Tasha Haefs is another so called mother who murdered her child. According to police reports they arrived at the home to investigate a noise complaint and what they found left them shaken. Tasha Haefs was covered in blood and they found the body of a six year old boy lying on the floor. According to the search warrant someone in the house had called police saying someone was trying to harm her and the devil was trying to attack her. Apparently during her rage Tasha Haefs would decapitate the six year old child as well as decapitating the dog. Expect a not guilty by reason of insanity in this case
Tasha Haefs More News
Jackson County prosecutors have charged a 35-year-old Kansas City woman in the death of her 6-year-old son.
Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said Tasha Haefs was charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action.
Kansas City police were called to the 7300 block of Indiana Avenue on a reported disturbance. According to court documents, officers arrived and found what appeared to be blood on the front steps. The officers determined a woman was inside but she refused to answer the door.
Officers also saw what appeared to be a severed head inside near the home’s entrance.
“They saw what appeared to be a blood trail to the front door and they looked in and saw something very disturbing,” Baker said.
Court records said that officers forced their way inside. Investigators said the woman had apparent blood on her and two knives were seen in the home, court documents stated.
“Because she was in such extreme mental distress, she did a series of things that were very disturbing,” Baker said.
Police identified the boy as Karvel Stevens.
No other children were found inside. A dog was also found dead in the home.
The Haefs allegedly told detectives the victim was her biological child. According to court records, Haefs allegedly admitted to killing the boy.
“Anytime it’s a child, it just takes on a different depth of despair,” Baker said.
Prosecutors asked that Haefs be held on no bond.
Baker released the following statement after charges were filed:
“The community now knows some of the terrible details of the death of this 6-year-old child. It takes our breath away. My office, as it always has, pledges to do everything in its power to bring justice in this young boy’s murder. We will not shrink from our responsibility.
“It’s difficult to imagine the grief for this boy’s family. For the child’s classmates. His friends. Neighbors. The first responders who went to this crime scene.
“I expect it leaves us not knowing what to do. We might look at our loved ones today and give some thanks to God or even say a prayer. Thank you, my child is safe today. But we want everyone’s children to be safe.
“We’ve announced today that the child’s mother is charged with Murder in the First Degree of her 6-year-old son and Armed Criminal Action.* She is being held in the Jackson County Detention Center and her bond request was “no bond.”
“It can’t stop there.
“This child’s death is a call for something more. Our community must heed the call. Law enforcement, prosecutors, public health officials, social service providers, all of our many partners must work together to address the violence. Strong collaborations are needed to lean into this difficult challenge, and better protect our community’s most vulnerable population, our kids.
“Regarding this case, we will review our systems and responses to examine more deeply if any opportunities for intervention were missed. But I should stress that we don’t know of any failed processes, and we acknowledge that one may not exist. This type of review, though, could produce a valuable lesson from this horrible event, something that might prevent future harm.
“Let’s also focus, Kansas City, on the violence among us. It’s a challenge we can no longer ignore. We cannot become complacent with 180 or 170 or even 150 homicides per year and hundreds more shot but not killed. We’ve seen the horror that can occur when we don’t work together to help our community members avoid a future of violence.
“Going forward let’s keep a clear goal: Reduce our community’s violence and alert mental health professionals whenever we are aware of someone in need of intervention.
“Missouri Crisis line: 1-888-279-8188. Also check www.mentalhealthkc.org and www.SistersInChristKC.org.”This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.
