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[left.htm]
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Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
|
November 4, 2009 |
Florida |
William Evans
Darrell
Beasley
Theron Burnham |
Paul Johnson |
stayed |
| Paul Johnson and
his wife visited their friends, Shayne and Ricky Carter, on the
evening of January 8, 1981. While at their friends house, they all
smoked marijuana and took injections of crystal methedrine. At
trial, Ricky stated that he heard Johnson say he was going to obtain
more drugs and that he would possibly steal something or rob
someone. Shayne also testified that Johnson stated he was going to
obtain more drug money and that “if he had to shoot someone, he
would have to shoot someone.” Taxicab driver William Evans picked up
a fare in Polk County on the night of January 8, 1981. The cab
dispatcher heard a stranger’s voice over the cab’s radio several
times after midnight stating that Evans had been knocked out. That
was the last communication that the dispatcher had with the cab,
which was found five days later in a citrus grove located about a
mile from where Evans’ body was found. Evans had been shot twice in
the head and both his fare money and wallet were missing. The cab
had been set on fire. At approximately 3:00 a.m. on January 9, 1981,
Amy Reid and Darrell Beasley left a restaurant in Lakeland. A man
who said that his car would not start approached them in the parking
lot. The man also requested a ride to a friend’s house. Reid and
Beasley complied and drove off with the stranger. The stranger asked
Beasley to stop the car in a remote area so he could relieve
himself. When the stranger returned to the car, he asked Beasley to
walk to the back of the car with him. When Reid looked through the
rear-view window, she saw the stranger pointing a gun at
Beasley. Reid locked the doors in the car and drove to a convenience
store several miles away where she called the Polk County Sheriff’s
Office. Deputy Allison and Deputy Darrington were the officers who
answered Reid’s call. After the deputies picked Reid up, she
directed them to the location where she left Beasley and the
stranger. Concurrently, another deputy, Theron Burnham, reported to
dispatch that he had spotted a suspect on the road that Reid last
saw Beasley. When Deputies Allison and Darrington arrived at
Burnham’s location, they parked their car so that it faced Burnham’s
patrol car. Burnham’s car had been left running with the lights on,
but they did not see Burnham. A white male came out from a drainage
ditch on one side of the road and quickly passed in between the
patrol cars. He fired two shots at Deputies Allison and Darrington
and fled across an open field. The deputies discovered Burnham’s
body, which had been shot three times, in the drainage ditch and his
service revolver was missing. Beasley’s body was found later that
day with one gunshot wound to the head. His wallet was missing. On
the following afternoon, Johnson’s wife and the Carters saw a police
sketch of the suspect in the newspaper and talked about whether it
resembled Johnson. Johnson later telephoned his wife at the Carters’
home, and she was visibly upset when she hung up the phone. Ricky
spoke to Johnson and asked him if he was responsible for the killing
that the newspaper talked about and Johnson replied, “if that’s what
it says.” Ricky and Johnson’s wife went to get Johnson. Johnson
changed into a new shirt before throwing his old shirt, which had
been described in the newspaper, out the window. Upon returning to
the Carter residence, Johnson relayed that he struck the officer
with his gun when the officer told him to put his hands on the
patrol car. A struggle ensued and Johnson shot the deputy three
times. Paul Johnson was arrested for the murders of Beasley and
Burnham on January 10, 1981. Johnson was charged the following week
with taxi cab driver Evans’ murder. Reid, Allison, and Darrington
identified Johnson. Additionally, Johnson’s fingerprints were
discovered in the taxicab. |
|
Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
|
November 5, 2009 |
Texas |
Joe Collins, 64 |
Khristian
Oliver |
executed |
| On April
20, 1999, a Nacogdoches County, Texas jury convicted Khristian
Oliver of capital murder based on his killing of Joe Collins during
the commission of a burglary. It was alleged at trial that on March
17, 1998, Oliver, his then-girlfriend Sonya Reed, and cohorts Bennie
and Lonny Rubalcaba, were driving around Nacogdoches County, Texas,
when they stopped at the empty home of Mr. Joe Collins to burglarize
his house. Oliver and Lonny Rubalcaba broke into the house using
bolt cutters, while Reed and Bennie Rubalcaba remained in their
vehicle. Joe Collins came home during the break-in. Oliver and
Rubalcaba tried to escape out a back door, but the door was bolted
from the outside and the windows were barred. Joe then fired a shot
from his gun, hitting Rubalcaba in the leg. Oliver and Rubalcaba
were also armed with a pistol, and with a rifle they had found in
Joe’s home. After Joe shot Rubalcaba, Khristian Oliver shot back.
