|
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Twelve killers were executed in the month of February,
1999. They murdered at least 22 people.
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
| 2/2/99 |
Pennsylvania |
Owen Edwards |
John Harris |
stayed |
| John Harris was sentenced
to death on Dec. 3, 1993, for the August 1992 murder of Owen Edwards, a
store owner. |
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
| 2/3/99 |
Arizona |
Scott Schwartz |
Darick Gerlaugh |
executed |
| Scott Schwartz was a young man who walked
with the aid of a leg brace & crutches. Shortly before midnight on
January 24, 1980, he picked up hitchhikers Darick Gerlaugh, Joseph Encinas,
and James Matthew Leisure. What Mr. Schwartz did not know when he accommodated
the group's request for a ride was that they had previously agreed to rob
whomever picked them up. As they rode together in Mr. Schwartz's
car, Gerlaugh, who was already on probation for robbery, suddenly pointed
a firearm at his host and forced him to drive to a deserted area near Mesa,
Arizona. Scott Schwartz was robbed of $37, and also of his life.
There, the three men forced the victim out of his car. Gerlaugh pointed
the gun at Schwartz and demanded money. Schwartz grabbed the gun
from Gerlaugh. While attempting to escape, the victim pointed the gun at
Leisure and pulled the trigger. The gun did not fire. "You fucked up" Gerlaugh
exclaimed, "There's no bullets in the gun." The three men knocked Schwartz
to the ground, where they beat and kicked him for ten to fifteen minutes.
Gerlaugh then announced that they would have to kill Schwartz to prevent
him from identifying them. Gerlaugh ordered Encinas and Leisure to hold
Schwartz on the road so he could run the victim over with the car. The
victim succeeded in dodging the car several times by diving into an adjoining
canal. Gerlaugh finally ran over Schwartz with the victim's Lincoln Continental
and felt the impact of the victim's body with the car. Gerlaugh ran over
the victim two more times and struck the victim's head with the car bumper
at least one time. At one point, Gerlaugh positioned the car's left
rear wheel on top of Schwartz and floored the accelerator. Although badly
hurt, the victim was still alive and was writhing in pain on the roadside.
He began to plead with his assailants to tell him the reason for their
attack. Gerlaugh took a screwdriver from the rear of the car and stabbed
the victim in the head, neck and shoulders at least twenty times. Leisure
also stabbed the victim ten to twenty times. A pathologist testified that
these various assaults caused several injuries, any of which would have
been fatal. The victim suffered numerous fractures, puncture wounds and
internal injuries from his head to his midsection. His entire body was
covered with bruises and abrasions. The three men dragged Schwartz's body
off the road to an adjoining field and covered it with alfalfa. Gerlaugh
kept all of the money taken from the victim. The three men returned to
the road and drove away in Schwartz's car. When the car broke down, they
resumed hitchhiking. They were picked up by Harry Roche in his pickup truck
at about 2:00 a.m. Gerlaugh leveled the gun at Roche and forced him to
make an apparently random series of turns. Finally, Gerlaugh ordered Roche
to pull off to the side of the road. Roche at first refused and complained
that the roadside was too muddy at that particular point to stop. When
Gerlaugh pointed the gun at his head, however, Roche stopped the truck.
Roche quickly put the truck in gear and sped away. Gerlaugh later admitted
that he intended to rob Roche. The police interrogated petitioner Gerlaugh
after his arrest, and he confessed to his participation in these crimes.
When asked how he felt after he killed Mr. Schwartz, his chilling answer
was, "How do you feel when you kill game?" He added that he did not feel
bad at all about killing the victim. In a joint trial with Encinas, a jury
convicted Gerlaugh of armed robbery, kidnapping, and first degree murder.