We don’t yet know why an elementary school aged child was killed this morning, but we understand the pain a family, school, and community are facing. May we see that the assailants are swiftly brought to justice and may we resolve to avoid more preventable tragedies like this.— Mayor Q (@QuintonLucasKC) February 16, 2022
Michael Politte was fourteen years old when this alleged teen killer was arrested for the murder of his mother. According to court documents Michael Politte was inside of the family home when a fire broke out, unfortunately his mother Rita Politte was unable to escape the fire, Michael and a friend made it out safely. After an investigation that experts now believe was full of errors Michael Politte would be arrested for starting the fatal fire and for killing his mother. Michael Politte would go to trial and would be convicted of the murder charge and sentenced to life in prison. Now 23 years later Michael Politte has been granted parole and is scheduled to be released on April 23, 2022. Michael Politte has maintained his innocence since his arrest
Michael Politte 2022 Information
DOC ID
1073549
Offender Name
Michael B Politte
Race
White
Sex
Male
Date of Birth
03/11/1984
Height/Weight
5’11” / 160
Hair/Eyes
Brown / Blue
Assigned Location
Jefferson City Correctional Center
Michael Politte More News
A Missouri man who maintains he was wrongly convicted of murdering his mother more than 20 years ago has been granted parole, his attorneys said Tuesday evening. Michael Politte, now 37, was convicted of second-degree murder in 2002, four years after he found Rita Politte’s body burning on the floor of their Hopewell home in eastern Missouri, his lawyers have said. He was 14 when she died. Politte and his sisters maintained he is innocent. Now that he has been granted parole, he will be released April 23 from the Jefferson City Correctional Center. “But this is not the end. Justice for the Politte family demands Mike’s exoneration and we will continue to litigate in court to overturn his conviction,” his lawyers with the MacArthur Justice Center, the Midwest Innocence Project and Langdon & Emison said in a statement. “His release on parole means he can now continue this fight from home with his sisters.”
In court filings, Politte’s attorneys argued he was convicted based in part on discredited fire investigation techniques and an incompetent new public defender at trial. The jurors who convicted Politte have raised concerns about their decision in recent years. Two believe he is innocent and should be freed to correct “this wrong,” while others have said he deserves a new trial based on evidence they never heard. One of the jurors, Linda Dickerson-Bell, of Bonne Terre, in an affidavit said she learned through an MTV documentary series, which featured Politte’s case, that there was not gasoline on his shoes. She called that evidence the “nail in the coffin” for her at trial. “After learning about the new evidence, my guilt has only grown,” she wrote. “I now firmly believe … that we made a terrible mistake.
Attorneys for Michael Politte, who was convicted at the age of 14 for killing his mother, say their efforts to clear his name will continue after his release on parole in April after serving more than 23 years in prison.
Politte’s mother Rita was burned to death inside their mobile home in Hopewell, Missouri on December 5, 1998. After spending roughly four years in juvenile detention, he was tried as an adult and convicted of second-degree murder in 2002, and sentenced to life in prison.
His attorneys announced Wednesday that Politte was granted parole, effective April 23. The Missouri Department of Corrections has not yet confirmed that decision.
“This is not the end. Justice for the Politte family demands Mike’s exoneration and we will continue to litigate in court to overturn his conviction. His release on parole means he can now continue this fight at home with his sisters. We look forward to the Court hearing his case and finally giving him his day in court,” a joint statement from his lawyers from the MacArthur Justice Center, The Midwest Innocence Project and Langdon & Emison said.
Last August, his attorneys filed a petition with the Missouri Court of Appeals to reconsider the case, and in October, asked the Missouri Supreme Court to free him, citing what it says was a conviction based on debunked science and a biased investigation.
The story of Gypsy Rose and the murder of her mother Dee Dee Blanchard is a disturbing case for so many different reasons. In this article on My Crime Library we are going to take a closer look at Gypsy Rose Blanchard and the murder of her mother Dee Dee Blanchard.
Gypsy Rose Blanchard Early Years
In July 1991 Gypsy Rose Blanchard was born to parents Dee Dee Blanchard and her seventeen year old husband Rod Blanchard. Needless to say the marriage did not last and Rod Blanchard would soon fall apart.
From the time Gypsy Rose was three months old her mother Dee Dee Blanchard was convinced that her daughter suffered from health problems and was in and out of the emergency room with complaints of sleep apnea, a chromosome disorder and muscular dystrophy – all of which were unfounded.
By the time Gypsy Rose was seven years old her mother was still convinced that her daughter suffered a myriad of health problems and when Gypsy Rose was involved in a minor motorcycle accident that left her with a scraped knee her mother Dee Dee Blanchard had the child placed in a wheelchair convinced she was no longer able to walk.
It is unclear what type of schooling that Gypsy Rose has as reports believed she stopped her education in the second grade and others reporting it much earlier. Dee Dee Blanchard would homeschool her daughter as she believed she was too ill to attend formal education
Gypsy Rose Blanchard would attend a series of Special Olympics and would be granted a series of trips to Disneyland by the Make A Wish Foundation. Gypsy Rose was given backstage passes to a number of Miranda Lambert concerts where she was photographed with the country singer.