Oliver fired some shots inside the house and some outside in the
front yard, where Joe ended up on his back. According to the trial
testimony of Bennie Rubalcaba, Oliver then struck Joe several times
in the head with the butt of the rifle. A forensic expert at trial
testified that the gunshots probably were fatal, but that the blows
from the rifle could have been fatal on their own. The group
departed the scene, bringing the wounded Lonny Rubalcaba to a
hospital, where they reported he had been the victim of a drive-by
shooting. The next day, however, police officers interrogated the
Rubalcabas, who provided information – and later testimony – that
led to Khristian Oliver’s arrest and subsequent conviction. |
|
Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
|
November 10, 2009 |
Ohio |
Angel Vincent, 16 |
Darryl
Durr |
stayed |
| On January
31, 1988, at approximately 10:50 p.m., Norma Jean O’Nan and her
husband returned to their home in Elyria and discovered the front
door unlocked, the lights and television on, and their
sixteen-year-old daughter, Angel Vincent, missing. Only twenty
minutes earlier, Mrs. O’Nan had spoken with her daughter by
telephone to learn that Angel’s friend, Deborah Mullins, was at her
home and that Deborah’s boyfriend, Darryl M. Durr, was expected to
arrive later in the evening. That was the last chance Mrs. O’Nan
would have to speak to her daughter alive. Mrs. O’Nan testified that
Angel was wearing a hot pink sweater, a light pink and white
checkered blouse, hot pink pants, and white tennis shoes when she
and her husband left Angel home alone on the evening of January 31,
1988. After notifying the Elyria Police of Angel’s disappearance,
Mrs. O’Nan searched her home to determine if any of Angel’s
belongings were missing. Although Angel’s pink pants were found,
Mrs. O’Nan’s search revealed the following items missing: an old
lavender blanket with a hole in the center, a pair of black
acid-washed denim jeans, Angel’s pink and white checkered blouse,
light blue eyeglasses that Angel wore only in her home, a jean
jacket that Angel had borrowed from a friend, an Avon necklace with
an “A” charm attached, a small chain bracelet, an Avon slip-on
bracelet, an inexpensive rhinestone ring and a dog chain that hung
from her mirror. Mrs. O’Nan also discovered Angel’s handbag stuffed
under her bed. Three or four days later, Mrs. O’Nan confronted
Deborah Mullins and Durr regarding the disappearance of her
daughter, and was told by Durr that “you know how kids are, she
probably ran away.” On April 30, 1988, three boys noticed a foul
odor coming from two orange traffic barrels while playing in
Brookside Park. The barrels and been placed open end to open end,
and were underneath a railroad tie. Upon separating the barrels, the
boys discovered a severely decomposed female body that had been
wrapped in a dirty old blanket. A portion of a leg was visible
through a large hole in the blanket. A deputy coroner testified that
the only clothing found on the victim was a pink sweater and a pair
of white tennis shoes. The pink sweater had been pushed up well
above the victim’s breast area. An initial external examination
determined the body to be that of a young white female, who was in
an advanced state of decomposition. The body was heavily infested
with maggots and the body’s eyes and ears had been lost. There was
also prominent evidence of animal activity about the inguinal and
vulval regions of the body, and in and about the thighs. According
to the deputy coroner, the decomposition was consistent with three
months exposure. After examining the body, the deputy coroner
concluded that the cause of death was homicidal violence. Since the
body was so badly decomposed, the deputy coroner could not determine
whether ligature marks, scrapes or tears indicating strangulation
were present. There was no damage noted to the internal
cartilaginous structures of the neck. The deputy coroner declined,
however, to rule out strangulation as a cause of death since damage
to these structures is not always present in young strangulation
victims due to the flexibility of these structures. Because the body
was so severely infested with bacteria, testing for the presence of
acid phosphates and spermatozoa was inconclusive. In September,
1988, after Durr was arrested for two unrelated rapes, Deborah
Mullins revealed her knowledge of Angel’s disappearance to the
Cleveland Police Department. As the result of her information, an
ankle X-ray obtained from Elyria Memorial Hospital, and dental
records, the body discovered in Brookside Park was determined to be
that of Angel Vincent. At trial, Deborah Mullins testified that on
the evening Angel disappeared Deborah had asked Durr to drive to the
house of one of Angel’s friends to retrieve a package of cigarettes
for Angel. Durr agreed and left. Shortly thereafter, Durr returned
to Deborah’s house and, instead of entering through the front door,
began throwing stones at her upstairs bedroom window and blew his
car horn for her to come out. Deborah and her baby, who had been
fathered by Durr, left the house and entered Durr’s car where Durr
brandished a knife toward both of them. As Durr was driving, Deborah
heard noises from the back seat and after turning around discovered
Angel bound on the rear floorboard. According to Deborah’s
testimony, Angel was wearing black acid-washed denim jeans, a jean
jacket, and tennis shoes when she was last seen in the back of
Durr’s car. When Deborah asked Durr why Angel was bound in his car,
Durr responded that he intended to “waste” her because “she would
tell.” He never revealed just what Angel was going to tell. After
threatening the life of both Deborah and his baby, Durr let Deborah
out of his car. He returned to her home three or four hours later.
