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Three killers were executed in October
2009. They had murdered at least 3 people.
Three killers were
given a stay in October 2009. They have murdered at least 4 people.
|
Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
|
October 5, 2009 |
Virginia |
Dana L. Thrall, 25
Robert A. Finch, 30 |
Larry Elliot |
stayed |
| At
approximately 4:00 a.m. on the morning of January 2, 2001, Mary
Bracewell, a newspaper delivery person, was traveling her route in
the Woodbridge community of Prince William County, Virginia.
Bracewell was aware that there had been several recent vehicle
break-ins in the neighborhood and became suspicious when she saw a
man standing beside a pick-up truck parked on Belfry Lane. Bracewell
observed the man, who appeared to be carrying a flashlight, walk to
the north end of Belfry Lane, cross the street, walk onto a grassy
area between two townhouses, and then disappear from her view.
Bracewell called police on her cellular telephone to report her
observations. At 4:15 a.m., Officer Marshall T. Daniel of the Prince
William County Police Department received a radio dispatch directing
him to respond to Bracewell's call. He arrived at Belfry Lane three
minutes later. Bracewell indicated the parked pick-up truck to
Daniel and related to him what she had observed. Daniel noted that
the pick-up truck, which was locked, had a Department of Defense
windshield identification sticker and that there was a cellular
telephone on the passenger seat. At 4:27 a.m., Officer Daniel
received a radio call to respond to a report of a domestic
disturbance at a townhouse located at 3406 Jousters Way. Jousters
Way is located approximately 300 yards north of Belfry Lane.
Although the two streets do not intersect, one can reach Jousters
Way on foot from Belfry Lane by walking in the same direction that
Bracewell had seen the man beside the pick-up truck walking. Tina
Miller, who lived in an adjoining townhouse, had made the report of
a domestic disturbance at 3406 Jousters Way. Miller telephoned
police after being awakened by a crashing sound coming from 3406
Jousters Way at approximately 4:20 a.m. As she placed the call,
Miller heard three or four "hollow" sounds followed by "the most
horrible scream" she had ever heard. Miller thought that the
screaming voice sounded like that of Thrall, one of the occupants of
3406 Jousters Way. Tommy Young, who lived in a townhouse on the
opposite side of the street from 3406 Jousters Way, was walking his
dog in front of his home at about the same time Miller was awakened
by the crashing sound. Young heard two loud "banging noises" coming
from 3406 Jousters Way, followed by the sound of a female scream and
three more banging noises. Young went back to his house and told his
wife to call the police. A few minutes later, Young looked out his
front window and saw that the front storm door of 3406 Jousters Way,
which had earlier been closed, was swaying back and forth. Young
also noted that the front window shades of the home, which were
normally left half-drawn, were fully closed. Officer Scott Bigger of
the Prince William County Police Department arrived at 3406 Jousters
Way at 4:25 a.m. Officer Bigger knocked on the front door, but got
no response. Officer Daniel arrived a few minutes later and walked
around to the back of the townhouse. The backyard was enclosed by a
privacy fence, and Officer Daniel could hear a large dog barking
"pretty hysterical[ly], angry" inside the yard. Returning to the
front of the home, Officer Daniel observed that Officer Bigger had
still received no response to his knocking on the front door.
Looking through a gap between the shades of a front window, Officer
Daniel was able to see the legs of a person lying prone and
motionless in the foyer of the home. Officer Bigger opened the
unlocked front door and he and Officer Daniel saw Finch, who lived
with Thrall in the home, lying on the floor dead. Finch had suffered
three gunshot wounds: one to his head, one to his back, and one to
his chest. Officer Daniel immediately returned to the back of the
home to secure that area while Officer Bigger waited at the front of
the home for additional officers to arrive. When those officers
arrived, Officer Daniel immediately returned to the location on
Belfry Lane where the pick-up truck had been parked. He arrived at
that location at 4:38 a.m. The truck was gone. Officer Sheldon R.
Creamer, one of the officers who had responded to the call by the
other officers for assistance, arrived at 3406 Jousters Way at
approximately 4:45 a.m. Entering the home, he heard "a muffled
breathing sound" coming from the kitchen at the back of the home. In
the kitchen he found Thrall, shot and lying in a pool of blood.
Emergency medical personal called to the scene took Thrall by
ambulance to a helicopter, which in turn evacuated her to the
Washington Hospital Center in the District of Columbia, where she
later died. Thrall had suffered multiple gunshot wounds including a
defensive wound to her right hand, three to her head, and one to her
chest. She also suffered a blunt force trauma to the back of her
head consistent with a pistol-whipping. Officer Creamer found that
the backdoor was locked by its doorknob lock, but that the door's
deadbolt lock was not engaged. He could hear the dog barking in the
back yard. Entering the yard from the kitchen, Officer Creamer found
that the dog had calmed down. He then determined that the gate of
the privacy fence was secured with a locked padlock. Meanwhile,
because Officer Daniel had reported seeing a child looking out of a
second floor back window, Officer Bigger reentered the home and went
upstairs. There he found Thrall's two sons, aged six and four, who
were crying and upset. Police officers removed the children from the
home. The Investigation Officer Thomas Leo, a crime scene analyst
with the Prince William County Police Department, collected
bloodstain samples at various locations inside the townhouse.
Subsequent DNA testing of these samples confirmed that the blood was
that of Thrall and Finch. Leo also found a bloodstain on the inside
of the gate of the privacy fence. Subsequent DNA testing of this
sample showed that it was consistent with Elliott's DNA to a degree
that a match would occur "once in the entire world population."
Although a murder weapon was never recovered, forensic testing of
ten bullets recovered from the home and during the autopsies of
Thrall and Finch confirmed that all had been fired by the same
weapon. The bullets were of a type used only in a revolver-type
handgun. Gary Arnsten, a firearms expert with Virginia's Division of
Forensic Science, testified at trial that because no weapon of this
type could hold more than five or six bullets in its revolving
chamber, he was certain that the weapon had been reloaded during the
commission of the murders. Detective Charles Hoffman of the Prince
William County Police Department spoke with Finch's sister, Jennifer
Finch, the day of the murders. She informed Detective Hoffman that
Finch had a prior romantic relationship with Rebecca Gragg. She also
told him that Finch and Gragg had been involved in a bitter custody
dispute over their two children. Detective Hoffman went to Gragg's
residence in Dale City, Virginia, located about six miles from the
crime scene. Gragg was not at home, but there were two vehicles
parked in front of the residence. One of the vehicles was registered
in Elliott's name. Gragg returned to her home later that day and was
interviewed by two detectives. At that time, Gragg maintained that
Elliott was her "friend and business partner." She denied knowing
anything about the murders, but stated that Finch had many enemies.