Dee Dee Blanchard and her daughter were constantly moving and Dee Dee was arrested several times for passing bad checks. However a bigger issue for Dee Dee was that doctors in several States could find nothing physically wrong with Gypsy Rose.
Gypsy Rose And Nicholas Godejohn
In 2012 Gypsy Rose Blanchard would meet Nicholas Godejohn online and the two quickly would start a relationship. Gypsy Rose would tell a neighbor about the man that she met online and the neighbor believing that Gypsy Rose was much younger than she actually was would tell her mother Dee Dee Blanchard fearing the young girl was being groomed by a sexual predator. Dee Dee Blanchard would respond by destroying Gypsy Rose phone and computer.
However Gypsy Rose would keep in contact with Nicholas Godejohn and soon the two would meet. The new lovebirds would make a plan to be together forever and the best way to do so was to murder Dee Dee Blanchard.
Gypsy Rose And The Murder Of Dee Dee Blanchard
Nicholas Godejohn would arrive in Missouri while Gypsy Rose and Dee Dee were at yet another doctor’s appointment. When Dee Dee Blanchard would fall asleep Gypsy Rose would allow him into the home arming him with a knife, gloves and duct tape.
While Gypsy Rose hid down in the basement as she did not want to hear her mother get murdered. Nicholas Godejohn would fatally stab Dee Dee Blanchard 17 times causing her death.
Allegedly Gypsy Rose and Nicholas Godejohn would have sex before stealing $4000 from Dee Dee Blanchard and headed to a motel.
Gypsy Rose Murder Investigation
Several days would pass before neighbors and friends started to become suspicious. Police would eventually come to investigate and after getting a search warrant would find the body of Dee Dee Blanchard.
The police were a bit confused at the beginning for all of Gypsy Rose wheelchairs were still present. A search began for Gypsy Rose and authorities believed they were searching for a severely handicapped child however when they finally found Gypsy Rose they found a young woman with no disabilities. Gypsy Rose and Nicholas Godejohn would be extradited back to Missouri to stand trial for the murder of Dee Dee Blanchard
Gypsy Rose Story Aftermath
Gypsy Rose would ultimately take a plea deal where she would be sentenced to ten years in prison. Nicholas Godejohn would stand trial and ultimately be sentenced to life in prison
Gypsy Rose Blanchard 2022 Information
DOC ID
1302048
Offender Name
Gypsy R Blancharde
Race
White
Sex
Female
Date of Birth
07/27/1991
Height/Weight
4’11” / 100
Hair/Eyes
Black / Brown
Assigned Location
Chillicothe Correctional Center
Address
3151 Litton Road, Chillicothe, MO 64601
Nicholas Godejohn 2022 Information
DOC ID
1336380
Offender Name
Nicholas P Godejohn
Race
White
Sex
Male
Date of Birth
05/20/1989
Height/Weight
6’0″ / 193
Hair/Eyes
Brown / Hazel
Assigned Location
Potosi Correctional Center
Address
11593 State Highway O, Mineral Point, MO 63660
Gypsy Rose Videos
Gypsy Rose More News
In October 2005, after Hurricane Katrina destroyed multiple areas of New Orleans, Claudine “Dee Dee” Blanchard and her daughter Gypsy Rose Blanchard moved to a home in Aurora, Missouri. Dee Dee claims Gypsy’s medical records were destroyed in the flooding.
According to Blanchard, Gypsy was diagnosed with leukemia and muscular dystrophy. She was wheelchair-bound, used a feeding tube, and had an oxygen tank. This would later be discovered as untrue.
In March of 2008, Habitat for Humanity built a small house in Springfield for the Blanchards. The home was specifically designed with accessibility features like lower light switches, a large bathtub, wide doorways, and a wheelchair ramp.
During this time, news outlets, the public, friends, and neighbors were fooled by their con. An outpouring of support came from charity organizations, donations, and even celebrities. They received free flights, lodging, and trips.