In addition to receiving sentences of twenty-one years on the armed robbery
and kidnapping offenses to run consecutively with a sentence of thirty-five
years to life for violation of his robbery probation, Gerlaugh was sentenced
by the trial judge to death for the murder. |
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
| 2/4/99 |
Oklahoma |
Robert Bower
Vonda Bellofatto
Lee Bellofatto |
Sean Sellers |
executed |
| On Sept. 8, 1985, Sean Richard Sellers
was 16 when he shot and killed Robert Bower, a store clerk at a convenience
store in Oklahoma City. On March 5, 1986, Sellers shot and killed
his mother, Vonda Bellofatto, and stepfather, Lee Bellofatto, while they
slept in their Oklahoma City home. They were killed 6 months after Mr.
Sellers shot and killed a convenience store clerk "just to see what it
feels like to to kill someone," according to testimony of a friend.
At the time of his trial, his defense argued Mr. Sellers was addicted to
the game "Dungeons and Dragons" and had no control over his actions.
Mr. Sellers now contends he is the victim of a multiple personality disorder. |
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
| 2/4/99 |
Virginia |
Leland Jacobs |
Tony Fry |
executed |
| Tony Fry and his accomplice, 17-year-old
Bradford Hinson used a .22 caliber weapon to shoot and kill Leland Jacobs,
a 42-year-old car salesman whom Fry had lured from his Ford dealership
with the ruse that Fry's grandmother wanted to buy a 1994 Ford Explorer
and lived in southern Chesterfield. Leland was robbed, shot eleven
times, tied to the rear bumper of the Explorer with his necktie and dragged
down a dirt road 777 feet into the woods while still alive. About
15 minutes after the murder, a police officer who had a warrant for Fry's
arrest for another crime had a tip that Fry frequented the area where Jacobs
was killed and came upon Fry and Hinson as they were leaving the scene
of the murder. Fry confessed when he was arrested. In
addition to the death penalty, Fry also received a 50 year sentence for
the robbery and an eight year sentence for 2 counts of use of a firearm
related to Jacobs' death. Hinson was convicted of the 1st-degree
murder of Jacobs, robbery and 2 counts of use of a firearm and received
an 88 year sentence. Fry also gave a confession detailing a long
series of robberies, arson of churches and houses, burglaries and grave
robbing. Chesterfield police testified at Fry's sentencing that when
Fry was arrested shortly after Jacobs' murder, he admitted robbing 3 churches
in the Matoaca area, including Greenwood Presbyterian Church, of which
he was a member. He also confessed to torching 2 vacant homes in
Chesterfield and pulling fire alarms at various local facilities.
Fry also admitted robbing a grave off Reedy Branch Road and stealing parts
of a man's skull. He left a jawbone in a friend's apartment, where
it was found by police. In 1995, Fry waived all further appeals but
in 1996 changed his mind. |
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
| 2/4/99 |
Pennsylvania |
David Sisco
Dawn Anderson |
Ronald Collins |
stayed |
| Ronald Collins received
2 death sentences on April 20, 1995, for murdering David Sisco and Dawn
Anderson. His brother, Rodney Collins, received a death sentence for the
execution-style murder of his long-time girlfriend, Andre Graves, in 1992. |
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
| 2/9/99 |
California |
Packovan Wattanaporn
Quach Nguyen |
Jaturun Siripongs |
executed |
| Jaturun Siripongs, 43, was sentenced to
death in 1983 for a double murder committed during a robbery at Pantai
market in Garden Grove, Orange County, California, in December 1981. He
was convicted in the 1981 deaths of the manager and a clerk at an Orange
County food store where he had once worked. Although he admitted
helping rob the store, he insisted he was not the killer. However, he has
refused to say who committed the murders. Siripongs was 26 years
old and had lived in the United States for about a year when he robbed
the Pantai Market on the afternoon of Dec. 15, 1981. The Wattanaporns ran
an import/export business, and jewelry was sold at the store. Police
allege that he strangled Packovan Wattanaporn, the store manager, using
a nylon cord. He then stabbed the store's clerk, Quach Nguyen, a Vietnamese
immigrant and father of 4, several times in the head and neck. Nguyen's
body was found with the cord wrapped around his arm. The fact that cuts
were also found on Siripongs' hands suggested to police that Nguyen mounted
a fierce struggle. Surachai Wattanaporn found the bodies a few hours
later, lying face down in a puddle of blood in the store's storage closet.