The following day, January 3, 2001, Detective Hoffman and another
detective traveled to Fort Meade in Hanover, Maryland, where Elliott
worked as a civilian employee for the United States Army as a
counterintelligence expert. The detectives had learned that Elliott
owned a pick-up truck and wanted "to determine whether that truck
could, in fact, have been the truck that was seen nearby the [crime]
scene." The detectives located the truck in a parking lot at Fort
Meade, and Detective Hoffman observed that there was a flashlight, a
cellular telephone, and a box of bandages on the seat of the truck.
As Detective Hoffman was taking photographs of the truck, Elliott
approached him, identified himself as the owner of the truck, and
agreed to talk to the detectives. During that conversation, Elliott
told the detectives that Gragg was an employee at a brewing company
he owned in West Virginia. He admitted that he had supplied Gragg
with a credit card in the name of "Rebecca L. Elliott," but
maintained that this had been for business purposes. He also told
the detectives that he had been traveling over the New Year's
holiday, as had Gragg, and that during that time he had spoken with
her several times on his cellular telephone in an effort to arrange
a business meeting with her. Elliott told the detectives that he was
aware that Gragg and Finch were involved in a dispute regarding the
custody of their two children. Elliott related that Gragg had
traveled to Florida over the New Year's holiday and had taken the
children with her. He further related that Gragg had told him that
she was having car trouble and would not be able to return to
Virginia with the children in time to return them to Finch at 2:00
p.m. on New Year's Day as she was required to do under a visitation
agreement. Elliott claimed that he had driven to Gragg's residence
in the early afternoon of New Year's Day "in case Robert Finch
showed up so that [Elliott] could explain to him the problems
Rebecca was having with getting back." Elliott denied he had any
relationship with Gragg other than as her employer. He also denied
knowing Finch and claimed that he had seen him only once. Although
Detective Hoffman told Elliott that his truck had been seen in
Finch's neighborhood in the early morning hours of the day of the
murders, Elliott denied having been in the area. Elliott claimed
that he had spent the night of January first to second sleeping in
his truck at a rest area in Maryland. Elliott voluntarily
accompanied the detectives to the Anne Arundel County, Maryland
Police Department. During the course of an interview there, Elliott
admitted the true nature of his involvement with Gragg. He told the
detectives that he had initiated a relationship with Gragg in
mid-1999 after viewing her photograph on an Internet website called
"Adult Friend Finders." In her advertisement, Gragg had indicated
that she was looking for a "sugar daddy." During their first
meeting, Gragg told Elliott that she had worked as a stripper and
"private escort," a euphemism for a "call-girl" prostitute. Gragg
told Elliott that she wanted to turn her life around and needed
financial support to start a business designing and selling costumes
for strippers. She told Elliott that she was not interested in
having a romantic or sexual relationship with him. Elliott agreed to
this arrangement, saying that he wanted only friendship from Gragg.
Elliott subsequently provided Gragg with significant financial
support, including paying private school tuition for her children,
paying the mortgage on one house Gragg owned in West Virginia and
rental on others where she lived with her husband and children at
various times, providing her with cars, and permitting her to use
his credit cards. Elliott also paid for breast augmentation surgery
for Gragg, who had begun operating a pay-to-view pornographic
website. Elliott admitted that his support of Gragg had placed a
significant financial burden on him and that he had to sell
investments to pay her credit card debts. Elliott further admitted
that he knew where Finch lived and that, after he had gone to
Gragg's house on the afternoon of January 1, 2001, he had driven to
Finch's house. He denied getting out of his truck, however, and
claimed that he had seen "a black man with a slinky walk going to
the front door of the home." Elliott maintained that he had then
driven to a large national retail store and a restaurant before
driving to the rest stop in Maryland where he had spent the night.
He then claimed that he had driven back to Gragg's residence about
3:00 a.m. on the morning of January 2, 2001, to retrieve a case of
motor oil that he had seen there the day before. He then went to a
convenience store where he called Gragg's cellular telephone on a
pay telephone. Elliott claimed that he used the pay telephone
because his own cellular telephone's battery had run down. Telephone
company records showed that a call had been placed from the pay
telephone to Gragg's cellular telephone at 3:28 a.m. on January 2,
2001. Elliott admitted that after calling Gragg, he drove to Finch's
neighborhood. He admitted leaving his truck, claiming that he did so
only because he needed to urinate. Elliott stated that after
urinating by a guardrail on the side of the road, he walked by
Thrall's and Finch's townhouse. He denied going onto the property
and stated that he had not heard gunshots, a scream, or anything
unusual. At the conclusion of this interview, Detective Hoffman took
a photograph of an abrasion he had noticed on one of Elliott's
hands. On January 4, 2001, Gragg, accompanied by her lawyer, was
again interviewed by detectives investigating the murders of Thrall
and Finch. During that interview, she admitted receiving a telephone
call early on the morning of the murders, but claimed that the call
had come from Finch. Gragg claimed that Finch had threatened to call
the police if she did not return their children to him that
afternoon. Gragg also told the detectives that she did not believe
that Elliott had committed the murders. On January 7, 2001,
Detective Hoffman conducted another interview with Elliott during
which Elliott admitted that he had been in Finch's neighborhood
"hundreds of times." He further admitted walking through the
neighborhood, but again denied that he had ever been on the property
of the townhouse where Thrall and Finch lived. On January 8, 2001,
Officer Leo, the crime scene analyst, took possession of Elliott's
pick-up truck pursuant to a search warrant. He determined that the
interior of the truck had recently been cleaned, noting that the
carpet was wet and that the seats and interior had been covered with
a "silicone type base cleaner." Nonetheless, testing of samples
collected from the underside of the truck's floor mats showed a
trace residue of blood, though the samples were too small for
accurate DNA testing. A further blood sample found in the seat
cushion was consistent with Elliott's DNA. Detectives investigating
the murders interviewed Gragg on January 12, 2001 and again on
January 19, 2001. She continued to deny any knowledge of the
murders. Based on the results of a polygraph examination that Gragg
had agreed to take, police suspected that Gragg was not being fully
forthcoming, but they were not certain to what extent she had
knowledge of the murders or whether she may have been directly
involved. Over the next several months, Gragg had continuing contact
with the police concerning the investigation of the murders, but she
did not provide any additional information concerning Elliott. On
May 9, 2001, Elliott was arrested in Maryland and charged with
capital murder. At that time, according to Maryland State Police,
Elliott was "leaving [in his vehicle] at a high rate of speed," and
there was some concern that he was attempting to flee. Elliott
claimed, however, that he had intended to turn himself in. On May
10, 2001, Prince William County detectives again interviewed Gragg.
