Andrew Thomas and his co-defendant, Anthony Bond, were indicted for the felony murder of the victim, James Day. The following evidence was presented at the joint trial of  Thomas and Bond. Shortly after 12:30 p.m. on April 21, 1997, Thomas and his co-defendant, Bond, saw an armored truck guard with a money deposit bag leaving a Walgreens drug store on Summer Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee. Thomas ran up, shot the guard in the back of the head, grabbed the deposit bag which contained $18,843.01 in cash, checks, and food stamps, and jumped into a white car being driven by Bond. Thomas and Bond abandoned the white car on a street behind Walgreens, got into a red car that Thomas had borrowed from his girlfriend, and drove away. A Walgreens’ employee heard the gunshot and then saw the armored truck guard, James Day, lying in the parking lot. She saw a man running from the scene with a gun and the deposit bag. The assistant manager of Walgreens ran outside and saw Day lying face down in a pool of blood. Day, who was conscious, told the man, “Call my wife.” Day remained conscious and continued to talk until an ambulance arrived. Several witnesses described the cars used by Thomas and Bond and gave descriptions of the occupants to the police. One witness testified that he saw a white car “speed” around the armored truck in the front of the store and that the car was within four feet of him. Witnesses later identified Thomas as the passenger in the white car. Later on the afternoon of April 21 , Thomas and Bond arrived at the apartment of Thomas’s girlfriend. According to her, the two men were “excited” and “out of breath.” After telling Bond to get rid of the gun, Thomas began taking money, checks, and food stamps from small white envelopes that had been in Bond’s jacket. Thomas and Bond divided the money. The woman testified that later that same day, Thomas bought a customized car with gold plates and spoke wheels for $3,975 in cash. The car was titled in the woman’s name. Afterward, Thomas told her that they needed to get a hotel room. While watching a news report that evening at the hotel about the shooting, Thomas told her that the victim “did not struggle for his life” and that he had “grabbed the nigger by the throat and shot him.” On the day after the shooting, Thomas's girlfriend opened a bank account in her name and deposited $2,401.48 in cash. Two days later, she bought a shotgun because Thomas said they needed it “for protection.” According to the woman, Thomas later bought a gold necklace for himself and wedding rings for both of them. After getting married in May, the couple separated two months later. Thomas told her not to tell police about the robbery. The victim, James Day, did not immediately die from the gunshot wound to the back of his head. Instead, the gunshot damaged his spinal cord and resulted in paraparesis (a profound weakness in one’s abdomen and legs) and neurogenic bladder (a loss of bladder and bowel control due to nerve damage). Faye Day Cain, the victim’s widow, testified that her husband underwent numerous surgeries, needed constant care and medical attention, and was unable to work. He was confined to one room, was unable to use the bathroom, and became depressed. In late September of 1999, Day was rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery after his bladder ruptured. The condition caused an infection; Day’s condition continued to worsen, and he finally died on October 2, 1999. The medical examiner for Shelby County, Tennessee, Dr. O. C. Smith, testified that the cause of Day’s death was sepsis, “secondary to the rupture of his bladder resulting from spinal cord injury caused by the gunshot wound to his head.” Dr. Smith considered Day’s death a homicide, and he stated that the “infection from the ruptured bladder” could be “directly related back to [the] gunshot wound.” Dr. Smith conceded that Day suffered from heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity, but he stated that these conditions did not cause the death. Dr. Smith’s assistant, Dr. Cynthia Gardner, likewise testified that Day’s death resulted from the injuries caused by the gunshot wound. A videotape of the shooting captured by Walgreens’ surveillance cameras was played for the jury. A videotape made from the original was also played for the jury at a slower speed. Thomas was identified as the gunman who shot the guard in the back of the head from a still photograph that had been made from the videotape. Thomas had an extensive criminal record. Prior indictments showed that once on January 4, 1993, twice on February 1, 1993, once on March 8, 1993, once on March 12, 1993, twice on March 15, 1993 and once on June 25, 1993, Thomas had committed armed robberies. The prosecution also introduced the testimony of Faye Day Cain, the widow of the victim, James Day. She testified that her husband had worked two jobs to support his family before he was shot and that she was unable to work due to a medical condition known as thrombophlebitis. She testified that since her husband’s death, she and the couple’s minor son lived on disability payments and social security benefits. Ms. Cain testified that the victim had been her husband, confidant, lover, and best friend. After the shooting, however, she and her husband could no longer have physical contact or intimacy. The victim “couldn’t stand to be touched” and “the least little noise would turn him into a frenzy.” She testified that she had suffered great emotional pain, that she was no longer a happy person, and that she cried often. According to Ms. Cain, the couple’s son, Cedric, was twelve when his father was shot. They had enjoyed riding motorcycles, having breakfast, and doing “father and son” things. After the shooting, however, Cedric became “hurt and angry.” The jury imposed the death penalty after finding that the evidence supporting the sole aggravating circumstance outweighed the evidence of mitigating circumstances beyond a reasonable doubt. On appeal, the Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and the death sentence after concluding that twenty-two issues raised by the defendant were without merit.