Police arrested Siripongs 2 days later when he tried to purchase a television
set with Packovan Wattanaporn's credit card. At trial, prosecutors submitted
more than 100 items of evidence, much of it consisting of items recovered
from a dumpster near the Cerritos home of Siripongs' girlfriend. They included
Wattanaporn's wallet and purse, a pair of bloodstained shoes found to be
Siripongs' size, and a bloody kitchen knife. At Siripongs' home in
Hawthorne, police found Packovan Wattanaporn's jewelry and several credit
card receipts forged with her signature. |
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
| 2/10/99 |
Texas |
Joey Hernandez |
George Cordova |
executed |
|
George "Spiderman" Cordova was convicted of
the August 4, 1979 robbery and murder of Joey Hernandez, 19, in San Antonio,
Texas. Joey and his date were at Espada Park, sitting in his car,
when they were approached by Cordova and three other men. Cordova,
already a career criminal at nineteen, asked Joey to take him to a gas
station but Joey refused because he noticed one of the other men had a
knife. Cordova pulled Joey from his car and Joey was savagely beaten
with a tire iron by Cordova and stabbed repeatedly by the other man.
Joey's girlfriend was pulled from her car and forced into the woods where
she was beaten and repeatedly raped but survived and testified in Cordova's
trial. Cordova and his accomplice then stole Joey's car. While
awaiting trial on Joey's murder in Texas, Cordova escaped from prison.
While a fugitive from Texas, he was arrested in Florida and sentenced to
30 years for raping a teacher after firing into her car and forcing her
off the road. He also was among armed inmates who hurt 16 other prisoners
and a guard during a 1981 riot at the Sumter Correctional Institution in
Florida. During his murder trial in San Antonio, bailiffs discovered
he had a key to his handcuffs. And while on death row, Cordova was
questioned about his involvement in the stabbing of a fellow inmate.
|
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
| 2/10/99 |
Missouri |
Lloyd Lawrence
Frankie Lawrence
William Lawrence |
Darrell Mease |
commuted when Mease won the "Pope
Lottery" |
| Darrell Mease murdered
Lloyd J. Lawrence, 69, his wife Frankie M. Lawrence, 56, and their handicapped
grandson, William Lawrence, 19, on May 15, 1988. Mease confessed
that he had hidden along a path near the Lawrences' farmhouse and shot
them with a 12-gauge shotgun while they rode by on all-terrain vehicles.
He said that he had ripped Lloyd off in a drug deal and thought that Lloyd
had targeted him. A jury in Greene County Circuit Court found him
guilty of Lloyd's murder and sentenced him to death. He was never tried
in the other murders. *** This TRIPLE MURDERER's death sentence was
commuted to life by Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan on January 28, 1999,
in response to a request from the Pope. Never mind the hard work
the police and prosecutors put in to proving this man guilty of multiple
murder. Never mind the serious consideration the twelve jurors gave
the case. Never mind the TEN years of appeals that failed to overturn
the death sentence. Never mind that one of the three men he killed
was a nineteen-year-old paraplegic! Maybe it is now time to try Mease
in the other two murders. |
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
| 2/10/99 |
Louisiana |
Gordon Lawless |
Jimmy Ray Williams |
stayed |
| Eighteen-year-old Jimmy
Ray Williams used a 9 mm weapon to rob and murder Gordon Lawless, a driver
for an auto parts store on June 15, 1994. Gordon was sitting in his
truck in a parking lot, having just made a delivery, when Williams approached
him and asked for a cigarette. Lawless gave him one and then Williams
pulled his gun and shot Gordon in the face. The medical examiner
testified that Gordon died from drowning in his own blood. Williams
confessed to the killing but claimed it was an accident. Evidence
presented at Williams' trial showed that several hours before Gordon's
murder, another man was shot and his vehicle was stolen. |
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
| 2/11/99 |
Texas |
Janice Louise Ingram
Mercedes Mendez
Mary Caperton |
Danny Barber |
executed |
| Danny Lee Barber was condemned for the
October 1979 beating and stabbing death of Janice Louise Ingram during
a burglary of her home in Balch Springs in Dallas County, a suburb southeast
of Dallas. Ruth Clowers, Janice's mother, found the naked, beaten and dead
body of her daughter. Barber described it as a burglary that went wrong.