During that interview, Gragg agreed to submit to a second polygraph
examination. After the polygraph examiner and Detective Hoffman told
Gragg that her responses to questions concerning her knowledge of
the murders indicated that she was being untruthful, Gragg asked to
speak with her attorney. After consulting with her attorney, Gragg
told the police that the telephone call she had received early on
the morning of the murders was not from Finch, although initially
she had assumed it was because the connection was not good and she
could not hear the caller clearly. Gragg then related that when the
caller realized that she thought she was talking to Finch, the
caller said he was "tired of this s*** and was going to take care of
it" and hung up. Gragg then realized that the call had come from
Elliott. She attempted to call his cellular telephone, but the call
was answered by a voice mail system. Gragg told the detectives that
she received several more calls on her cellular telephone from
Elliott later on January 2, 2001. During one call, Elliott told her
that "all of our problems had been taken care of." In another call,
Elliott claimed that "Jerry," a cryptic figure Elliott supposedly
knew through his work with military counterintelligence, "had come
out of nowhere to help him, that he had to go clean up this mess."
Later, Elliott told Gragg that he was looking for a place "to dump .
. . these bloodied black trash bags from the mess that Jerry had
made." Gragg told the police that she had not been truthful in her
prior interviews because she was afraid of Elliott and "Jerry,"
because Elliott had once told her that "Jerry" was watching her and
that he would kill her or her family if she went to the police. Once
Elliott was in custody and the police had assured her that there was
no "Jerry," she stated that she had decided to be truthful. Gragg's
attorney confirmed that she had told him on several occasions that
she feared Elliott would harm her if she told the police what she
knew. Indictment and Pre-trial Proceedings On August 6, 2001, the
Prince William County grand jury returned indictments charging
Elliott with the capital murder of Thrall, the first degree murder
of Finch, and two counts of the use of a firearm in the commission
of a felony. Elliott was tried on these indictments initially in a
jury trial in July 2002. After the jury had found Elliott guilty and
sentenced him to death, the trial court declared a mistrial after it
had been determined that a juror had improperly discussed the case
with a third party during the trial. After four hours of
deliberation, the second jury returned its verdicts, convicting
Elliott of the capital murder of Thrall, the first degree murder of
Finch, and the two related firearm offenses. UPDATE: Stayed until
November 17. |
|
Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
|
October 8, 2009 |
Alabama |
Braxton Brown |
Max Payne |
executed |
| Max Landon
Payne was sentenced to death for the murder of Braxton Brown, the
owner of West Point Grocery in Cullman County. Braxton was killed by
two shotgun blasts to his face. On March 23, 1992, the evening Payne
murdered Braxtpm, Payne was at his sister Wilma’s house with his
girlfriend, Sandra Walker, and Wilma. Payne left the house with a
double-barreled shotgun. Payne said he was taking the shotgun in
case “somebody f*cks with me.” Around 8:25 or 8:30 p.m., two
customers saw Payne at West Point Grocery, which Braxton owned.
Around 8:30 p.m., an alarm company operator received a “hold-up
alarm” from West Point Grocery and called the sheriff’s department.
The responding deputy discovered the store door open and saw
Marlboro packs scattered on the floor, but found no one there. Payne
had robbed the store, kidnapped Braxton, and taken Braxton at
gunpoint to his sister’s house. Wilma was still there with Sandra.
Sandra testified Braxton appeared very nervous and scared, and Payne
had a gun, stood right next to Braxton, and had an arm sling. Payne
ordered Braxton to give Wilma money. Braxton laid $20 on a table.
Sandra overheard Wilma begging Payne “don’t do this” several times.
Wilma asked Payne to leave Braxton with her or take him back to his
store and said “maybe he would forget about this.” Braxton nodded
nervously. Payne rejected his sister’s suggestion, stating, “No, I
am going to do this.” Payne forced Braxton to leave the house with
him. Around 9:15 p.m., Payne went to a friend’s house and asked to
use the telephone. Payne called someone and asked for bullets for a
.22 rifle. Payne also asked the friend if he had any bullets. During
this time, Payne’s other sister Alma went to West Point Grocery and
informed police her brother had been seen with Braxton and described
the car Payne was driving. Around 10:00 p.m., a police investigator
taking pictures at West Point Grocery received a call that gunshots
had been heard. He attempted to locate the origin of the shots but
failed. When the investigator returned to West Point Grocery, he
received a call that Braxton had been seen with Payne. Following the
report of gunshots, an investigator arrived at Wilma’s house and
found the car Payne had used that evening. Inside the car were two
spent and several unspent shotgun shells. Around midnight, Payne
purchased a bus ticket to Florida. The ticket agent noticed Payne
wore torn blue jeans with blood stains and had cuts on his face. On
the morning of March 24, 1992, a volunteer fireman found a partial
dental plate on a bridge over Crooked Creek and noticed dark red
stains on the bridge and railing. The search team discovered
Braxton’s body in the creek. Most of Braxton’s face was gone due to
two shotgun blasts to the face. He had two large holes in his face:
one in his forehead and one in his mouth. An autopsy later retrieved
466 shotgun pellets from Braxton’s skull. A forensic examiner
testified Braxton was shot with a shotgun from a distance of one to
one-and-a-half feet away. On March 25, 1992, following a call from
Alabama authorities, a Miami police detective met Payne’s bus when
it arrived in Miami. Items found on Payne included Braxton’s
handgun; a jeweler’s invoice made out to West Point Grocery; a
vehicle registration in Braxton’s name; three cartons of Marlboro
cigarettes; three bank deposit bags containing numerous checks
written to West Point Grocery, credit card receipts, rings, and food
stamps; bank receipts in Braxton’s name; and a total of $1,085.84.
Braxton’s son identified many items as coming from West Point
Grocery. Forensic testing matched human tissue recovered from
Payne’s arm sling to Braxton’s blood type. The counts are: (1)
intentional murder committed during an abduction with the intent to
accomplish or aid the commission of robbery or flight therefrom; (2)
intentional murder during an abduction with the intent to inflict
serious physical injury; and (3) intentional murder during a robbery
in the first degree. A person commits robbery in the first degree
when he, in the course of committing a theft, (1) uses force with
intent to overcome physical resistance or threatens the imminent use
of force with intent to compel acquiescence to the taking of or
escaping with the property; and (2) is armed with a deadly weapon or
dangerous instrument or causes serious physical injury to another.
Payne was indicted for three counts of capital murder arising from
Braxton’s death. An Alabama jury unanimously convicted Payne on all
counts and recommended a death sentence by an 11-1 vote. The state
trial judge sentenced Payne to death. |
|
Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
|
October 9, 2009 |
Ohio |
Loretta Foster, 67 |
Lawrence
Reynolds, Jr. |
stayed |
| Lawrence
Reynolds, Jr. was convicted of the aggravated murder of Loretta
Loretta. In early January 1994, Loretta complained to her son that a
neighbor, Reynolds, had been knocking on her door after dark.
Reynolds had recently painted Loretta's basement and claimed that he
needed to put a paint can in the basement. Loretta told her son that
she was scared of Reynolds. On January 11, 1994, Loretta's
sister-in-law, Norma Haubert, took her to a doctor's appointment.