Upon returning, Durr told Deborah that he had “wasted” Angel and
that she should pack her things because they were leaving. Durr
drove Deborah and their baby to his wife Janice Durr’s Cleveland
apartment. After dropping Deborah and the baby off, Durr left with a
duffle bag containing two shovels. When Durr returned, he was wet
and covered with snow. Upon entering the room, Durr placed a ring
and bracelet that belonged to Angel on a coffee table. As he was
falling asleep, Durr told Deborah that he had strangled Angel with a
dog chain until she “pissed, pooped and shit and made a few gurgling
sounds,” took her body to a park, wrapped it in a blanket, placed it
between two construction cones, and left her by some railroad
tracks. Later that day or the next day, Durr burned a bag of
clothing in the basement of Janice Durr’s apartment building and
asked Deborah to model the black acid-washed jeans that Angel had
worn on the evening of her abduction. Durr then drove Deborah,
Janice Durr and his children to the west side of Cleveland where he
burned another bag of items, and while driving from Cleveland toward
Elyria, Durr threw Angel’s jean jacket out the car window. After
arriving at Deborah’s home in Elyria, Deborah’s mother informed her
that Mrs. O’Nan had come over and inquired about Deborah’s knowledge
of Angels’s disappearance. Deborah testified that Durr threatened
her and their baby’s life and instructed her to tell Mrs. O’Nan that
Angel had been talking about running away. Deborah also testified
that Durr took her and their baby to Edgewater Park where Durr threw
Angel’s glasses over a cliff into the lake. A month or so later,
while driving past the Cleveland Zoo, Durr pointed to a location and
said, “Over there.” When Deborah questioned his statement, Durr
replied, “You know what I am talking about.” Following a jury trial,
Durr was convicted of aggravated murder; kidnapping; aggravated
robbery; and rape. The trial court followed the jury’s
recommendation and sentenced Durr to death. |
|
Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
|
November 10, 2009 |
Virginia |
Keenya Cook, 21
Jerry Ray Taylor, 60
Million Woldemarian, 41
Billy Gene
Dillon, 37
Claudine Parker, 52
Hong Im Ballenger
James
Martin, 55
James L. "Sonny" Buchanan, 39
Premkumar A. Walekar, 54
Sarah Ramos, 34
Lori Lewis-Rivera, 25
Pascal Charlot, 72
Dean Harold Meyers, 53
Kenneth Bridges, 53
Linda Franklin, 47
Conrad Johnson,
35 |
John Muhammad |
executed |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Keenya Cook, 21
2/16/2002 |
Jerry Ray Taylor, 60
3/19/2002 |
Billy Gene Dillon, 37
5/27/2002 |
Claudine Parker
9/21/2002 |
Hong Im Ballenger
9/23/2002 |
James Martin, 55
10/2/2002 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Sonny Buchanan, 39
10/3/2002 |
Premkumar A. Walekar, 54
10/3/2002 |
Sarah Ramos, 34
10/3/2002 |
Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera, 25
10/3/2002 |
Pascal Charlot, 72
10/3/2002 |
Dean Harold Meyers, 53
10/9/2002 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
Kenneth Bridges, 53
10/11/2002 |
Linda Franklin, 47
10/14/2002 |
Conrad Johnson, 35
10/22/2002 |
|
|
|
Lee Boyd Malvo committed his first killing at John
Allen Muhammad's bidding just 10 weeks after he ran away from his
mother. Malvo confessed to the Feb. 16, 2002, slaying of Keenya Cook
in Tacoma, saying he walked up to her house and shot her in the face
at point-blank range, while her baby slept nearby. The bullet hit
just below Keenya's left eye and lodged at the base of her skull. A
month later, the pair had moved to Tuscon Arizona. Jerry Ray Taylor,
60, a salesman for a frozen-foods distributor, was an avid golfer
who so loved the game that he made his own clubs. At lunchtime on
March 19, Taylor pulled his silver Nissan pickup into the parking
lot of the Fred Enke Golf Course, a mile or so from Newell's house.
About a half-hour later, while Taylor was chipping balls alone in a
practice area, a gunshot sounded in the distance. The bullet hit
Taylor in the back, killing him on the spot. Two golfers discovered
the body that afternoon; it had been dragged a short distance and
partially hidden in a tangle of scrub brush. Taylor's wallet was
found nearby, cash and credit cards inside. The slug that tore
through his heart -- almost certainly from a high-powered rifle,
police said -- hasn't been recovered and most likely shattered into
minuscule fragments. There were no witnesses. Paul J. LaRuffa was a
restaurateur in Clinton, Maryland. At the end of the day on
September 5, 2002, LaRuffa closed his restaurant and proceeded to
take his laptop computer and $3500 in cash and credit receipts to
his car. After he sat behind the steering wheel, he saw a figure to
his left and a flash of light, then heard gunshots. LaRuffa was shot
six times, but survived. An employee who left the restaurant with
LaRuffa witnessed the shooting and called 911. He testified that he
saw a "kid" run up to LaRuffa’s car, fire into it, and take the
briefcase and laptop. The briefcase and empty deposit bags were
found six weeks later in a wooded area approximately a mile from the
shooting. The DNA from clothing found nearby was consistent with
that of Lee Boyd Malvo. On September 15, 2002, there was a second
shooting in Clinton, Maryland: Muhammad Rashid was locking the front
door of the Three Roads Liquor Store from the outside when he heard
gunshots behind him. A young man then rushed him and shot him in the
stomach. Rashid testified that the young man was Malvo. Almost a
week later, on September 21, 2002, Claudine Parker and Kellie Adams,
24, were shot after closing the Zelda Road ABC Liquor Store in
Montgomery, Alabama. Claudine Parker, a Sunday school teacher and
civil rights champion, died as a result of her gunshot wound through
the back—the bullet transected her spinal cord and passed through
her lung. Adams was shot through the neck, and the bullet exited
through her chin, breaking her jaw in half, shattering her face and
teeth, paralyzing her left vocal cord, and severing nerves in her
left shoulder. Yet, she survived. Adams said she never lost
consciousness after being shot and show a slender black man standing
over her. Bullets recovered from the shooting were eventually
identified as coming from a Bushmaster high-powered rifle. While the
rifle was being fired, Malvo was seen approaching Parker and Adams.
A police car passed by the scene immediately after the shooting, and
the officers observed Malvo going through the women’s purses. The
officers gave chase, but Malvo escaped. In the process, however, he
dropped a gun catalog. Malvo’s fingerprints were found on the
catalog, and a .22-caliber, stainless-steel revolver was found in
the stairwell of an apartment building that Malvo traversed. The
revolver was the same as the one used to shoot LaRuffa and Rashid.