Barber confessed to killing Janice with a piece of pipe as he tried to
rob her home. Barber gave various accounts but told authorities in his
confession he found a piece of pipe in her back yard, where he had previously
done lawn work, and planned to use it to break a window. Instead he found
a door open and walked in, startling Mrs. Ingram, who began screaming.
When she wouldn't be quiet, he began clubbing her with the pipe.
He was charged with the murder while being held in the Dallas County Jail
on charges of breaking into a flea market. In the 2 days after his
arrest for Janice's death, he confessed to killing 3 other Dallas-area
residents in a 2-year period. Barber, from Los Angeles, was given
life sentences for the three other Dallas County murders, one committed
on June 18, 1978, Mercedes Mendez, (48) on Jan. 17, 1979 and another, Mary
Caperton, on April 21, 1980. He sells cross-stitch crafts he makes
on death row via a web page. |
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
| 2/16/99 |
Texas |
Gene Summers
Helen Summers
Billy Mack Summers |
Andrew Cantu |
executed |
| Andrew Cantu was convicted of the June
11, 1990, stabbing deaths of three people at an Abilene home in what authorities
believe was a murder-for-hire scheme. At the time of the murders, Cantu
was on parole after serving seven weeks of a five-year term for burglary.
Testimony at his trial showed Cantu stabbed Gene Summers and his wife,
Helen, both 64, and Summers' mentally retarded 60-year-old brother, Billy
Mack Summers, who lived with them at their home in Abilene. All were attacked
as they slept. Gene and Helen Summers' son, Greg, also was convicted of
capital murder in their deaths and is awaiting execution. He quickly became
a suspect when other family members told authorities he angrily had tried
to get money from his parents. Authorities said Greg Summers, who has denied
any involvement, arranged with Cantu to break into the home, stage a burglary,
then kill the couple and burn the house to conceal the crime. Cantu, on
parole at the time after serving only 7 weeks of a 5-year term for burglary,
found 2 other men to take part in the scheme and offered to share a $10,000
payoff. Summers said the money would be in a dresser drawer, but
no money was there. The two accomplices, Ramon Gonzales and Paul Flores,
testified against Cantu in a plea bargain for shorter prison terms, telling
how Cantu slipped through a back window, stabbed Gene Summers 9 times in
the chest, then moved to the other victims, stabbing Helen Summers 8 times
and Billy Mack Summers 7 times. Cantu blamed the killings on the 2 men
who testified against him, saying he was buying cocaine in Fort Worth,
150 miles to the east, at the time of the slayings. |
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
| 2/16/99 |
Arkansas |
Sherman Sullins |
Bobby Fretwell |
commuted |
| Bobby Fretwell was convicted
of the murder of Sherman Sullins, 81. The murder occurred after Fretwell,
his wife and another acquaintance stole a truck in Texas, and it broke
down near Marshall. The 3 walked to Sullins' home and said they needed
help because they were having car trouble. After entering Sullins'
home, Fretwell shot him with a pistol and stole his truck and his money.