The Blanchards went on charity trips to Disney World and through the Make-a-Wish Foundation met Miranda Lambert. According to Tara Sullins, a friend of Blanchard, they received a large sum of money from Lambert and Blake Shelton for medical treatment in Paris.
Dee Dee’s legal name was Clauddine Blanchard. She uses various aliases and misspellings over the years such as DeDe, Claudine, and Deno. According to Michelle Dean’s BuzzFeed article, Dee Dee Wanted Her Daughter To Be Sick, Gypsy Wanted Her Mom Murdered, by the time she reached Missouri, she went be Clauddinnea and always added an “e” to her last name.
Gypsy’s father, Rod Blanchard, met Dee Dee while in high school. He was 17 years old and she was 24 when she got pregnant. They would soon get married, but he left the marriage before Gypsy was born. He remained involved with his daughter early on. He would later remarry and continue to make monthly child support payments, sent gifts, spoke to her on the phone. But according to Michelle Dean from BuzzFeed News, Dee Dee told neighbors Rod was an abusive drug addict and alcoholic who had never come to terms with Gypsy’s health issues and never sent them any money.
Dee Dee was convinced Gypsy suffered from a wide range of health issues. They spent a lot of time with various specialists throughout Louisiana. With her insistence, she managed to get treatment for her daughter’s ailments, including prescriptions for anti-seizure medication and surgeries.
Dr. Bernardo Flasterstein, Gypsy’s neurologist, became suspicious of her muscular dystrophy diagnosis. He ordered MRIs and blood tests, which found no abnormalities. After contacting Gypsy’s doctors in New Orleans, he learned that Gypsy’s original muscle biopsy had come back negative, which undermined Dee dee’s self-reported diagnosis as well as the claim that all of Gypsy’s records had been destroyed by flooding.
He suspected the possibility of Munchausen syndrome by proxy. A condition in which a caregiver creates the appearance of health problems in another person, typically their child.
Flasterstein did not report Blanchard to social services. He said he had been told by other doctors to treat the pair with ‘golden gloves’ and doubted the authorities would believe him anyway.
According to Michelle Dean’s BuzzFeed article, in 2012, Gypsy Blanchard met Nicholas Godejohn online. He was from Big Bend, Wisconsin, and had been diagnosed with autism.
The pair met online on a Christian singles dating site. They hit it off immediately. Blanchard and Godejohn spoke of eloping, naming future children they would have together, and sexual exchanges.
In HBO’s documentary, Mommy Dead and Dearest, Blanchard revealed Godejohn was into BDSM, sexual activity involving such practices as the use of physical restraints, the granting and relinquishing of control, and the infliction of pain. Blanchard was taught how to roleplay characters each with names and personas. Using secret social media accounts, she would dress up in costumes and share photos of herself with Godejohn.
In 2013, Godejohn pleaded no contest to disorderly conduct for allegedly viewing pornography on his laptop at a McDonald’s and touching himself inappropriately.
Their relationship would be a secret for two and half years before confiding to Blanchard’s friend, Aleah Woodmansee in 2014. Woodmansee found their relationship alarming due to the sexual nature and that she believed Blanchard was still a minor. She tried to talk her out of continuing contact with Godejohn, but Blanchard appeared to be completely smitten.
Blanchard confessed she wanted to be more like girls her age and date but knew Dee Dee would have to approve first.
At Godejohn’s trial, Blanchard revealed she arranged and paid for him to meet her mother in Springfield. She hoped that Dee Dee might allow them to date if she thought they met for the first time in person. They decided to meet at a movie theater to see Cinderella. Blanchard said her mother hated him. Regardless, she was able to sneak away and lose her virginity to Godejohn in a bathroom stall.
In an interview with 20/20, Blanchard said her mother got jealous that she was giving Godejohn too much attention and ordered her to stay away from him. They fought for weeks over the event. Gypsy said her mother called her names like slut and whore.
After the failed attempt, Blanchard and Godejohn began planning Dee Dee’s murder. “It was not because I hated her. It was because I wanted to escape her,” she said.
On June 2015, the day of the murder, per ABC News, Godejohn traveled to Missouri, checked into a motel, and waited for a confirmation text from Blanchard. Once Dee Dee fell asleep, he went to their home where Blanchard gave him a knife. She hid in the bathroom with her hands over her ears while Godejohn stabbed Dee Dee to death.