Two days later, on September 23, 2002, the manager of a Baton Rouge,
Louisiana, Beauty Depot store, Hong Im Ballenger, was walking to her
car after closing the store for the evening when she was shot once
in the head. The bullet entered the back of her head and exited
through her jawbone. She died as a result of the wound. The bullet
was determined to have come from the Bushmaster rifle found on
Muhammad MUHAMMAD v. KELLY 3 during his arrest. Witnesses saw Malvo
flee from the scene with Ballenger’s purse. The sixth and seventh
shootings occurred in Silver Spring, Maryland, on October 3, 2002.
At approximately 8:15 a.m., Premkumar A. Walekar was shot while
fueling his taxicab. The bullet went through his left arm and
entered his chest, where it fatally damaged his heart. At
approximately 8:30 a.m., Sarah Ramos was killed while sitting on a
bench in front of the Crisp & Juicy Restaurant in the Leisure World
Shopping Center. The bullet entered through the front of her head
and exited through her spinal cord at the top of the neck. Both
bullets were identified as having come from a Bushmaster rifle, and
an eyewitness identified Muhammad’s Chevrolet Caprice at the scene
of the second shooting. On October 3, 2002, at approximately 10:00
a.m., Lori Lewis-Rivera was shot in the back while vacuuming her car
at a Shell gas station in Kensington, Maryland. The bullet was
identified as coming from a Bushmaster rifle. An eyewitness said
that he saw a Chevrolet Caprice in the area approximately twenty
minutes before the shooting. At approximately 7:00 p.m., a police
officer stopped Muhammad for running two stop signs. The officer
gave Muhammad a verbal warning and released him. Later that night,
at approximately 9:15 p.m., Pascal Charlot was shot in the chest as
he crossed the intersection of Georgia Avenue and Kalmia Road in the
District of Columbia. Charlot’s shooting happened about thirty
blocks from where Muhammad was stopped. The bullet fragments from
both the Lewis-Rivera and the Charlot shootings were identified as
coming from a Bushmaster rifle. The next day, October 4, 2002,
Caroline Seawell was putting bags in her minivan outside of a
Michael’s craft store in Fredericksburg, Virginia, when she was shot
once in the back. The bullet damaged her liver and exited through
her right breast, but she survived the attack. An eyewitness
testified to seeing a Caprice in the parking lot at the time of the
shooting, and ballistics tests determined the bullet fragments came
from a Bushmaster rifle. On October 6, 2002, Tanya Brown was taking
Iran Brown to Tasker Middle School in Bowie, Maryland. As Iran was
walking on the sidewalk to the school, he was shot once in the
chest. Tanya drove Iran to a health care center where surgeons were
able to save his life despite lung damage, a large hole in his
diaphragm, damage to the left lobe of his liver, and lacerations to
his stomach, pancreas, and spleen. Two eyewitnesses testified that
they saw a Caprice in the vicinity of the school the day before and
the morning of the shooting. One eyewitness positively identified
both Muhammad and Malvo in the Caprice the morning of the shooting.
The police searched the surrounding area and found a ballpoint pen
and a shell casing in the woods near the school. The area had been
pressed down like a blind used to conceal hunters. The tissue
samples from the pen matched Muhammad’s DNA, and the shell casing
and bullet fragments were determined to have come from a Bushmaster
rifle. The Brown shooting was also the first time that police
discovered communications from the shooters. The tarot card for
death was found, and on it was written, "Call me God." On the back,
someone had written, "For you, Mr. Police. Code: Call me God. Do not
release to the Press." Three days later, on October 9, 2002, Dean
Meyers was fueling his car at a Sunoco station in Manassas,
Virginia, when he was shot in the head by a single bullet. The
bullet was later determined to have come from a Bushmaster rifle. An
eyewitness testified that she saw Muhammad and Malvo in the area
approximately one hour prior. The police actually interviewed
Muhammad in a parking lot across the street immediately after the
shooting, and they later found a map with Muhammad’s fingerprints in
the parking lot. On October 11, 2002, Kenneth Bridges was fired upon
at an Exxon gas station in Massaponax, Virginia. He was shot once in
the chest by a bullet identified as having come from the Bushmaster
rifle. Two eyewitnesses testified that they saw a Caprice at or near
the Exxon that morning. The fourteenth shooting occurred on October
14, 2002, in Falls Church, Virginia. Linda Franklin and her husband
were loading their car outside of a Home Depot when she was shot in
the head by a single bullet and killed. Ballistics experts
determined that the bullet was from a Bushmaster rifle. The next
day, October 15, a Rockville, Maryland, dispatcher received the
following telephone call: "Don’t say anything, just listen, we’re
the people who are causing the killings in your area. Look on the
tarot card, it says, ‘call me God, do not release to press.’ We’ve
called you three times before trying to set up negotiations. We’ve
gotten no response. People have died." The caller hung up before the
dispatcher could transfer the call to the Sniper Task Force. Three
days later, on October 18, Officer Derek Baliles of the Montgomery
County, Maryland, Police received a telephone call. The caller told
Baliles to "shut up" and said that he knew who was doing the
shootings, but wanted the police to verify some information before
he said anything further. The caller asked questions about the
Parker and Adams shootings in Alabama and hung up again. When the
caller called again, Baliles verified the shootings. The caller
stated that he needed to find more coins and a telephone without
surveillance, then hung up. The same day, William Sullivan, a priest
in Ashland, Virginia, received a telephone call from two people. The
first male voice told him that someone else wanted to speak to him.