Another governor, abusing his power, commuted Fretwell's sentence, erasing
in a moment the work of the judge, police, prosecutors, jury and appeals
courts. |
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
| 2/16/99 |
Arkansas |
Marie Sullens
Margaret Brown
Billy Brown |
Johnnie Cox |
executed |
| Johnie Michael Cox was convicted by a White
County jury of three 1989 murders. Cox was accused of tying, stabbing
and burning 3 people, including his step-grandmother, Marie Sullens. The
murders were committed on All Saints' Day in 1989. Just after his
arrest, Cox said he committed the murders that day so the victims would
go to heaven. Cox was convicted of murdering Marie, 68; Margaret Brown,
34; and Billy Brown, 32. They were tied at the hands and feet with
wire and tape and had been shot, stabbed and strangled before their home
was set on fire. |
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
| 2/19/99 |
Ohio |
Charles Mitroff |
Wilford Berry |
executed |
| Wilford Lee Berry Jr. killed his new boss
less than a week after he was hired to wash dishes and floors at Charles
Mitroff's Cleveland bakery. Just before midnight on Nov. 30, 1989,
Mr. Berry and an accomplice, Anthony Lozar, ambushed Mr. Mitroff at the
bakery as he returned from a delivery run. Mr. Lozar shot him once in the
torso with a Chinese-made semi-automatic assault rifle. As the baker
struggled to reach a telephone to call for help, Mr. Berry shot him again
at point-blank range in the back of the head. Mr. Berry and Mr. Lozar
cleaned up the blood and drove Mr. Mitroff's van near a bridge in Cleveland,
where they dumped his body in a shallow grave. When the normally
punctual Mr. Mitroff broke his routine by failing to come home, his family
suspected something was wrong. They asked a family friend, Brecksville
private detective William Florio, to investigate. "The last person
who saw him alive was his new employee, a guy who went by the name of Ed
Thompson," Mr. Florio said. "I called him up, posing as a guy who
helps Charlie out, and asked him to come in early the next day."
"Ed Thompson" never showed up. Shortly after the call, Mr. Berry
(a k a Ed Thompson), and Mr. Lozar sloppily repainted Mr. Mitroff's blue,
late-model Chevrolet van with black spray paint and fled south. Charles
Voorhees, then a Kenton County patrolman, spotted the van being driven
erratically 3 days later outside Walton, Ky. Although he didn't know
it belonged to a murder victim, a radio check of the license plate showed
it didn't belong to the vehicle, so he decided to pull the driver over.
It was dark, but Mr. Voorhees thought it was odd that somebody had painted
over the chrome on a van that still had the new-car sticker in the window.
He grew more suspicious after noticing the butt of a rifle between the
front seats, and ordered the 2 men to lie face down outside the van.
"The vehicle identification number came back to Charlie Mitroff, so I called
up to Cleveland," Mr. Voorhees said. "The dispatcher asked me if
Mr. Mitroff was there because they were looking for him." It didn't
take too long for Mr. Voorhees and Duane Rolfsen, then a Kenton County
detective, to pin the murder on the 2 men they had in custody. Mr. Lozar, who later was sentenced to life in prison for his role, told the
officers that Mr. Berry wanted him to shoot Mr. Voorhees after the traffic
stop. Then he let loose with the story of how Mr. Berry had planned
the robbery, obtained the guns and enlisted him to help kill Mr. Mitroff.
He also told police where they could find the baker's body. When
Mr. Berry confessed a week later, he still was wearing shoes soaked with
Mr. Mitroff's blood. |
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
| 2/22/99 |
Louisiana |
Morris Prestenback
Kazuko Prestenback |
Allen Robertson |
stayed |
| Allen
"Lil Boo" Robertson
Jr.'s was sentenced to death for the New Year's day slaying in 1991 of
an elderly Baton Rouge couple. Robertson is on death row for fatally stabbing
Morris Prestenback, 76, and his wife, Kazuko, 71, in their home.