A former farm worker from central Texas was executed this evening for using a car bumper jack to fatally beat and rob a man during a violent spree 17 years ago that authorities said left three other people dead. Gary Sterling, 38, was condemned for the beating death of John Carty, 72, killed in May 1988 at his home in Navarro County near Corsicana. Prosecutors also had evidence tying him to the slaying of Delores Smith, 52, a friend of Carty's whose purse and glasses were found at Sterling's home, although he was not tried for the woman's death. Sterling led police to their bodies after he was arrested for the slayings of William Porter, 72, and Porter's brother, Leroy, 71, at their home in Hill County, about 35 miles northeast of Waco. He pleaded guilty to their slayings and received two life prison terms. Authorities said Sterling knew the four victims, who all were fatally beaten. Evidence showed Sterling, who was 20 at the time, took Carty's car, a TV, shotgun and a lantern. Police said he sold the car for cash he needed to buy crack cocaine. "He was looking for enough to just buy some rocks," Hill County Sheriff Brent Button said. Sterling's lawyers were in the courts in the hours before his scheduled execution trying to block the punishment, arguing in appeals that Navarro County jurors were given flawed instructions when they decided in 1989 Sterling should be put to death. Sterling had managed to elude police the night the Porter brothers were killed when they spotted him stripping Leroy Porter's car. Acting on a tip, he was arrested the following day as he hid in the attic of his home in Blooming Grove, a town of about 800 some 15 miles west of Corsicana. While in jail in Hillsboro, Button said Sterling gained notoriety for trashing his cell, tearing up steel jail fixtures officials had been told were indestructible. Sterling, who declined to speak with reporters in the weeks preceding his scheduled lethal injection, also was remembered for a physical training regimen where he would do push-ups for hours. "I've prosecuted a number of capital case, but this guy really scared me," Pat Batchelor, the former Navarro County district attorney who prosecuted Sterling's capital murder case, said. In earlier appeals, he argued unsuccessfully his intent to kill Carty wasn't clear because he didn't bring a deadly weapon with him and that he only struck Carty once. State lawyers responded that if Sterling only wanted to rob Carty, there wasn't any need to bash in the man's head with the jack. Another previous appeal focused on comments from a juror at his trial who was portrayed as racist for using an epithet to describe black people. The juror was white. Sterling is black. At a later hearing, the juror said use of the racially insensitive term didn't make him a racist and he didn't consider himself a racist. Federal appeals courts agreed and denied the appeal.