In an interview with 20/20, she said, “I honestly thought he would end up not doing it. I heard her scream once, and there was more screaming but not like the kind in a horror film. Just like a startled scream, and she asked, ‘Who was it that was in the bedroom?’ And she called out to my name about three or four times, and at that point, I wanted to go help her so bad, but I was so afraid to get up. It’s like my body wouldn’t move. Then everything just went quiet.”
Blanchard and Godejohn admitted they had sex immediately after the murder, according to ABC News.
On June 14th, 2015, a pair of disturbing posts appeared on Dee Dee’s Facebook page. Many wondered if the account had been hacked, but the second message made it clear something was wrong.
Blanchard and Godejohn stayed overnight in his motel in Springfield. They left on a bus to Big Bend, Wisconsin, on June 14th.
It was that afternoon when she made Godejohn create the Facebook posts. “I couldn’t stand the thought of her just there because what happens if it would have taken months to find her, so I wanted her found so she could have a proper burial,” Blanchard told 20/20.
In Springfield, when police found Dee Dee’s body, Woodmansee told police about Blanchard’s secret online relationship with Godejohn. With help from Facebook, authorities were able to find his IP address and track him and Blanchard down in Wisconsin.
Police from Waukesha County, Wisconsin, were dispatched to Godejohn’s family home. He and Blanchard were taken into custody on charges of murder and felony armed criminal action. The pair were extradited back to Missouri and were held on a one million dollar bond.
While the charge of first-degree murder can carry the death penalty under Missouri law or life without parole, county prosecutor Dan Patterson announced he would not seek the death penalty for either Blanchard or Godejohn, calling the case, “extraordinary and unusual”.
Investigations into the crime revealed a series of texts between them that appeared to discuss and plan Dee Dee’s death. It read, “Honey, you forget I am ruthless, and my hatred of her will force her to die,” Godejohn texted Blanchard. “It’s my evil side doing it. He won’t mess up, because he enjoys killing.”
According to BuzzFeed, prosecutors also said they found social media evidence of Blanchard directly asking Godejohn to kill her mother, though these have never been made public. Documents from pretrial discovery show him telling a friend about Blanchard’s desire to murder her mother as early as May 2014.
On June 29th, Gypsy Blanchard pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder and armed criminal action.
Mike Stanfield, Blanchard’s attorney, said he was able to uncover decades worth of abuse that Dee Dee inflicted on Blanchard as a part of an elaborate fraud scheme. For months, he traveled to Lousiana to try to recover her medical records.
After the disclosure of how Dee Dee had treated Blanchard all those years, sympathy for her as the victim of a violent murder quickly shifted to her daughter as a long-term victim of child abuse.
Blanchard revealed everything about the financial fraud scheme. She admitted she had been lying for years and that her mom made her do it. But even she didn’t know everything that happened. When Blanchard first spoke with the police she told them she was 19. Gypsy’s father, Rod Blanchard, had to clarify she was actually 23.
According to the HBO documentary, Dee Dee told her she suffered from asthma, epilepsy, hearing and vision impairments, had to be fed with by a feeding tube, was paralyzed from the waist down, and suffered from intellectual disabilities. During medical visits gypsy was told to not move her legs and to just play with the dolls she would bring with her as Dee Dee did all of the talking.
Gypsy kept the facade for years, but as she became older, she expressed feelings of wanting freedom and love.
Attorney Mike Stanfield told BuzzFeed that Gypsy was so undernourished that during the year she was in the county jail, she gained 14 pounds, in contrast to most of his clients who lose weight in that situation.
In July 2015, she accepted a plea bargain agreement of second-degree murder and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Speaking with various media outlets, Blanchard says she was able to research Munchausen syndrome by proxy and said her mother had every symptom.
She also says she feels freer in prison than she was before with her mother.
Blanchard is now serving her sentence in Missouri’s Chillicothe Correctional Center.