Robertson, who was 23 at the time of the double slayings, twice has been
convicted and sentenced to die for killing the couple. The state Supreme
Court threw out his 1991 convictions and death sentences in 1994 after
ruling that the judge made an error during jury selection. This time,
the high court said it found no errors in the jury selection, guilty or
penalty phases of Robertson's 2nd trial in 1995. The court also said
Robertson's death sentences do not amount to unconstitutionally excessive
punishment. "The death sentences for the crimes committed in this case
do not appear disproportionate or surprising. Evidence at trial established
the brutality and mindless viciousness of the murders committed in what
the victims surely believed to be the safety of their home." Prosecutors
argued at both trials that Robertson fatally stabbed the couple while burglarizing
their home for money to buy drugs. The defense, which conceded that Robertson
killed the couple, unsuccessfully asked jurors to spare his life, saying
he grew up in a violent north Baton Rouge neighborhood. |
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
| 2/22/99 |
Ohio |
??? |
Clifford Williams |
stayed |
| Williams shot and killed
a cab driver. |
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
| 2/24/99 |
Missouri |
Terry Trunnel
Joseph Arnold |
James Rodden |
excuted |
| James E. Rodden was convicted of the capital
murder of Terry Trunnel. Around 11:00 p.m. one night in December
1983, Rodden offered acquaintance Terry Trunnel a ride home from a bar.
On the way, they stopped by Rodden's apartment to smoke some marijuana.
Rodden's roommate, Joseph Arnold, was there. Rodden's former girlfriend
called about purchasing some furniture from Rodden, who was moving to California
with Arnold the next day. When Rodden demanded to see her, she refused,
but Rodden went to her apartment anyway. She would not answer her door
and called the police. When Rodden returned to his apartment at 2:00 a.m.,
he saw Arnold and Trunnel "making love." According to Rodden, they were
in Rodden's bed. Rodden claims that although he heard no disturbance, he
later saw blood on the floor, questioned Arnold, and Arnold came at him
with a bloody knife. Rodden says a struggle ensued, and Rodden stabbed
Arnold in self-defense. As Rodden tells it, Arnold had already stabbed
Trunnel in Rodden's bedroom. After killing Arnold, Rodden spread lamp oil
around the apartment and on Trunnel's body and set the apartment on fire,
to "make it all go away." Taking a bloody knife with him, Rodden fled north
in Arnold's car around 6:00 a.m. He was bleeding from deep cuts in his
right hand, which could have resulted from his hand slipping forward onto
a knife blade as he stabbed someone. Rodden later passed out from blood
loss and crashed Arnold's car into a house. A maintenance man who
entered the apartment around 8:00 a.m to install new cabinets discovered
the bloody bodies of Arnold and Trunnel and a smoldering fire. Arnold had
been stabbed eight times in the face, head, chest, and back. He lay in
a pool of his own blood on the floor of his bedroom. Trunnel had been stabbed
eleven times in the chest, back, arm, and leg. Her faced was bruised and
her arm was broken. Cords were tied around her left wrist and right ankle.
Her body was blistered and charred in spots from being burned. Contrary
to Rodden's story, blood evidence showed she had been killed in Arnold's
bedroom and then dragged into Rodden's bedroom. Her blood was on the knife
Rodden carried in fleeing the scene. Missouri brought separate
charges against Rodden for the capital murders of Trunnel and Arnold.
The State first prosecuted Rodden for Arnold's murder. A jury convicted Rodden, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility
of parole for fifty years. Defended by the same attorney, Rodden
was later tried for and convicted of murdering Trunnel. This time, Rodden
received the death penalty. |
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
| 2/24/99 |
Texas |
Timothy Adams |
Norman Green |
executed |
| Norman Evans Green killed Timothy Adams
during a robbery on Valentines day in the 80's (approximately 1985) in
San Antonio, Texas. In 1989, he again received the death penalty
after his first conviction and death penalty had been reversed due to an
error by the Court in jury selection. Green and an accomplice waited
for the Dyer Electronics manager to take a lunch break before attempting
to rob 19-year-old clerk Timothy Adams. When Adams was slow to follow
instructions, Green fired 4 times, striking the victim in the arm, chest
and abdomen. Green's fingerprints were found on the .38-caliber pistol
used to shoot Adams, an engineering student at the University of Texas-San
Antonio. He died 12 hours later of massive damage caused by the bullets,
which prosecutors said were cut so they would shred more flesh on impact.