The second male voice said that "the lady didn’t have to die," and
"it was at the Home Depot." The caller then told him about the
shooting in Alabama and said, "Mr. Policeman, I am God. Do not tell
the press." The caller concluded by telling Sullivan to relay the
information to the police. The next day, October 19, 2002, Jeffery
Hopper and his wife were leaving a restaurant in Ashland, Virginia,
when he was shot in the abdomen. Hopper survived, but his injuries
required five surgeries to repair his pancreas, stomach, kidneys,
liver, diaphragm, and intestines. In the woods near the crime scene,
police discovered another blind similar to the one at the Brown
shooting. They also found a shell casing, a candy wrapper, and a
plastic sandwich bag that was attached with a thumbtack to a tree at
eye level and was decorated with Halloween characters and
self-adhesive stars. The shell casing and bullets were determined to
have come from a Bushmaster rifle. The candy wrapper contained
Muhammad’s and Malvo’s DNA. The sandwich bag contained a handwritten
message: For you Mr. Police. "Call me God." Do not release to the
Press. We have tried to contact you to start negotiation . . . These
people took our call for a Hoax or Joke, so your failure to respond
has cost you five lives. If stopping the killing is more important
than catching us now, then you will accept our demand which are
non-negotiable. (i) You will place ten million dollar in Bank of
america account . . . We will have unlimited withdrawl at any atm
worldwide. You will activate the bank account, credit card, and pin
number. We will contact you at Ponderosa Buffet, Ashland, Virginia,
tel. # . . . 6:00 am Sunday Morning. You have until 9:00 a.m. Monday
morning to complete transaction. "Try to catch us withdrawing at
least you will have less body bags." If trying to catch us now more
important then prepare you body bags. If we give you our word that
is what takes place. "Word is Bond." P.S. Your children are not safe
anywhere at anytime. However, the note was not discovered until
after the deadline had passed. Surveillance videotapes from that day
identified Muhammad at a Big Lots store near the shooting. The day
after Hopper was shot, the FBI Sniper Tip Line received a call from
a male who stated, "Don’t talk. Just listen. Call me God. I left a
message for you at the Ponderosa. I am trying to reach you at the
Ponderosa. Be there to take a call in ten minutes." On October 21,
2002, the FBI negotiations team received a call that had been
re-routed from the Ponderosa telephone number. A recorded voice
said: Don’t say anything. Just listen. Dearest police, Call me God.
Do not release to the press. Five red stars. You have our terms.
They are non-negotiable. If you choose Option 1, you will hold a
press conference stating to the media that you believe you have
caught the sniper like a duck in a noose. Repeat every word exactly
as you heard it. If you choose Option 2, be sure to remember we will
not deviate. P.S. – Your children are not safe. The next day at
around 6:00 a.m., Conrad Johnson, a bus driver for the Montgomery
County Transit Authority, was shot in the chest as he was entering
his bus in Aspen Hill, Maryland. Johnson was conscious when the
rescue workers arrived, but died at the hospital. The bullet
fragments were determined to have come from a Bushmaster rifle. At
another blind discovered nearby, a black duffle bag and a brown
left-handed glove were found. DNA from hair found in the duffle bag
matched that of Muhammad. Another plastic bag that contained
self-adhesive stars and a note was left behind. On October 24, 2002,
the FBI captured Muhammad and Malvo at a rest area in Frederick
County, Maryland. They were asleep in a Caprice, where police found
a loaded .223- caliber Bushmaster rifle behind the rear seat. The
DNA on the rifle matched that of both Muhammad and Malvo, although
the only fingerprints found on the rifle were those of Malvo. The
Caprice had been modified with heavy window tint, a hinged rear seat
that provided easy access to the trunk from the passenger
compartment, and a hole that had been cut into the trunk lid just
above the license plate. Covering the hole was a right-handed brown
glove that matched the left-handed glove found near the Johnson
shooting, and a rubber seal crossed over the hole. Moreover, the
trunk had been spray-painted blue. Police also found the following
items in the Caprice: a global positioning system receiver; a
magazine about rifles; an AT&T telephone charge card; ear plugs;
maps; plastic sandwich bags; a rifle scope; .223-caliber ammunition;
two-way radios; a digital voice recorder; a receipt from a Baton
Rouge, Louisiana, grocery store, dated September 27, 2002; an
electronic organizer; a plastic bag from Big Lots; a slip of paper
containing the Sniper Task Force telephone number; and a list of
schools in the Baltimore area. Moreover, police found LaRuffa’s
laptop computer, onto which Muhammad had loaded "Microsoft Streets
and Trips 2002" on September 2, 2002. In the software program, maps
had been marked with icons, including some with a skull and
crossbones. Icons indicated where Walekar, Lewis-Rivera, Seawell,
Brown, Meyers, and Franklin had been shot. There was also a document
entitled "Allah8.rtf" that contained portions of the text
communicated to police in the extortion demands. In total, Muhammad
was accused of shooting sixteen people and killing ten of them.