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has set an Aug. 11 execution date for a death row inmate who was convicted of killing four people in 1994. Attorney General Drew Edmondson requested an execution date for Kenneth Eugene Turrentine after the U.S. Supreme Court denied his final appeal. Turrentine was found guilty of killing his sister, Avon Stevenson, his girlfriend, Anita Richardson, and Richardson's children Tina Pennington and Martise Richardson on June 4, 1994, in Tulsa. Prosecutors said Turrentine suspected Richardson was having an affair and that his sister knew about it. They said Turrentine called 911 and admitted to the shootings. From appellate court account of this case: On June 4, 1994, Turrentine killed his sister Avon Stevenson, his estranged girlfriend Anita Richardson, and Anita's two children, thirteen year old Martise Richardson and twenty-two year old Tina Pennington. For three months leading up to the deadly events of that June, Turrentine and Anita Richardson had been experiencing such problems in their relationship that Turrentine had moved out of the home they once shared. Turrentine moved in with his sister Avon Stevenson. While separated from Anita and living with his sister,  Turrentine began to believe that Anita was having an affair with two other men, and that his sister Avon knew of these affairs because she was apparently a friend and confidant of Anita's. Whether true or not, he also came to believe that Anita and Avon were cheating him out of money in order to support their drug habits. On June 3, 1994, the day before the murders, Turrentine telephoned his ex-wife, Catherine Turrentine, and told her that he was at Anita's house and that things were "about to come to a head." That same day, he asked his ex-wife to return to him a .22 caliber pistol, but she refused. He returned to make the same request the next morning, June 4, 1994, and this time his ex-wife gave Turrentine the loaded pistol. Later in the day on June 4, 1994, Turrentine confronted his sister about Anita's supposed affairs, and an argument ensued. Avon apparently laughed in Turrentine's face during this argument and called him a "punk." In response, Turrentine placed the .22 caliber pistol to Ms. Stevenson's head and fired; she died at the scene. Turrentine then drove to Anita's house, where the two began to argue. As they argued, they moved from the front to the back bedroom of the house and, after more argument and struggle, Turrentine shot Anita Richardson in the head. She died at the scene. He subsequently shot both Martise and Tina in the head, and they died at the scene as well. After this carnage, Turrentine talked to a 911 operator and declared that he had shot his "ol lady," his kids, and his sister. When officers arrived at the scene, they immediately took Turrentine into custody and advised him of his Miranda rights. Turrentine waived his rights and told the officers that he had shot his sister, his estranged girlfriend, and his girlfriend's two children. A medical examiner later confirmed that Ms. Stevenson, Ms. Richardson, Martise, and Tina had all died from gunshot wounds to the head. UPDATE: A Tulsa man was put to death Thursday evening for killing his ex-girlfriend in a jealous rage that prosecutors said claimed three other lives, including the women's children. Kenneth Eugene Turrentine, 52, died at 6:10 p.m. in Oklahoma's death chamber, shortly after an injection of drugs stopped his heart. Less than an hour earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court had denied his last-minute appeal, clearing the way for the state to carry out his death sentence for the June 4, 1994 shooting of Anita Richardson, 39. Turrentine originally was convicted and sentenced to death as well for the killings of Richardson's 13-year-old son, Martise, and her 22-year-old daughter Tina Pennington. But a federal appeals court last year threw out the convictions in the case of Richardson's children because of a judge's error during the trial. Turrentine received a no-parole life term for killing his sister, Avon Stevenson, 48, the same day. Prosecutors said Turrentine believed Richardson was seeing other men and that his sister was helping her deceive him. He first went to his sister's home and confronted her with his accusations, they said. When she laughed at him and called him a "punk," he shot her in the head. He then went to Richardson's Tulsa home, where the other shootings occurred. A week ago, Turrentine told the Pardon and Parole Board about the alcohol and the antidepressants he'd taken at the time. But in the end, he couldn't answer the board members' questions about motive. "I've been struggling with that for years," he said, just before the board declined to spare him. Turrentine's mother, Dorothy Vinson, who is also Stevenson's mother, had begged the board to spare his life, saying, "it wasn't the Kenneth that everyone knows" who had committed the murders. But Richardson's sister, Teresa Youngblood, told the board in a letter about the pain of her family's loss. "A very small and close-knit family with many years of happiness, love and joy (as well as problems just as any other family may have) suddenly and abruptly became even smaller on that sad and horrific night," she wrote. She described Richardson as "a vibrant, fun-loving, joyful person to be around." Pennington had been born blind and mentally disabled and had survived several life-threatening surgeries, she said. And Martise was a quiet and smart boy, "who loved no one more than his mother," she said. "The man of the family, he tried to protect his mother on may occasions, even the night of her death," Youngblood wrote. Prosecutors contended the killings were calculated. They argued that Turrentine obtained a .22-caliber pistol fro m his ex-wife the morning of the murders and shot all four victims in the head.