"He (Green) took the time to notch those bullets. He meant for whomever
he came across to die," said the victim's mother, Iris Adams. In
1978, Green, then 17, was convicted and imprisoned for burglary. He was
released on shock probation two months later. In 1980, he went back to
prison for stealing a car, was paroled, and returned for a parole violation.
He was released again in 1984. Green 1st was convicted and condemned
for the Adams' slaying in 1985, but the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
granted him a new trial. A 2nd jury convicted him again in 1990.
Appeals courts stayed Green's two previous death dates in 1994 and 1998.
Green blamed the shooting on accomplice Harold Bowens, a man Green claimed
was a stranger he had met on the day of the killing. Bowens was sentenced
to life after agreeing to testify that Green was the triggerman. |
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
| 2/24/99 |
Arizona |
Ken Hartsock |
Karl LeGrand |
executed |
| Karl LaGrand first got in trouble with
the law at age 9 when he stole $9.69 from a store in Sierra Vista and a
pair of shoes from another store two months later. Karl and his brother
Walter also set fire to a golf course, which did $20,000 damage, while
the family lived at a military post in Texas. Karl and Walter were
convicted of the armed robbery of 3 Tucson supermarkets in a 6-day period
in 1981. They both were imprisoned at that point. After their
release, the brothers wanted a quick fix for their money woes.
On the morning of January 7, 1982, Walter and Karl LaGrand drove from Tucson,
where they lived, to Marana intending to rob the bank. They brought a briefcase
with a steak knife, bandanas, electrical tape, police radio scanner and
toy gun inside. They arrived in Marana sometime before 8:00 a.m. Because
the bank was closed and empty the LaGrands drove around Marana to pass
time. They eventually drove to the El Taco restaurant adjacent to the bank.
Ronald Schunk, manager of El Taco, testified that he arrived at work at
7:50 a.m. The moment he arrived, a car with two men inside drove up to
the El Taco. Schunk described the car as white with a chocolate-colored
top. The car's driver, identified by Schunk as Walter LaGrand, asked Schunk
when the El Taco opened. Schunk replied, "Nine o'clock." The LaGrands then
left. Hartsock, the bank manager, showed up a few minutes later and
brought the U.S. and Arizona flags outside to be raised for the day.
Karl pulled the toy gun and ordered him inside the building. A 20-year-old
female teller pulled up a few minutes later. Dawn Lopez arrived for
work at the bank at approximately 8:00 a.m. When she arrived at the bank
she noticed three vehicles parked in the parking lot: a motor home; a truck
belonging to the bank manager, Ken Hartsock; and a car which she did not
recognize but which she described as white or off-white with a brown top.
Because Lopez believed that Hartsock might be conducting business and desire
some privacy she left the parking lot and drove around Marana for several
minutes. She returned to the bank and noticed Hartsock standing by the
bank door with another man whom she did not recognize. Lopez parked
her car and walked toward the bank entrance where Hartsock was standing.
As she passed the LaGrands' car Walter emerged from the car and asked her
what time the bank opened. Lopez replied, "Ten o'clock." Lopez continued
walking and went into the bank. When she entered the bank she saw Hartsock
standing by the vault with Karl LaGrand. Karl was wearing a coat and tie
and carrying a briefcase. Karl told her to sit down and opened his jacket
to reveal a gun, which was later found by the police to be a toy pistol.