Muhammad was convicted by a jury in the Circuit Court of Prince
William County, Virginia, on November 17, 2003, for the 2002 capital
murder of Dean Meyers as more than one murder in three years; for
the capital murder of Meyers in the commission of an act of
terrorism; for conspiracy to commit capital murder; and for the
illegal use of a firearm during the commission of murder. On
November 24, 2003, the jury sentenced Muhammad to death for the
capital murder and to twenty-three years in prison for the other
crimes. |
|
Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
|
November 10, 2009 |
Texas |
Jose Martin Junco |
Yosvanis Valle |
executed |
| Houston
Police Officer Ronald Plotner testified that, between approximately
11:00 p.m. and 12:00 a.m. on June 7, 1999, he was dispatched to a
shooting at a house. When he arrived, Officer Plotner discovered the
body of Jose Martin Junco, the victim, with multiple gunshot wounds
to his head, back and arm. Jose Arenazas, Kenneth Estrada's friend,
testified that he met Estrada in February or March of 1999 and "ran
with" Estrada, Fernando Valdez, and Yosvanis Valle, who was
considered the leader of the group. On June 7, 1999, a meeting took
place at Valle's apartment between Valle, Valdez, Arenazas, a man
named Flaco, and Estrada. Also present were Valle's girlfriend,
Christina, and Estrada's girlfriend, Anna Sanchez. At the meeting,
Arenazas had a .357 magnum revolver, Valle had a 9 millimeter
pistol, and Estrada had a small chrome .22 caliber pistol. During
the meeting, Valle announced that Estrada had shown some weakness,
and Valle wanted to test Estrada to "see if he had any heart."
Estrada proposed that the men rob Junco because Estrada knew Junco
kept money and narcotics at his house. Valle told Estrada that
Estrada must follow through with the plan or Arenazas would "take
care of him." Arenazas took this to mean that he would have to shoot
Estrada. Estrada told Valle that he was committed to going through
with the robbery and he would kill Junco if Junco recognized
Estrada. Arenazas further testified that he was assigned as the
driver of the car for the robbery and he gave his .357 revolver to
Estrada. Arenazas, Valdez, Flaco, Valle and Estrada drove to Junco's
house and honked the car's horn. Junco came outside, and Estrada got
out of the car, approached Junco, and asked him for an "eight-ball,"
or $100 worth of cocaine. When Valle got out of the car, Estrada
pulled out his gun and pointed it at Junco. Valdez, Flaco, Valle and
Estrada forced Junco back into the house. After about five minutes,
Arenazas heard multiple gunshots and saw the men come running out of
the house. On the drive back to Valle's apartment, Valle asked
Estrada if he shot Junco. Estrada showed them a sock he had on his
hand with a hole in it as proof he fired his gun. Valle boasted that
he shot Junco ten times, but he was angry that they only had stolen
$100 and a quarter ounce of cocaine. After the men returned to the
apartment, Arenazas took back the .357 revolver and saw that only
one shot had been fired by Estrada. Amy Lindgren testified that she
and her one-year old daughter lived at Junco's house and were
present at the time of the murder. Lindgren was on the couch in the
living room, her daughter was sleeping in a playpen in the back
bedroom, and Junco was in the bathroom when, at about 11:00 p.m.,
Lindgren heard a car honk its horn, which was usually a signal that
someone wanted to buy cocaine. Junco went out the front door and
came back with his hands up with a man following behind with a gun
to Junco's back. Junco told Lindgren not to look at the men, but she
looked at one, whom she later identified as Estrada. Estrada
threatened Lindgren and pointed his gun at her. A pillow was placed
over her head, she was moved to the floor, and a blanket was thrown
on top of her. She then heard yelling, several gunshots, the men
running out of the house, and a car driving away. Lindgren went to
the bedroom, found her daughter unharmed, and saw Junco, still
alive, kneeling by the bed with gunshot wounds to his back and neck.
She then called 911. Estrada's girlfriend, Anna Sanchez, testified
that she and Estrada were living with Valle at the time of the
murder. During the January 7, 1999 meeting, she heard Estrada
suggest robbing Junco. She had previously heard Valle tell Estrada
that if he was going to stay in his house, he would have to rob
people and do whatever Valle told him to do. Sanchez testified that
Estrada told her that Valle had previously threatened to kill
Estrada if he did not do what Valle wanted. After the shooting,
Estrada told Sanchez he shot his gun at Junco but was not certain
that the bullet had hit Junco. After Estrada was in jail, he asked
Sanchez to lie about his activities on the night of the murder, make
up an alibi that he was with another man, and state that she and
Estrada were in a common law marriage. Although he asked her to
refuse to testify, she testified voluntarily. Estrada did not
testify. |
|
Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
|
November 17, 2009 |
Texas |
Cynthia Bogany, 28
Chirissa Bogany, 9 |
Gerald
Eldridge |
stayed |
| In April
1994, Gerald Cornelius Eldridge was convicted of capital murder and
sentenced to death for killing Cynthia Bogany and her nine-year-old
daughter, Chirissa. Cynthia Bogany was Eldridge’s former girlfriend
and the mother of his seven-year-old son, Terrell. On January 4,
1993, Eldridge went to Cynthia Bogany’s apartment and kicked in the
door. Chirissa had been sleeping on the couch and Eldridge shot her
between the eyes at point-blank range, killing her instantly.