The evidence at trial showed that Tracy Stiner, the victim’s husband, arrived home from work shortly before 6:00 p.m. on September 21, 1994. He discovered his wife’s body in the laundry room. Paula Stiner’s body lay on its right side on the floor of the laundry room with her back to the washer and dryer. The room and the victim were covered in blood and Paula had suffered at least 28 cut and stab wounds. The breakfast area of the house was in disarray, and the contents of Paula’s purse were strewn about. There was also a hammer on the floor of the breakfast area. As Tracy Stiner searched the house, he noticed that several items, including several pair of socks, shirts, a book bag, and a kitchen knife, were missing. Shields had broken into the home earlier in the day and waited several hours so he could steal Paula's car upon her return from work. Tracy Stiner testified that he later learned that, at 11:37 a.m., a time when his wife was at work, a telephone call had been made from his home to the home of one of Shields’s friends in Spring, Texas. Galveston County’s Chief Medical Examiner testified that Paula Stiner had suffered a blunt trauma to the head and had been repeatedly stabbed in the throat, chest, and torso. Paula also suffered a number of defensive wounds, which indicated that she had struggled with her assailant before she died. A detective from the Friendswood Police Department testified that he was notified of Paula’s murder around 6:16 p.m. on September 21 and arrived at the Stiner residence shortly thereafter. He testified that police lifted Shields’s fingerprints from the laundry room and that bloody shoe prints at the scene were later found to be consistent with Shields’s shoes. The detective found blood on the purse, the carpet, and a large amount of blood in the laundry room. He also found one screwdriver on the carpet below a broken window and a wooden-handled screwdriver outside. A cigarette butt found at the scene had saliva on it found to be consistent with Shields’s saliva. Paula’s car was also missing. The Shields family had lived next door to the Stiners for only three months. Shields’s mother testified that a police officer informed her of Paula’s murder when she returned home on September 21. The next day, Mrs. Shields noticed that some items were out of place in her garage - cushions had been arranged to form a makeshift bed, and some drinks were nearby. Mrs. Shields also found Shields’s pager and one of his shirts near the cushions, although Shields had not lived with his parents for several months and was not welcome in their home without at least one parent present. When Mrs. Shields learned from neighbors that a wooden-handled screwdriver like one that she and her husband owned had been used to break into the Stiner home, she began to suspect that her son was involved in the crime. She contacted the police and gave them Shields’s friends’ phone numbers where he might be reached. Shields was arrested on September 24, 1994. At the police station, police noticed cuts on his hands. There was also a cut on his right chin and what appeared to be blood on his shoes, which the police took to the lab for analysis. Shields’s underwear was also saturated with blood. Shields’s fingerprints were found on Paula’s checkbook, on the door leading from the laundry room to the garage, and in Paula’s car. Tracy Stiner identified several of the items in Paula’s car as having been in his home before his wife’s murder. The bloody shoe impression at the crime scene matched the shoes that Shields wore at the time of his arrest. The blood obtained from Shields’s underwear and from a paper towel at the Stiner home were consistent with Shields’s blood. Further, evidence showed that Shields had used Paula’s credit card after the murder to purchase a suit. The manager of a men’s clothing store in Willowbrook Mall testified that Shields came into the store around 6:15 p.m. on the day of the murder and purchased a suit with a credit card in the name of Paula Stiner. Shields signed the credit card slip in the name of Tracy Stiner, Paula’s husband. When the manager noticed a horizontal cut on Shields’s finger, he was told by Shields that he had cut his finger while splicing wires at work. Shields also had a bandage around his middle finger on his left hand. Several of Shields’s friends also testified for the prosecution. One testified that he knew Shields in 1994 and, at that time, Shields was staying in vacant houses in the Woodlands area. Shortly after the murder, he saw Shields with cuts on his hand. Shields told his friend that he had cut them while working at a store. Another friend of Shields testified that on the day of the murder she saw Shields at McDonald’s at around 8:45 p.m. Shields was driving a big white car that she had never seen before. Shields told her that he had borrowed the car from a friend. Another man testified that on September 21 Shields was driving a white car. Shields told this friend that he had obtained the car from another friend and wanted to sell it for $500. He told him that he had cut his hands while working at a store. He then gave the man the suit that he had purchased. Two additional friends confirmed this testimony. The defense put no witnesses on the stand during the guilt-innocence phase. After hearing all of this evidence, the jury returned a verdict of guilty. At the penalty phase, the State introduced evidence that Shields had been assessed deferred