Loretta told Haubert that a neighbor had been acting "weird"; that
is, he would knock on the door, hide, and then jump out at her.
Loretta told her doctor and her doctor's office manager about
Reynolds in an effort to explain why her blood pressure was
elevated. After the visit to the doctor, Loretta stopped at her
credit union and withdrew fifty dollars. Norma dropped Loretta off
at home around 3:00 p.m. Around 7:30 p.m. that evening, Reynolds and
his brother Jason went to Northgate Lanes to shoot pool with Jason's
friend Joseph Hindel. Upon arriving, Reynolds told Brian Baker and
Jim Ferrando that that would be his last night to party with them
because he had killed someone and was leaving town the next day.
Reynolds told them that he had knocked on Loretta Foster's door and
told her that he had something to give her from his sister. He had
rope and a tent pole with him. Loretta opened the door and a
struggle began. Reynolds hit Loretta and she fell to the floor. He
began to rummage through her purse. When he realized she was
attempting to reach for the phone, he cut the phone line, "tied her
up," and hit her once or twice with the tent pole. He tried to
strangle her with his hands, but was unsuccessful. At some point
during the struggle, Reynolds received a rope burn on his hand,
which he showed his listeners. Reynolds told them that he had left
Loretta lying naked in the living room, and that he had taken forty
dollars in cash and a blank check from her checkbook before leaving
through the back door. The group proceeded to the Rainbow Bar where
Reynolds continued to discuss how he had killed Loretta. Baker and
Ferrando did not know whether to believe Reynolds, so they left the
bar and went to Loretta's house. They looked into the living room
window and saw Loretta's nude body lying on the floor. Reynolds and
Jason also went to Loretta Foster's house after leaving the Rainbow
Bar. Jason was stunned to see Foster's body. Reynolds picked up a
glove and a tent stake that he had left and attempted to brush off
the purse. Then they returned to their home. Baker and Ferrando went
to a friend's house because they knew his father was a police
officer. They told Officer Joe Orsine what Reynolds had told them
and described what they had seen at Foster's house. They later went
to the police station and made a statement. Police officers were
dispatched to investigate. After finding the victim's body, the
police initiated a homicide investigation and obtained an arrest
warrant for Lawrence Reynolds, Jr. Officers went to the Reynolds
home and arrested Reynolds. While the officers were there, Lawrence
Reynolds, Sr. consented, verbally and in writing, to a search of the
house. He specifically consented to a search of Reynolds's bedroom
and the basement. Police seized a camouflage outfit, gloves, a tent
pole, white rope, a knife, and a blank check. Forensic tests
revealed that the rope found in Reynolds's bedroom matched the rope
used to tie up Loretta Foster. Human hair on the rope matched a hair
sample taken from the victim. Blood found on the camouflage overalls
was of the same type as hers. On January 20, 1994, the Summit County
Grand Jury indicted Lawrence Reynolds, Jr. for one count of
aggravated murder committed during the course of a robbery and/or
burglary and/or kidnapping and/or attempted rape. Four separate
aggravating circumstances were alleged, i.e., murder during an
aggravated robbery, murder during an aggravated burglary, murder
during a kidnapping, and murder during an attempted rape. Reynolds
was also charged with four separate felonies--aggravated robbery,
aggravated burglary, kidnapping, and attempted rape. While awaiting
trial in the Summit County Jail, Reynolds told an inmate, Neil
Webster, the same story he had told his friends. Reynolds also
stated that he had taken off Loretta Foster's blouse to enable him
to see her hands at all times. Webster questioned him concerning a
newspaper article that asserted that the victim was found with her
pants off. Initially, Reynolds claimed that Loretta's pants had come
off in the struggle, but he later told Webster that "he tried to
stick his meat in her." When Webster specifically questioned him,
Reynolds denied trying to rape Foster. The autopsy showed that
Foster had been strangled. She had also been subjected to blunt
force trauma. No evidence of spermatozoa was found in her vagina or
rectum, and there was no physical evidence of sexual conduct. At
trial, the defense did not deny that Reynolds was responsible for
Loretta Foster's death. Instead, the defense attacked various
elements of the offenses charged and attempted to show that Reynolds
had been drunk and had not gone to Foster's house intending to kill
her. Reynolds was twenty-seven years old when the crime was
committed and had been drinking alcohol since he was approximately
fourteen years old. During his high school years, he drank as many
as twelve cans of beer a day. Despite this drinking, Reynolds
apparently had a normal childhood in a middle class family. After
high school, he enlisted in the Army for four years and then
re-enlisted for two more years. He served in Korea for eighteen
months and was often drunk when he telephoned home. When he got out
of the Army, he became depressed because his girlfriend and the son
he had fathered with her did not come to Ohio with him. His aunt and
uncle helped him get a job with a replacement window company. He
worked there for about two years before being fired because of
alcohol-related chronic tardiness and absenteeism. Approximately two
years before the murder, Reynolds had been arrested for driving
under the influence and failing to comply with a police officer's
order. He moved in with his parents and completed an alcohol
treatment program. Even so, he continued to drink. He paid rent to
his parents when he first moved home, but had not given them any
rent for about four months prior to Loretta Foster's death. He had
been unable to find a job and sold personal items to support his
drinking habit. When he had nothing left to sell, he apparently
decided to steal money from Loretta Foster. The jury found Reynolds
guilty of all charges and recommended the death penalty. The trial
court adopted the jury's recommendation and sentenced Reynolds to
death. The court of appeals affirmed the convictions and sentences. |
|
Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
|
October 20, 2009 |
Georgia |
Kevin Scott Brown,
28 |
Mark McClain |
executed |
| Mark
Howard McClain was sentenced to death for the November 20, 1994
murder of Kevin Brown, the 28-year-old manager of a Domino's Pizza
store that McClain was robbing. At approximately 1:00 a.m. on
Sunday, November 20, 1994, McClain left the house of his girlfriend,
Tina Butler, drove to a nearby Domino’s Pizza store on 2 Washington
Road, and parked his blue Buick automobile beside the store. When
Philip Martin Weeks Jr., a delivery man, returned to the store
before 2:00 a.m., McClain approached Weeks and asked to purchase a
pizza. Weeks explained that the store had stopped selling carry-out
pizza at 10:00 p.m. the previous evening. McClain protested and
refused to leave. To appease McClain, Weeks said that he would ask
the manager, Kevin Scott Brown, to make an exception for McClain.
McClain began yelling outside the store that he wanted a pizza.