Eldridge then stood over his son Terrell and shot at his head at
close range, but the boy testified that he turned his head and the
bullet went in his shoulder. Eldridge shot Cynthia's boyfriend,
Wayne Dotson, who also was wounded but survived. Cynthia fled the
apartment but Eldridge chased and caught her when she tripped and
fell on the stairs outside a neighbor’s apartment. Despite Cynthia’s
pleas for her life, Eldridge shot her twice in the head, killing her
instantly. Eldridge was twenty-eight years old at the time of the
murders. At his 1994 trial, Eldridge refused to sit through
the punishment phase. A Harris County jury deliberated about 30
minutes before deciding on the death sentence. Records showed
Eldridge was sentenced in 1985 to 8 years in prison for attempted
murder for shooting a man 8 times. He was released 3 years later,
then was returned to prison in 1990 for beating his son. After his
parole 4 months later, records showed he tried to kill the boy. |
|
Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
|
November 17, 2009 |
Virginia |
Dana Thrall,
25
Robert Finch, 30 |
Larry Elliott |
executed |
| 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, 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 Larry Bill 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. |
|
Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
|
November 18, 2009 |
Texas |
Geraldine Davidson, 84 |
Danielle Simpson |
executed |
| Danielle
Simpson was charged with the offense of capital murder committed in
the course of committing or attempting to commit kidnapping. The
evidence admitted during the guilt phase of the trial established
that there were three parties to the victim's initial kidnapping:
Simpson, Jennifer Simpson, and Simpson's thirteen-year-old cousin,
Edward McCoy. All three lived with McCoy's mother and sisters in a
house a couple of blocks from Geraldine Davidson's house. Geraldine
was an 84-year-old woman who lived alone. She was a former Palestine
school teacher and the organist at her Methodist church. Simpson had
burglarized Geraldine's house on at least two previous occasions.
McCoy testified that, on the morning of the offense in January,
2000, Simpson asked him if he wanted to go with him to burglarize
Geraldine's house. McCoy agreed. Simpson, Jennifer, and McCoy all
walked around the corner to Geraldine's house. After knocking on the
door to see if anyone was home, Simpson went into Geraldine's
garage, got a hammer and pick, and broke a window. Jennifer climbed
through the window and then went around and opened the door. Once
inside, Jennifer took a ring and some money, and Simpson took a
watch. About fifteen minutes later Geraldine came home. When
Geraldine entered the kitchen, Simpson approached her from behind
and held a knife to her neck. He asked Geraldine for money which he
then retrieved from her purse. Simpson directed McCoy and Jennifer
to restrain Geraldine while he left to get a pillow case and duct
tape. When he returned, Simpson taped Geraldine's mouth and bound
her hands behind her back and told Jennifer to tape her legs.
Simpson then put the pillow case over Geraldine's head, threw her
over his shoulder, and carried her outside. Simpson unlocked the
trunk of Geraldine's car and placed her inside. The three climbed in
Geraldine's car and drove to a couple of different locations to buy
drugs. McCoy described Simpson and Jennifer as acting normally and
having a good time. After purchasing marijuana and making an
unsuccessful attempt to buy some crack cocaine, the three drove
about ten miles from Palestine to Grapeland to visit Simpson's aunt
and her daughter, Shay. McCoy testified that Simpson opened the
trunk and showed Geraldine to Shay. When Geraldine asked for her
medicine, Simpson told her to "shut up" and slammed the lid closed.
The rest of the afternoon Simpson drove around in Geraldine's car
visiting and congregating with various friends in Palestine,
occasionally opening the trunk to show off his victim. Jennifer used
Geraldine's cell phone throughout the day. The original three
parties were eventually joined by Simpson's brother, Lionelle
Simpson, who suggested they kill Geraldine. Simpson drove to a
dead-end, and all four got out of the car. Simpson removed Geraldine
from the trunk, and McCoy stated Simpson "chunked her on the
ground." Simpson and Lionelle re-taped Geraldine's arms and legs
more tightly than before, beat her, and returned her to the trunk.
The four proceeded to the Jack In The Box where they all ate
hamburgers and french fries. After leaving the Jack In The Box, they
drove to the Neches River, where Simpson and Lionelle had decided to
dispose of Geraldine. They backed the car up to the river, opened
the trunk, and Lionelle threw Geraldine onto the ground. Getting a
running start, Simpson ran up and kicked Geraldine in the face.
McCoy's following testimony is similar to the above objected-to
hearsay statements: "Then Lionelle got the rope and tied the rope
around her legs and he got the other half of the rope and tied it
around the brick and threw the brick in the water." Q. Then what
happened? A. Then Lionelle got her hands and Simpson got her legs
and started swinging her and chunked her in the river." Others
testified that later that night, Simpson "rented" them Geraldine's
car to use for a couple of hours in exchange for drugs. Also entered
into evidence was a letter written by Simpson to a cousin in which
Simpson claimed he "was just the watch out person and driver of the
car," and accused Jennifer and McCoy of putting Geraldine in the
trunk and throwing her in the river. Simpson stated in the letter
that he and Lionelle remained in the car. Geraldine Davidson's body
was found in the water by a passing motorist. Simpson's
co-defendants in the case included his younger brother, Lionelle
Simpson; his wife, Jennifer Simpson; McCoy has completed his
sentence. Lionelle Simpson was tried as an adult and is currently
serving a life sentence for capital murder. Jennifer Simpson pled
guilty after her August 2000 trial had started and was sentenced to
life in prison. She will be eligible for parole after serving 30
years of her sentence. UPDATE: Danielle Simpson was executed after
his attorneys failed in their attempts to get his execution stopped.
Five members of Davidson's family, including her three adult
children, witnessed the execution. Simpson said goodbye to his
family and attorneys but made no comment to the victim's family.