Walter then came through the bank entrance and stood by the vault. Lopez
testified that Walter then said, "If you can't open it this time, let's
just waste them and leave." Hartsock was unable to open the vault
because he had only one-half of the vault combination. The bank employees
told the LaGrand brothers that they only knew half of the combination to
the safe and that they would have to wait for a 3rd bank employee to report
to work before it could be opened. The LaGrands then moved Lopez
and Hartsock into Hartsock's office where they bound their victims' hands
together with black electrical tape. The LaGrands became increasingly
anxious as the other employee failed to show up. Walter accused Hartsock
of lying and put a letter opener to his throat, threatening to kill him
if he was not telling the truth. Lopez and Hartsock then were gagged with
bandannas. Wilma Rogers, another bank employee, had arrived at the
bank at approximately 8:10 a.m. Upon arriving, Rogers noticed two strange
vehicles in the parking lot and, fearing that something might be amiss,
wrote down the license plate numbers of the two unknown vehicles. She then
went to a nearby grocery store and telephoned the bank. Lopez answered
the phone after her gag was removed; her hands remained tied. Karl held
the receiver to Lopez' ear and listened to the conversation. Lopez answered
the phone. Rogers asked for Hartsock but Lopez denied that he was there,
which struck Rogers as odd because she had seen his truck in the bank parking
lot. Rogers then told Lopez that her car headlights were still on, as indeed
they were. Rogers told Lopez that if she did not go out to turn her head-lights
off, then she would call the sheriff. A few minutes later Rogers asked
someone else to call the bank and they also were told that Hartsock was
not there. Rogers then called the town marshal's office. After
the first telephone call the LaGrands decided to have Lopez turn off her
headlights. Her hands were freed and she was told to go turn off the lights
but was warned that "If you try to go--if you try to leave, we'll just
shoot him and leave. We're just going to kill him and leave." Lopez went
to her car and turned off the lights. Upon her return to the bank her hands
were retied. Hartsock was still bound and gagged in the same chair. Lopez
was seated in a chair, and turned toward a corner of the room. Hartsock,
believing that Karl LaGrand was about to attack the woman, kicked him in
the shins. A savage response ensued. Lopez testified that soon
thereafter she heard sounds of a struggle. Fearing that Hartsock
was being hurt, Lopez stood up, broke the tape around her hands and turned
to help him. Lopez testified that for a few seconds she saw Hartsock struggling
with two men. Karl was behind Hartsock holding him by the shoulders
while Walter was in front. According to Lopez, Walter then came toward
her and began stabbing her. Lopez fell to the floor, where she could see
only the scuffling of feet and Hartsock lying face down on the floor. She
then heard someone twice say, "Just make sure he's dead." Hartsock's
throat was slashed and he suffered 23 other knife wounds, at least 6 of
which could have been fatal, investigators said. The woman also was
stabbed 7 times in the head, side and shoulder but survived.
The LaGrands left the bank and returned to Tucson. Lopez was able
to call for help. When law enforcement and medical personnel arrived at
the bank Hartsock was dead. Lopez was taken to University Hospital
in Tucson. Law enforcement personnel quickly identified the LaGrands
as suspects. By 3:15 p.m., police had traced the license plate number to
a white and brown vehicle owned by the father of Walter's girl friend,
Karen. The apartment where the LaGrands were staying with Karen was
placed under surveillance. Shortly thereafter Walter, Karl and Karen left
the apartment and began driving. They were followed and soon pulled over.
Walter and Karl were then arrested and the car was searched. Karen's apartment
was also searched and a steak knife similar to one found at the bank was
seized. Karl's fingerprint was found at the bank. A briefcase containing
a toy gun, black electrical tape, a red bandanna, and other objects was
found beneath a desert bush and turned over to the police. When questioned
after their apprehension, Walter made no statements, but Karl confessed
to the crimes in two different statements. He stated that he had stabbed
Hartsock and Lopez, but that Walter had not stabbed anyone and that Walter
had been out of the room at the time. Following a jury trial, both were
convicted on all charges. After considering mitigating and aggravating
circumstances, the judge sentenced both defendants to death. |
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