Brown released the lock of the door to the store, and Weeks opened
the door. McClain attempted to force his way into the store. Weeks
initially struggled with McClain, but when McClain produced a small
caliber revolver, Weeks fled through the store and out the back
door. Brown, who weighed approximately 450 pounds, remained behind
the counter of the store, unable to move quickly. As Weeks left the
store, he heard McClain demand that Brown give him money. Weeks ran
to a pay telephone to call the police. After he realized the phone
was broken, Weeks ran toward another pay telephone at a gas station
across Washington Road. As he began to cross the street, Weeks saw a
car leave the Domino’s parking lot at a high rate of speed and turn
onto Washington Road. The driver, McClain, made eye contact with
Weeks and an obscene gesture toward him. Weeks memorized the license
tag number of McClain’s car. Weeks then flagged down a passing
motorist, who drove Weeks back to the store. Weeks entered the store
and found Brown lying on the floor behind the counter and bleeding
from a bullet wound to his chest. The keys to the money till of the
store, which Brown ordinarily kept in his pocket, were in the till
and approximately $100 was missing. Weeks called 911, but Brown bled
to death before paramedics arrived. Within an hour of leaving
Butler’s house, McClain returned and gave Butler approximately $100,
without explaining where he had obtained the money. McClain spent
much of the following day at Butler’s house. In the meantime, police
traced to McClain’s father the license tag number of the car Weeks
saw. McClain’s father stated that McClain was the primary driver of
the car and gave police a description of McClain that matched
Weeks’s description. The assistant manager of the Domino’s store
identified McClain as having bought a pizza in the store under the
name of Johnson two days before the shooting. The box with the
receipt for that pizza was found in the trash during a search of
McClain’s residence. McClain was arrested when he arrived at work in
his blue Buick the following Monday morning, November 21, 1994.
McClain called Butler from the jail that evening and told her to
dispose of the clothes, boots, and gun that he had left at her
house. McClain also demanded that Butler provide him with an alibi
for the night of the shooting and threatened to implicate Butler and
her family if she refused to help him. In response to McClain’s
request, Butler hid McClain’s jacket in a neighbor’s shed and gave
McClain’s gun to her nephew. The police questioned Butler, who
eventually told the police about McClain’s telephone call to her and
gave police McClain’s jacket and boots. McClain’s gun was recovered
a month later when Butler’s nephew was involved in a shooting.
Butler testified against McClain at trial. McClain denied any
involvement in the crime until trial, when he testified that he had
intended only to rob the store. McClain testified that he shot Brown
when he heard a noise as he was leaving the store and believed Brown
was pursuing him. McClain was convicted of murder, armed robbery,
burglary, and possession of a firearm during the commission of
certain crimes. He later pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm
by a convicted felon. The jury sentenced McClain to death for the
murder and found three statutory aggravating circumstances: the
murder was committed during the commission of a burglary; the murder
was committed during the commission of an armed robbery; “and the
murder was committed for the purpose of receiving money or things of
monetary value.” |
|
Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
|
October 22, 2009 |
Pennsylvania |
Michael Richardson |
Christopher
Kennedy |
stayed |
|
On January
19, 2003, Christopher Kennedy, James Richardson, his brother Jamaar
Richardson, Lavar Brown, and Ronald Vann planned to rob a drug store
at which Jamaar Richardson worked. According to plan, Kennedy
entered the store armed with a .44 caliber revolver, approached
Michael Richardson, who was the manager, and shot him in the leg.
The Richardson brothers (James and Jamaar) were unrelated to the
victim, Michael Richardson. The store security guard and cashiers
fled the building, and Kennedy’s accomplices also fled, with most
having never entered the premises. Kennedy proceeded to drag the
victim to the front office, where there were two safes, one of which
the group believed to contain $40,000 to $50,000. Officers
responding to the scene heard a gunshot from within the store;
observed Kennedy inside the store; saw Kennedy outside while in
possession of the .44 caliber pistol and a bag containing
approximately $2,200 taken from one of the store safes; and
apprehended Kennedy in the vicinity. Michael Richardson was found in
the office where Kennedy left him, having suffered a fatal gunshot
wound to the left side of his head. Kennedy was tried jointly with
Brown and the Richardson brothers, who were charged with felony
murder. Among other witnesses, Vann testified for the prosecution,
describing the planning and execution of the robbery from his
vantage. Notably, Vann indicated that, during the planning, Kennedy
said that if Michael Richardson resisted he would kill him. Store
personnel testified that, of the two safes in the manager’s office,
Michael Richardson would have had access to only one -- the other
was accessible only by armored-car personnel. Although there were no
witnesses to the actual killing, store personnel related that they
remained in the vicinity and did not witness anyone enter or exit
the storefront; the responding officers indicated that they did not
see anyone other than Kennedy exit the rear of the store; and one of
the first officers to enter the store stated that the only person
found there besides the victim was a patron who had hidden in a
bathroom. Apparently, the robbery plan called for several measures
to be taken to secure control over the premises, but these did not
occur as the accomplices fled. The prosecution also presented a
ballistics expert who testified, over Kennedy’s objections, that the
.44 caliber handgun carried by Kennedy was primarily used in hunting
“deer-size animals” to accomplish deep penetration. The expert also
explained that a dried liquid substance was found on the muzzle of
the revolver, which a DNA expert confirmed was bodily fluid matching
Michael Richardson’s profile. A medical examiner opined, based on
the character of gunpowder stippling around the wound to the
victim’s head, that the pistol that fired the shot would have been
approximately twelve inches away at the time of discharge. Kennedy
testified in his defense. He admitted that he perpetrated the
robbery, shot Michael Richardson in the leg, and brought him to the
office to open the safe. Kennedy, however, denied shooting the
victim a second time and disputed the prosecution’s contention that
his codefendants were involved in the planning and execution of the
robbery. Instead, Kennedy claimed that he acted at the suggestion of
a friend of his brother’s, whom he could not identify. In his
closing argument, the prosecutor summarized the evidence, positing
that Kennedy shot the victim when he was unable to open the second
safe believed to contain $40,000 to $50,000. The jury returned a
verdict of guilt on the charges of first-degree murder, robbery,
conspiracy, and weapons violations. The prosecution offered as an
aggravating circumstance that the killings occurred during the
perpetration of a felony, namely, robbery. Kennedy offered as
mitigating circumstances claims that he lacked a significant history
of prior convictions; he was under the influence of extreme mental
or emotional disturbance; his capacity to conform his conduct to the
requirements of law was substantially impaired; and his age at the
time of the offenses should be regarded as mitigating, as well as
pursuing the catch-all mitigator. Kennedy presented testimony of
family members, friends, and a mental health expert to support the
asserted mitigators. Ultimately, the jurors found that the one
aggravating circumstance unanimously found – that the killing was
committed in the perpetration of a felony – outweighed the sole
mitigating circumstance found by any juror – the catch-all mitigator.