Kenneth Thompson was sentenced to death by the State of Arizona however other prisoners decided to speed up the time line and would murder him inside of the Arizona Department Of Corrections. Kenneth Thompson would receive a death sentence after traveling from Missouri to Arizona where he would murder his sister in law and her boyfriend before setting the house on fire. Kenneth Thompson tried to blame Scientology for the murder as his beliefs taught him that psychology was evil. The Arizona Department of Corrections have said they believe two people are responsible for Kenneth Thompson murder however the names have yet to be made public
Kenneth Thompson More News
Kenneth Thompson — the Missouri man who traveled to Arizona, killed his sister-in-law and her boyfriend and used Scientology as a defense — died Wednesday, according to the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry. Officials are investigating his death as an apparent homicide.
Thompson was pronounced dead shortly after 1 p.m. Wednesday, the department announced. He was found in his “assigned housing unit where life-saving measures were conducted,” the department said. He was an inmate in the Arizona State Prison Complex Eyman, in Florence.
The department has identified two suspects, also inmates, “for the attack,” but did not offer more details.
Thompson’s crime was shocking, and the subsequent northern Arizona trial was gripping. In 2012, he traveled to Arizona from his home in Missouri and used a hatchet and a knife to kill his sister-in-law and her boyfriend. He poured acid on their bodies, set the Prescott Valley house on fire and fled.
Whether Thompson killed his sister-in-law and her boyfriend — Penelope Edwards and Troy Dunn — wasn’t up for debate in his 2019 trial. His attorneys didn’t dispute that.
But they took issue with the prosecution’s portrait of Thompson as a premeditated killer. He was concerned about the two children in his sister-in-law’s care, they argued.
Thompson’s wife had taken care of them while Penelope Edwards was in prison. Once she was released and got the children back, Thompson and his wife often worried about them. When Thompson learned one of the children was receiving psychiatric treatment at a children’s hospital, that was the last straw.
Thompson was raised as a Scientologist and his attorneys argued that Scientologists view psychology as “evil and a scam.” He believed he was on a mission to rescue these children from spiritual death, they argued.
Court testimony helped piece together a narrative of what happened in Prescott Valley in 2012.
Thompson took off for Arizona. His attorneys said even his then-wife, Gloria, didn’t know about his plans. He had told her he was heading to Memphis to deal with legal issues surrounding his parents’ estate.
His attorneys said he arrived at a junction at Interstate 40 and impulsively decided to bear west, heading to Arizona. As he drove to Arizona, which court testimony said took him just more than one day, Gloria began texting him. But Thompson left his phone at home.
He stayed at a motel. He went to Walmart the next morning to buy a hatchet and a change of clothes. His attorneys maintained the hatchet was for a camping trip he planned.
He took a taxi to his sister-in-law’s house. Details became much more muddled after that.
Thompson told the jury he wanted to bribe his sister-in-law into letting him bring the children back to Missouri with him. The Prescott Daily Courier reported he testified to the jury for almost four hours.
He claimed the conversation turned violent. His attorneys said he struck in the heat of passion. They asked for a manslaughter verdict.
Hours after he arrived at his sister-in-law’s home, neighbors reported a house fire. Responding crews discovered the victims’ bodies. Police pulled Thompson over on I-40 heading east.
A search revealed a hatchet with human hair and blood on its blade.
Allen Nicklasson was executed by the State of Missouri for the murder of a man that stopped to help. According to court documents Allen Nicklasson, Dennis Skillicorn and Tim DeGraffenreid decided to drive to Kansas City to buy drugs and along the way there car broke down. The three men robbed a house and stole guns and money. When the victim saw their car pulled over to the side of the road he stopped to help however he was taken hostage by the group and forced to drive to a secluded area where he was fatally shot.
Allen Nicklasson and Dennis Skillicom would take the vehicle and would later shoot and kill a couple who again made the mistake of trying to help. Allen Nicklasson and Dennis Skillicom would be convicted and sentenced to death. Tim DeGraffenreid would be sentenced to life without parole. Dennis SKillicom was executed in 2009. Allen Nicklasson would be executed by lethal injection on December 12, 2013
Allen Nicklasson More News
Allen Nicklasson once recalled the “euphoria” he felt after fatally shooting a kind businessman who stopped to help when he saw Nicklasson’s car stalled on Interstate 70 near Kingdom City, Mo., in 1994.
Late Wednesday night, Nicklasson was put to death for Richard Drummond’s killing – nearly 23 hours after he was originally scheduled to die.