adjudication probation for theft/burglary of a motor vehicle in 1992, after which Shields completely disregarded the terms of his probation. Authorities also arrested Shields in Florida in 1994 for grand theft auto. In January 1994, Shields and two friends broke into a car in Friendswood, stole a checkbook and a credit card and charged $150 in cigarettes before the card was reported stolen. Around the same time, the three friends broke into a house next door to Shields’s and stole cash, car keys, and, later, the car itself. They then drove to Florida in the car, shoplifting along the way. They were arrested in Florida for grand theft auto. They had also attempted to break into a home in Florida, but they fled when a neighbor spotted them. The jury also heard testimony that in July 1994, Shields had been involved in stealing credit cards and a cell phone from another car. Based on the testimony of Shields and his mother, the Florida court liaison officer recommended, and the court ordered, that the conditions of probation be amended to allow Shields to enter a psychiatric hospital for at least one month to receive psychiatric evaluation and possible drug treatment. After twelve days, the court allowed Shields to report on an outpatient basis. Shields later missed two appointments in July 1994. On August 10, Mrs. Shields urged the court officer to issue a warrant for Shields so that she could retrieve her missing car, which Shields had stolen. A friend of Shields testified that in June 1994, Shields loaded a pistol and pointed it at him. When the friend objected, Shields stood up and shoved the gun in his face, and stated that he “could point the f***ing gun in [his] face if he felt like it.” Shields later went in the backyard and fired the gun twice over the fence, returning to tell his friends that he “had just shot at his mail carrier,” however, no mail carrier recalled a shooting incident on his route that day. UPDATE: Robert Alan Shields has an execution date set for August 23, 2005. Shields is now 30 and has been on death row for 10 years. A jury sentenced him to death for the murder of Paula Stiner in October 1995. Shields exhausted the last of his appeals in January, leaving nothing to bar the issuance of a death warrant, which State District Court Judge David Garner signed Tuesday. UPDATE:  Robert Shields was executed Tuesday evening. "The world will be a better place without him, that's for sure," said Michael Guarino, the former Galveston County district attorney who prosecuted Shields at his capital murder trial in 1995. "It was an extremely vicious, brutal murder. It was one of the worst capital murder scenes I've seen, and I've seen many over 20 years as district attorney." When asked by the warden if he had a final statement, Shields responded twice, saying "No." He gasped, sputtered and made a slight groan before slipping into unconsciousness. He was pronounced dead eight minutes after receiving the lethal injection, at 6:15 p.m. His parents and his victim's parents were among those who watched the execution.  UPDATE: Robert Alan Shields Jr. kept his silence until the end, and the mother of the woman he killed noticed. “He looks pretty calm,” Jan Ross said on the other side of a two-way mirror. Shields, 30, was strapped onto a gurney, right arm extended. Paula Stiner’s mother, father and husband wore purple, Stiner’s favorite color. In another viewing room, on the opposite side of Shields, his parents and sister watched. Both families cried for much of Shields’ last 10 minutes of life. Shields did not testify on his own behalf during his 1995 capital murder trial. He declined an interview request from The Daily News two months ago. Tuesday evening, he declined to make a final statement before the release of the chemicals that would stop his bodily functions. At 6:07 p.m., officials at Huntsville’s Walls prison unit administered the lethal injection, carrying out the death sentence a Galveston County jury called for nine years and 10 months ago. Eight minutes after it started, a doctor pronounced Shields dead. Shields was 19 on Sept. 21, 1994, when he broke into the Friendswood home of neighbors Tracey and Paula Stiner in the 400 block of Castle Harbor. Both Stiners were at work, but Shields was willing to wait. Paula Stiner got off work early that day and came home from a hair appointment shortly after 4:30 p.m. More than an hour later, Tracey Stiner came home from work to find his wife’s bloody body lying on the laundry room floor. Former Precinct 8 Constable Daniel Cooper arrested Shields three days later in The Woodlands, 45 miles north of Houston. Shields was driving Stiner’s car and wearing bloody clothes at the time of his capture. First Assistant District Attorney Mo Ibrahim, who prosecuted the case with then-District Attorney Michael J. Guarino, did not attend the execution, but said he hoped it would allow the family to take the next step in healing their heartache. “This has been an unimaginable 11 years for them,” Ibrahim said. Paula Stiner’s father, John A. Ross, entered the viewing area in a wheelchair, but stood up and leaned against the glass to watch Shields die. After the execution, Ross read a prepared statement, which asserted that the process that took Shields from death sentence to death was “offensive” to Stiner’s loved ones. “As the offender is entitled to a speedy trial, the victim and the victim’s family should be entitled to see a speedy administration of justice.”