Accordingly, the jury set the penalty at death. The Rite Aid
manager, Michael Richardson, was survived by his wife, Kristi and
four children. Lavar
Brown was sentenced to death for a different murder, of Robert
Crawford, committed about one month after Michael Richardson was
killed. |
|
Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
|
October 27, 2009 |
Texas |
Carlos Garza, 20 |
Reginald
Blanton |
executed |
| Reginald
W. Blanton was sentenced to death for the murder of Carlos Garza.
Blanton broke into Garza’s San Antonio apartment, shot him twice in
the head, and stole several pieces of jewelry and one hundred
dollars. The evidence at trial showed that Garza was murdered at his
residence in the Stepping Stone Apartments in San Antonio, Texas, on
April 9, 2000. Patricia Romano, who lived across the hall from
Garza, testified that she heard a loud banging noise about three or
four weeks prior to the murder. She went outside on her balcony and
saw Blanton banging on Garza's door. When she told Blanton that
Garza was obviously not coming to the door, Blanton angrily replied,
"Shut up, bitch, get back in your house." On the day that Garza was
killed, Romano returned to the apartment complex after running an
errand with her daughter and saw Garza sitting with a young Hispanic
girl at a picnic table near the pool. She went inside her apartment
and when she came back outside about an hour later, Garza and the
girl were gone. Romano was picking up trash near the laundry room
when a Hispanic man named Ralph Vidal and an African-American man
named Joseph Anderson approached her. Vidal asked her if she had
seen Garza and she replied that she had seen him earlier. Vidal told
her that, when they returned from the store, they noticed that
Garza's door was open and that frame was splintered. He thought
someone might have broken into Garza's apartment, and he asked
Romano to call the police. Romano went upstairs to take a closer
look at the door. She saw that the lock was engaged and the door
frame was splintered as though it had been kicked open. The stereo
blared, and all of the cushions had been pulled off the couch in the
living room as if someone had ransacked the apartment. She went to
her apartment and called the apartment manager, who told her to call
the police. The apartment manager arrived about fifteen minutes
later and went into the entryway of Garza's apartment with Romano's
husband. From there, they saw a body lying on the floor. Romano's
husband believed that it was Garza, and he saw that part of his leg
was still moving. Ernest Borroel, Jr., lived in the apartment
beneath Garza's apartment. At around 5:00 or 5:30 p.m. on the day of
the murder Borroel heard a noise as if something had fallen or had
been tipped over upstairs in Garza's apartment. When San Antonio
Police Department (SAPD) Officer Richard Odoms arrived at Garza's
apartment, he saw that the door jamb was destroyed, the door frame
was lying on the floor, the dead bolt was sticking out, and there
was a footprint on the door as if someone had kicked it in. Odoms
saw Garza lying unconscious in the hallway with what looked like a
bullet wound to his forehead. Odoms heard Garza make a "gurgling
type sound," like "somebody snoring." He saw two spent bullet
casings on the floor: one by Garza's feet and another by his head.
Garza's stereo was blaring and a pager kept going off. Paramedic
Michael Rodriguez arrived at Garza's apartment at about 6:30 p.m. He
saw that Garza was bleeding from two gunshot wounds to his face. He
noticed that Garza was still breathing and had a pulse. Garza's
breathing was irregular, and he made a "gurgling" sound. His pulse
stopped on the way to the hospital. Bexar County Chief Medical
Examiner Robert Bux testified that Garza suffered two gunshot wounds
to his head, one to the left front scalp area and one to his cheek.
The gunshot wound to his scalp was fatal. Two days later, SAPD
Officer Ricky Lopez and his partner were dispatched to Blanton's
father's home on a disturbance call. Blanton's twin brother, Robert
Blanton, and Blanton's girlfriend, LaToya Mayberry, were arguing
outside. Mayberry initially gave Lopez a false name, but her brother
told the officer her real name. Lopez discovered that Mayberry had
active municipal court warrants. Lopez's partner placed Mayberry
under arrest. Lopez's partner then placed Mayberry in handcuffs and
put her into the patrol car. While Mayberry sat in the patrol car,
she told Lopez that she had information about a murder that had
occurred a few days before at the Stepping Stone Apartments. She
also told Detective Rocky Dyer that Reginald Blanton and his brother
Robert were involved in the homicide, that she heard Blanton brag
about it, and that they went back to the scene shortly after the
shooting. Mayberry was transported to the police station for formal
questioning. Detective Raymond Roberts interviewed Mayberry and took
her statement. Roberts testified that he told Mayberry that she did
not have to talk about the murder. She said she wanted to tell him
what happened because it was upsetting her. He explained Mayberry's
rights to her before the interview began, and she indicated that she
understood her rights. He never threatened her or told her that she
would be arrested for capital murder if she did not give a
statement. In her statement, Mayberry said that Robert drove Blanton
in her grandmother's car to the Stepping Stone Apartments, where
Garza lived. She went along with the brothers. They went to the
third floor and knocked on the door of Garza's apartment. No one
answered the door, and Robert told Mayberry to go back downstairs
and wait in the car. She heard Robert tell Blanton, "Let's go," and
when she heard Blanton say, "No cuz, don't go," she knew that
"something was going to go down." She believed that Robert stayed
with Blanton because he was scared of him. While Mayberry was
sitting in the car, she heard "two loud booms," and she "knew that
it had to be them kicking in the door to Garza's apartment." She
heard "two more booms." She said that she knew right away that they
were gunshots because she had heard gunshots before. She then saw
Robert running toward the car, and his eyes "were real big like he
was scared." He was "breathing real fast and hard" and got into the
car and started the engine. He did not answer her when she asked him
what happened. Blanton jumped in the car as Robert was driving away.
In his hands, Blanton had a small blue box and some jewelry,
including a gold herringbone necklace and a broken gold rope
necklace. Blanton was also wearing a gold lion's-head ring with two
ruby eyes and a diamond in its mouth that Mayberry had not seen
before. As they were leaving, Blanton took a silver gun out of his
pocket and told Mayberry that it was a ".380." He also said, "F*ck,
I left a bullet in the house," and told Robert he wanted to go back
to the apartment so he could get his "dope." Robert refused to drive
back. Instead, Robert drove them to a friend's apartment where they
stayed for about twenty minutes. Robert then drove them back to the
Stepping Stone Apartments. Robert and Mayberry waited in the car
while Blanton went inside. When Blanton came back he was laughing
and said, "That mother f*cker's in there snoring, I thought I was
going to have to do that mother f*cker again." Blanton also said he
"turned everything over in the apartment" and took one hundred
dollars. Blanton then made Robert drive to a pawn shop. On the way
there, Blanton asked Mayberry if she thought the rubies in the
lion's-head ring were real. They arrived at the pawn shop at about
5:50 p.m. Blanton pawned the two necklaces and a "Jesus charm."
After they left the pawn shop, Robert drove them to Adkins, Texas.