It was the second execution in Missouri in three weeks after a nearly three-year hiatus. Racist serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin was executed Nov. 20.
The executions also were the first since Missouri switched from a three-drug protocol to use of a single drug, pentobarbital.
Nicklasson, 41, was pronounced dead at 10:52 p.m. Wednesday, eight minutes after the process began. His eyes remained closed throughout and he showed little reaction to the drug, briefly breathing heavily about 2 minutes into the process. He offered no final words.
Missouri Department of Public Safety spokesman Mike O’Connell said Nicklasson prayed briefly with the prison chaplain about 20 minutes before the execution. No one from his family or the victim’s family attended.
The execution was the end of a life troubled almost from the start. Nicklasson grew up in Kansas City, Mo., in a fatherless home. His mother was a mentally ill stripper who brought home an assortment of men, many of whom abused her son. Nicklasson died bearing the scar from where one of the men burned him.
Nicklasson declined interviews in the days leading up to his execution. But in a 2009 interview with The Associated Press, he recalled the trauma of his childhood – eating Alpo dog food for dinner, watching his mother shoot up heroin. She once made him fight a Doberman for money, he recalled. Then, there was the constant torrent of abuse from his mother’s male friends.
Nicklasson suffered from bipolar disorder and lived on and off in boys’ homes for his petty crimes and institutions for his mental illness.
By his 20s, Nicklasson was homeless and a drug addict. While in rehab in 1994, he crossed paths with Dennis Skillicorn, who had been recently released from prison following a second-degree murder conviction for killing a man during a robbery.
The two and a third man, Tim DeGraffenreid, decided in August 1994 to make the trip from Kansas City across I-70 to St. Louis to buy drugs. On the way back, their rundown 1983 Chevrolet Caprice started sputtering. It broke down near Kingdom City, about 100 miles west of St. Louis, and they took it to the shop.
They used the down time to burglarize a home, stealing money and guns. Though warned the car was unfixable, the men got back on the road.
The car soon broke down again. Drummond, a 47-year-old Excelsior Springs, Mo., man who was a technical support supervisor for AT&T, saw the three men and their stranded car and stopped to help.
The men loaded their stolen goods in the trunk of Drummond’s Dodge Intrepid. Then Nicklasson put a gun to his head and told him to drive west.
Along the way, there was some debate between Nicklasson and Skillicorn about what to do with Drummond. Ultimately, they ordered him off the highway and to a secluded area in Lafayette County in western Missouri.
In the 2009 interview, Nicklasson recalled how he left the other two behind and walked Drummond to a wooded area. He said he had intended to tie him up to buy time for the trio to get away.
He changed his mind, ordering Drummond to kneel and cross his legs. Then he shot him twice in the head.
“I’m laughing, pacing,” Nicklasson said, recalling the moment. “I started losing it. I wouldn’t want this out, but I felt a euphoria. I finally got back for all the beatings I took” as a child.
Nicklasson and Skillicorn stole Drummond’s car and drove to Arizona. When the vehicle broke down in the desert, they approached the home of Joseph and Charlene Babcock. Nicklasson killed Joseph Babcock after the man drove them back to their vehicle. Charlene Babcock was killed at the couple’s home.
Both Nicklasson and Skillicorn were sentenced to life in prison for the Arizona killings and also sentenced to death in Missouri for Drummond’s death. Skillicorn was executed in 2009 even though Nicklasson took sole responsibility for killing Drummond.
DeGraffenreid pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and did not receive a death sentence.
Nicklasson’s execution was originally scheduled for 12:01 a.m. Wednesday. But an appeals court panel granted a stay of execution Monday, citing concerns about his counsel at trial and sentencing in 1996.
When the full appeals court refused to take up the case Tuesday, Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
It did not return its 5-4 decision to vacate the stay until 10:07 p.m. Wednesday, with Justices Ruth Ginsberg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan dissenting. Gov. Jay Nixon refused to grant clemency.
Missouri previously used a three-drug method for executions but changed protocols after drugmakers stopped selling the lethal drugs to prisons and corrections departments. The pentobarbital used in Missouri executions comes from an undisclosed compounding pharmacy – the Missouri Department of Corrections declines to say who makes the drug, or where.
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