, in which he denied making these statements. Scientific testing revealed that Esparza’s DNA was consistent with the DNA extracted from spermatozoa on Alyssa’s oral swab.  UPDATE: Esparza asked for forgiveness from the victim's family members shortly before he was executed: "To the family of Alyssa Vasquez, I hope you will find peace in your heart. My sympathy goes out to you. I hope you find it in your heart to forgive me. I don't know why all this happened."

"The day he gets his death, I'll be smiling," Berlanga said earlier this year, according to the San Antonio Express-News. "I cannot forgive. I'll tell God, 'Forgive me for not forgiving him.'"

"He can never hurt anybody no more," said Roland Sanchez a cousin of the victim. "He's gone. He's with the devil now."

Danny Mujica, an uncle, was relieved the sentence had finally been carried out.

"We feel it should have taken place sooner, but I guess better late than never," Mujica said.