Rick Belisle was sentenced to death by the State of Alabama for the murder of a store worker in the middle of a robbery. According to court documents Rick Belisle and his wife would rob a convenience store where she use to work and would shoot and kill the store clerk Joyce Moore during the robbery. Rick Belisle would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Rick Belisle 2021 Information
| Inmate: | BELISLE, RICK ALLEN |
| AIS: | 0000Z697 |
| Institution: | HOLMAN PRISON |
Rick Belisle More News
“The Court finds the facts of this case to be that in May of 1999, the defendant, Rick Belisle, and his wife and codefendant, Annette Belisle, were in desperate need of money and they together planned to burglarize the T & J [Kwik] Mart at the intersection of Highway 205 and 431 in Boaz, Alabama. Annette Belisle had worked at the store for a period of time and Rick Belisle had come there on occasion and assisted Annette Belisle. Both Annette Belisle and the defendant had access to the combination of the floor safe where the money was kept. The two had been to the store and had been seen in the store a couple of times on nights just prior to the incident. Rick and Annette Belisle had been ‘casing’ the store and finalizing their plans for the burglary.
On May 19, 1999, the defendant and Annette Belisle went to the store just prior to closing and were seen in the store by others. Annette Belisle had on other occasions distracted the cashier working in order for Rick Belisle to check out a good place to hide and wait for the store to close. On one occasion another cashier noticed Rick Belisle had gone to the bathroom for an extended period of time and she became suspicious of them.
On the night of May 19, 1999, the defendant hid in the ceiling of the bathroom and Annette Belisle left the store with the knowledge that Rick Belisle was hiding in the bathroom ceiling. After Joyce Moore closed the store, Rick Belisle confronted Joyce Moore, viciously attacked her with a large can of peas and a metal pipe which was part of an electric fan stand. The victim endured extreme pain and suffering before she died. After she was beaten to the point she was dying and lying face down on the floor in her own blood, she would raise up on her arms begging for help, and the defendant hit her again several times with the metal pipe, knocking her arms under her so she could not push up. Joyce Moore then died as a result of the injuries inflicted on her by Rick Belisle. He left the store, went home and told Annette Belisle about the events at the store.
Both Annette and Rick Belisle fled the State and went to Missouri where law enforcement officers found them after investigation. Rick Belisle stated in an unsolicited response to an investigator during a phone conversation, ‘You know what happened in Alabama was an accident.’ Then defendant in the same conversation denied any wrongdoing.”
The State’s evidence also tended to show the following: Dr. Stephen Pustilnick, the coroner who conducted the autopsy on Moore’s body, testified that she died of blunt-force trauma to the head. She sustained six blows to the front of her head and approximately eight blows to the back of her head. The blows were consistent, he said, with having been made by a flat rod or a can containing food. A six-pound can of peas was identified as one of the murder weapons.
In exchange for a 20-year sentence, Annette agreed to testify against her husband Rick Belisle. Annette testified that, before the murder, she and her husband were both out of work, had no money, and could not buy food.
Approximately two weeks before the murder, she said, she and Rick discussed robbing the T & J Kwik Mart convenience store. She knew the store because she had worked there and had quit working at the store about three weeks before the murder. She said that two days in advance of the incident, she and Rick went to “case” the store.
On May 19, 1999, they both went to the store and talked with Moore. She said that Rick left and came back in the store while Moore was busy with customers. Annette said that Rick never came out of the store, and that she left the store at around 10:00 p.m. and walked back to their house to wait on Rick. Rick got home, she said, at around 12:30 a.m. and told her that he had killed Moore. He told her that Moore was choking on her own blood and tried to get up, so he kept hitting her until she stopped. Rick had $898 in cash and $70 in rolled change when he came back to their house. Annette said that they flushed the coin wrappers down the toilet and put the change in a coffee can.
The next day, she went to a liquor store and a grocery store and spent some of the cash. About two days after the murder, she said, they sold most of their belongings and went to Missouri, where they both had family.
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/al-court-of-criminal-appeals/1059854.html