While they were riding in the car, Blanton was laughing and bragging
about shooting Garza. He said, "I peeled that mother f*cker's head
back, you see how he just dropped in the corner." He said that he
kicked in the door and that it looked like Garza had just gotten out
of the shower. When Garza asked Blanton what was going on, he told
Garza to "brake himself," which means "It's a robbery, give me all
your shi+." When Garza said, "No," Blanton shot him. When Garza fell
down, Blanton shot him again in the head. Robert drove Blanton back
to his girlfriend's apartment at about 8:00 or 8:30 p.m. Mayberry
and Robert went to get something to eat and then returned home about
9:30 p.m. They heard about a burglary and murder that night on the
news. Mayberry asked Rpbert what had happened. Robert told her that
the door was kicked in, Garza came around the corner and asked what
they were doing, and Blanton shot him. He said that Blanton looked
around the apartment for drugs, but could not find any. Then he shot
Garza again. Robert said that "[Garza] was just laying there
snoring." After Roberts typed Mayberry's statement, he gave her an
opportunity to read it and make corrections. She indicated that she
was satisfied with her statement and signed it in front of two
witnesses. After Mayberry signed her statement, she and Roberts
called Robert Blanton. Roberts asked him to come down to the station
to talk to them and that he was not under arrest. Robert was
reluctant to speak with Roberts at first. After viewing Garza's
autopsy photographs and talking to Mayberry alone for a few minutes,
however, Robert Blanton gave a statement. In his statement, Robert
said that he drove Blanton and Mayberry to Garza's apartment
complex. They knocked on the door, and when no one answered, he and
Mayberry started to leave. Blanton told him to stay. Mayberry went
back to the car. He sat down on the steps while Blanton continued to
knock on the door. Then he heard a loud noise "like somebody hit
something pretty hard." He followed Blanton into the apartment and
heard Blanton and Garza arguing in the back room. He heard a gunshot
and ran out of the apartment. As he was running down the stairs, he
heard another gunshot. He got into the car with Mayberry, then
Blanton came walking out of the complex and got into the car. Robert
asked Blanton what happened, and he replied, "Don't worry about it."
From there, Robert drove to Blanton's apartment, and they stayed
there for about five minutes. Robert then drove them to the
apartment complex next door to the Stepping Stone Apartments and
parked the car. Blanton walked back to the Stepping Stone Apartments
and returned to the car about five minutes later. Robert drove them
to a pawn shop, where Robert and Mayberry stayed in the car while
Blanton went inside. When he got back into the car, Blanton said
that he had pawned his jewelry. Robert drove Blanton back to his
apartment, and then Robert and Mayberry returned home. Robert found
out from the Sunday night news that Garza was dead. He never saw
Blanton with a gun, and he did not know what he did with the gun.
After he completed his statement, Roberts gave Robert an opportunity
to review it. Robert reviewed the statement and signed it. By the
time Reginald Blanton's trial began, Mayberry had married Robert
Blanton. During the trial, Mayberry testified that the statement
that she made to the police was not true. She denied that she
approached police with information about a capital murder. She
testified that she gave her statement because the police accused her
of being in the apartment, stated that they had witnesses
implicating her and Robert, and told her that she would be charged
with capital murder if she did not give a statement. When asked
about the first two "loud booms" she said she heard while waiting in
the car, she denied knowing that it was Robert and Blanton kicking
in the door to Garza's apartment. She testified that children were
outside playing with rocks and sticks, and she said that all the
noises sounded the same. When asked about the second set of "booms"
that she heard, she testified that she did not know if they were
gunshots because she had heard gunshots before only on television.
She denied telling police that Robert stayed upstairs with Blanton
because he was scared of him. She denied saying that Robert's eyes
were big and that he appeared to be afraid when he returned to the
car. On the first day of her trial testimony, Mayberry stated that
when they left the apartment complex she saw that Blanton had
something "shiny" that looked like a gun, and that she asked him
what it was and he told her it was either a ".380" or a ".38." On
the second day of her trial testimony, she stated that she never saw
Blanton with a gun and that she lied the day before when she
testified that she had. Mayberry also denied telling police that
Blanton said that he "left a bullet in the house." She denied that
Blanton wanted to go back to Garza's apartment to get some "dope,"
that Blanton said he "turned everything over in the apartment" and
took one hundred dollars, and that Blanton stated, "I thought I was
going to have to do that mother f*cker again." She denied that
Blanton was laughing and bragging about shooting Garza and that he
said, "I peeled that mother f*cker's head back." Mayberry clarified
at trial that Blanton had been wearing a gold religious pendant in
addition to the lion's-head ring, a gold herringbone necklace, and a
gold "broke rope" necklace. She said that Blanton often carried a
blue box in which he kept his pencils. She also testified at trial
that when they left the Stepping Stone Apartments the first time,
she noticed a black male and a Hispanic male walking down the street
towards the grocery store. When they later returned to the Stepping
Stone, she noticed the same two men walking back from the store.
Robert denied certain portions of his statement when he testified
during Blanton's trial. He confirmed that they went to Garza's
apartment and to the pawn shop, but he said, "The part that's not
correct is when they interject things about [Garza's] death." He
testified that he told Mayberry to go back to the car because it was
hot outside and she "had a little attitude," and said that he and
Blanton came down to the car at the same time about a minute later.
He denied seeing Blanton enter the apartment and hearing gunshots.