Anderson County District Attorney Doug Lowe, said, "I don't get any
pleasure out of the execution of Danielle Simpson but this was a
case that deserved that punishment. He was a person who showed no
remorse for his victim and had many opportunities throughout the day
to spare her life and didn't." |
|
Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
|
November 19, 2009 |
Texas |
Mansoor Bhai
Rahim Mohammed |
Robert
Thompson |
executed |
| In
December 1996, Robert Lee Thompson and Sammy Butler robbed a
convenience store while armed with handguns. During the robbery,
Thompson approached the cash register, pointed his gun at the clerk
behind the counter, and demanded money. He shot that first clerk in
the stomach when he did not move quickly enough. Then he shot at,
but missed, a second clerk, Mansoor Bhai Rahim Mohammed, who was
running toward the back of the store. Turning his attention back to
the first clerk, who was lying on the floor, he shot him three more
times before demanding he get up and give him the money. That first
clerk did so, after which Thompson put his handgun to the first
clerk's neck and pulled the trigger. Upon discovering he already had
fired all of the bullets in that weapon, he hit that first clerk
over the head with the cash register drawer. He then fled with
Butler. As Thompson drove away, Butler fired his handgun from the
passenger window and fatally shot Mansoor (at whom Thompson had
previously, unsuccessfully shot). The first clerk survived and
testified at Thompson's trial. Thompson's indictment charged he
caused the victim's death during the robbery by shooting him with a
firearm. At the time of his trial in March 1998, Thompson had three
capital murder, and several aggravated robbery, charges pending
against him, including the one at hand, stemming from similar
robberies. Regarding all of those charges, by the time his counsel
was appointed, he had made statements to the police confessing his
involvement in all of them. The jury was instructed it could find
Thompson guilty of capital murder if he: (1) specifically intended
to kill, and did kill, the victim; (2) intended to kill the victim
by "soliciting, encouraging, directing, aiding, or attempting to
aid" Butler's shooting him during the robbery; or (3) conspired with
Butler to commit the robbery and Butler's shooting the victim "was
committed in furtherance of the conspiracy and was an offense that
Thompson should have anticipated". The jury found him guilty. In
response to the jury's answers to the special issues, Thompson was
sentenced to death. |
|
Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
|
November 30, 2009 |
Ohio |
Tryna
Middleton, 14 |
Romell Broom |
pending |
 Romell
Broom was convicted in the 1984
slaying of Tryna Middleton after abducting her at knifepoint in
Cleveland as she walked home from a Friday night football game with
two friends. Tryna Middleton's mother, father and aunt planned to
witness the execution on her behalf. On September 21, 1984, Tryna
Middleton and two friends, Tammy Sims and Bonita Callier were at a
high school football game. Middleton was fourteen years old at the
time, and she was a ninth-grade student at the high school. After
the football game, the three girls began walking home, and they
noticed a car that they thought looked suspicious. They walked away
from the car and down a different street. A car without its lights
on then came towards the girls and stopped in front of them; the
driver exited the car and ran past the girls. Once the girls passed
by the parked car, they heard footsteps behind them and then an
assailant tried to grab all of them. In the course of the struggle
with the girls, the assailant said, "Come here, bitch," and he
pulled out a knife. Middleton was not able to get away from the
assailant, but the other two girls escaped. They ran to a nearby
house where the homeowner allowed them to call their mothers and the
police. The girls described the car and the assailant to the police.
Approximately two hours later, Tryna's body was found in a parking
lot; she had been stabbed in the chest and abdomen and there were
sperm cells found in her rectum and vagina. Her friends were shown a
series of photographs, but were unable to identify a suspect at this
point. There were two other incidents in the same area involving
young girls. On September 18, 1984, a girl was walking home when a
car passed her and then stopped. When she walked past the car, the
driver got out and grabbed her. He also threatened her with a knife,
and he called her a "bitch." Residents who lived nearby heard the
noise, and the girl was able to escape into their home. The other
incident occurred on December 6, 1984, involving another girl. A car
was following her as she was walking home, and as she turned a
street corner, a man passed her and then grabbed her from behind.
The assailant began hitting the girl, and he threw her into his car.
Her younger sister observed what happened and summoned the girls'
mother, who ran outside and grabbed the car door. As her mother held
on to the car, the girl was able to escape through the passenger
door. Two witnesses were able to get the license plate number of the
car, which the police then traced to William Broom, Broom's father.
When the police arrived, Broom admitted that he had been driving the
car. The police then took Broom to the hospital, where both the girl
and her mother identified him as the assailant. The other two
witnesses to the incident also identified Broom in a line-up. The
similarities between these three incidents led the police to bring
in the witnesses from the other two cases to view a line-up. The
victims and witnesses each independently identified Broom from the
line-up; Tryna's friends also identified him in a photo array. The
police discovered that Broom had been driving his girlfriend's car
before it was wrecked on November 6, 1984, and one of the girls
identified Broom's girlfriend's car as the one from the night of the
attack on Tryna. The other girl stated that it was the same kind and
color as the car used during the incident. Tests revealed that the
sperm discovered in Tryna's body belonged to a person with type B
blood, which is the blood type of approximately twelve percent of
the population; Broom's blood is type B. A Cuyahoga County grand
jury issued an indictment charging Broom with the following: (1)
aggravated murder of Tryna Middleton with specifications for murder
committed during the course of a kidnapping and rape; (2) rape of
Tryna Middleton; (3) kidnapping of Tryna Middleton; (4, 5, 6, 7)
kidnapping of the surviving victims; and (8) felonious assault of
one of the surviving victims. Counts Six through Eight were severed,
and Broom was tried on the first five counts in proceedings that
began on September 16, 1985. The jury found Broom guilty on each of
the charges, and at the end of the penalty phase, recommended a
sentence of death. The state trial judge sentenced Broom to death in
October 1985, for aggravated murder. In addition, Broom was
sentenced to 54-80 years of incarceration for the remaining counts.
"It's been twenty-five years and the pain has gotten a little bit
better, but there is not a single day that I don't get up and think
about her during some point in the day," said Bessye Middleton,
Tryna's mother. |
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