He confirmed that Blanton later returned to Garza's apartment and
came back to the car about five minutes later, but testified that
Blanton told them when he returned to the car that Garza was still
not home. He denied telling police that he found out that Garza was
dead when he watched the Sunday night news. He testified that the
only reason he signed the statement was so that the police would let
him and Mayberry go home. Robert also testified that he never saw a
blue box in Blanton's hands. He had seen Blanton wearing a gold
lion's-head ring prior to the day of the murder. He did not see the
jewelry that Blanton intended to pawn until they arrived at the pawn
shop. He thought that Blanton must have had the jewelry in his
pocket. Garza's girlfriend Debra Estrada testified that she was with
him at the apartment complex on the day of the murder. Estrada saw
Garza wearing a gold chain with a religious pendant, a couple of
rings including a lion ring with ruby eyes, and a gold nugget
bracelet. She identified these items as the same items that the
police had obtained from the pawn shop where Blanton pawned jewelry
after the killing. Estrada testified that, on the afternoon of the
murder, she and Garza had been sitting outside at a picnic table
waiting for her friends to pick her up when an African-American man
later identified as Anderson and a Hispanic man later identified as
Vidal came by to talk to Garza. Garza told them about an incident
the day before when he pulled a knife on someone at the Poteet
Strawberry Festival. Anderson asked Garza what he would do if
someone ever pulled a gun on him. The men were teasing each other at
first, but then Anderson started getting aggravated with Garza and
looked like he was going to take a swing at him. The men talked
about getting together later to smoke marijuana. Then she and Garza
got up from the table and left. Garza went to the laundry room, and
Estrada left the apartment complex when her friend arrived to pick
her up. Vidal and Anderson testified that they had talked with Garza
and his girlfriend at the picnic table that afternoon. They had
agreed to meet up with Garza later to smoke marijuana. Garza said he
was going up to his apartment to change clothes, and Vidal and
Anderson walked to the store to buy cigars and beer. When they
returned, they saw from their position downstairs that Garza's door
was slightly open. They whistled for Garza to come downstairs, but
he did not respond. Vidal walked back a bit so he could get a better
view of the door, and he saw the dead bolts sticking out and broken
wood. They went to Vidal's apartment where Vidal paged Garza. Garza
did not call, however. They went back outside, saw Romano picking up
trash, and asked her to take a look inside Garza's apartment. Vidal
further testified that he had seen Garza wearing a necklace with a
religious pendant many times. He also testified that Blanton used to
hang out at the apartment complex with Garza and other friends. Two
or three weeks prior to the murder, Garza had flaunted his money in
front of Blanton and his brother. Blanton had said, "You keep
pulling out money, somebody's going to jack you." Garza's wife,
Yvonne, from whom he had been separated, testified that the last
time she saw Garza was on April 6, 2000, when he came to her
apartment to visit their son. He had called her on April 9 at 2:00
a.m. and said he was coming to visit their son that day. She paged
him around 4:45 or 5:00 p.m., and he did not return her page. He
never showed up, and a friend who came to her home on Sunday evening
told her that he had been killed. Yvonne testified that she bought
and gave Garza a ten-karat gold nugget bracelet from Treasures
jewelry store on February 3, 2000. She also bought Garza a
herringbone chain from Piercing Pagoda on February 3. On February
16, she bought and gave Garza a ten-karat gold lion ring. She
testified that Garza often wore a Jesus and Mary pendant on a gold
rope chain that was broken and held together with wire. Yvonne also
testified that Garza had a lockbox in his apartment where he kept
items of value. About a week after Garza's death, she cleaned out
his apartment and noticed that the lock was missing from the
lockbox. The gold rope necklace with the religious pendant, the
herringbone necklace, the lion's-head ring, and the nugget bracelet
were also missing from the apartment. Garza was wearing all of this
jewelry, except for the herringbone chain, when she last saw him on
April 6. She testified that she had never known Garza to lend his
jewelry to friends. However, upon viewing photographs of Blanton,
Garza, and other friends taken prior to Garza's death, she
acknowledged that Blanton was wearing jewelry similar to Garza's
religious pendant and gold nugget bracelet. Henry Esparza, Jr., an
employee at Hollywood Video, testified that movies were rented on
Robert's account at 4:43 p.m. on April 9, 2000. Brian Collins, the
assistant manager at EZ Pawn, testified that Blanton pawned a gold
herringbone chain, a gold rope necklace with a broken chain, and a
religious pendant for eighty-five dollars at 6:00 p.m. on April 9.
Collins noticed that Blanton was wearing a lion's-head ring with
rubies in its eyes and a diamond in its mouth, but he did not pawn
it. While Blanton was inside the store, Collins observed a black man
and a black woman outside the shop. The woman seemed upset and was
pacing back and forth and the man was talking to her and trying to
calm her down. At trial, Mayberry denied that she was upset while
waiting outside the pawn shop. Alkeshia Hoyle testified that she and
Blanton were living together at the time of the offense. Blanton's
brother and his brother's girlfriend were coming to visit him when
she left the apartment on April 9. Blanton paged her from their
apartment sometime between 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. He was at the
apartment when she arrived home at about 10:00 p.m. She observed him
wearing a gold nugget bracelet and an "animal ring" with red rubies
that she had not seen him wearing before. When Blanton was arrested
at their apartment on April 13, he was wearing a gold nugget
bracelet and a lion's-head ring with ruby eyes and a diamond in its
mouth. The State introduced several jewelry receipts at trial,
including a receipt from Piercing Pagoda for a twenty-two-inch gold
rope chain; a layaway pick-up receipt from Piercing Pagoda for a
gold herringbone necklace dated February 3, 2000; a receipt from
Treasures for a ten-karat gold nugget bracelet dated February 3,
2000, under the customer name "Yvonne;" and another receipt from
Treasures for a ten-karat gold lion ring dated February 16, 2000,
also under the customer name "Yvonne." Physical evidence included
three footprints on Garza's door which appeared to have been made by
a tennis shoe. SAPD Detective Myron Oberheu measured one of the
footprints at approximately twelve inches. He measured Blanton's
foot in court at twelve and one-fourth inches. Two spent shell
casings and one bullet were recovered from Garza's apartment. The
shell casings were ".380 auto caliber." They were two different
brands but appeared to have been fired from the same firearm. The
bullet was consistent with ".380 auto caliber." State's witness
Frank Trujillo testified that he used to work at the front desk of
the West Point Inn in San Antonio and he was familiar with Blanton
because he had come to the motel on a couple of occasions asking for
a room. Trujillo was not sure of the exact date, but, a few days
before April 13, 2000, Blanton asked for a room at the motel. He
also asked Trujillo if he wanted to buy a gun. When Trujillo asked
him why, he said, "I had to smoke a ni@#er." Trujillo noticed that
Blanton was wearing a ring with "a tiger or lion with red eyes."
Trujillo was arrested on a parole warrant on April 13 and was in
jail at the same time as Blanton. While in jail, Blanton told him
that he, his brother, and his brother's girlfriend went over to some
guy's house to "jack him" for drugs and he kicked the door in and
shot the guy. He talked about taking some jewelry and said he was on
camera at the pawn shop trying to pawn the jewelry. Defense witness
Ronald Marshall testified that he was friends with both Garza and
Blanton. Marshall testified that he was wearing Garza's gold chain
and religious pendant in a photograph that was recovered from
Garza's apartment. Garza and Blanton were also in the photograph
that Marshall believed was taken in February or March of 2000.
Marshall testified that Garza originally owned the pendant, but he
had given it to Blanton. Blanton let Marshall wear the pendant in
the picture and he gave it back to Blanton afterwards. While wearing
the pendant, he observed that the links in the chain of the necklace
were broken and held together by wire. Marshall had never seen
Blanton wearing the lion's-head ring. Marshall was present when
Garza got into an altercation at the strawberry festival the day
before his murder. At that time, Garza was wearing the gold nugget
bracelet, but he was not wearing the lion's-head ring or religious
pendant. The jury convicted Reginald Blanton of capital murder for
killing Carlos Garza while committing robbery or burglary. At the
punishment phase of Blanton’s trial, the jury returned a verdict
finding that (1) there was a probability that Blanton would commit
criminal acts of violence constituting a continuing threat to
society, and (2) taking into consideration all of the evidence,
including the circumstances of the offense and Blanton’s character,
background, and personal moral culpability, there were insufficient
mitigating circumstances to warrant a life sentence for petitioner.
The trial judge sentenced Blanton to death. |
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