May 2021 | Page 9 of 26 | My Crime Library

David Eisenhauer Teen Killer Murders 13 Year Old Girl

David Eisenhauer was eighteen years old when he murdered thirteen year old Nicole Madison Lovell. According to court documents David Eisenhauer thought that he may have impregnated the thirteen year old girl so he decided to murder her. Nicole Madison Lovell would be reported missing and her body was found three days later. David Eisenhauer would stab the thirteen year old repeatedly causing her death. This teen killer would plead guilty and would be sentenced to fifty years in prison followed by 25 years of probation

David Eisenhauer 2023 Information

Personal Information David Edmond Eisenhauer
Alias: Not Available
Age/Race/Sex 24/White/Male
Offender I.D.#1800960
Location Red Onion State Prison
Release Date08/22/2059

David Eisenhauer More News

A Columbia man was sentenced to 50 years in prison recently in the murder of a 13-year-old girl he reportedly thought he may have impregnated. He could not remember whether he had sex with her because he blacked out and ended up in a ditch, according to the Associated Press; that was what he allegedly told his accomplice, also from Howard County, who will go to trial in September.

David Eisenhauer will serve 50 years in prison for the murder of 13-year-old Nicole Madison Lovell, who went missing from her family’s apartment in Blacksburg, Virginia, on Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2016.

A Virginia judge sentenced him to 60 years for first-degree murder, 10 years for abduction and five years for concealing the girl’s body, according to the Roanoke Times.

Before sentencing, Eisenhauer that he was “sorry for the pain” that his actions caused Lovell and her family, the newspaper reported.

The girl’s remains were found three days after she was reported missing, over the state line in Surry County, N.C.

Eisenhauer pleaded no contest in February after prosecutors presented a week’s worth of evidence against him, including that Lovell’s blood was found in his car and his DNA was discovered under her fingernails, The Washington Post reported. He faced a sentence of up to life plus 15 years for the convictions on counts of first-degree murder, abduction and concealing a dead body, according to the Post.

Both parents of the seventh-grade girl testified at sentencing Tuesday that they had suffered immeasurable grief, the Associated Press reported. A Virginia judge ordered Eisenhauer to 50 years in prison and 25 years of supervised probation.

Officials suspected Lovell had an inappropriate relationship with Eisenhauer, who was 18 at the time and allegedly killed the girl to keep her from revealing the nature of their connection.

A friend of Nicole Lovell attributed the teen’s online activities as a way to cope with bullying at school.

“She was looking for someone who would give her attention and give her some compassion,” Lovell’s 13-year-old classmate told The Washington Post, noting kids bullied her because of a scar on her throat from a tracheotomy.

The medical examiner reportedly found that of the 14 stab wounds the teen suffered, the fatal one was to her neck.

While social media may have introduced Lovell and Eisenhauer, it also helped law enforcement close in on the suspects.

The day before Lovell died—on Tuesday, Jan. 26—she went sledding with a pair of twins in her neighborhood and showed them a picture of “David,” the mother of the 8-year-olds told the Associated Press.

Lovell allegedly told the twins she would be sneaking out to see “David” that night and shared with the 8-year-olds messages they exchanged on the app Kik, which reportedly helped lead police to Eisenhauer.

Natalie Keepers, 21, of Laurel, will begin trial Sept. 17 for concealing a body and acting as an accessory, according to the Roanoke Times. She and Eisenhauer were classmates at Virginia Tech.

Both Eisenhauer and Keepers hailed from Howard County and were studying engineering at Virginia Tech at the time of the murder.

Eisenhauer attended Wilde Lake High School and was a star track athlete. In 2015, he was named the Howard County boys indoor track athlete of the year. He was listed as a long distance runner on Virginia Tech’s track and field team until his bio was removed following his arrest.

Keepers attended Hammond High School, interned at NASA and wanted to pursue a career in aerospace engineering, according to The Washington Post.

https://patch.com/maryland/columbia/columbia-man-sentenced-death-virginia-teen-report

Natalie Keepers Photos

David Eisenhauer Other News

Former Virginia Tech student Natalie Keepers was sentenced to 40 years in prison for accessory before the fact of first-degree murder on Tuesday, Nov. 27. Keepers’ sentencing has finally put an end to the murder case of 13-year-old Nicole Lovell.

On Jan. 27, 2016, Lovell, who was a student at Blacksburg Middle School at the time, climbed out of her bedroom window to meet with David Eisenhauer, who was a former freshman and track athlete at Virginia Tech. According to prosecutors, Eisenhauer had struck up a relationship with Lovell and decided to conceal the relationship by killing her.

Eisenhauer allegedly then drove Lovell to a wooded area in Montgomery County and stabbed her to death. Later that day, Eisenhauer and Keepers, who was also a freshman at Virginia Tech, allegedly moved Lovell’s body to Surry County, North Carolina.

Lovell’s body was discovered a few days later. On Jan. 29, 2016, Eisenhauer was arrested in connection to Lovell’s death and Keepers was arrested two days later.

Eisenhauer’s trial began on Feb. 5, 2018, and ended five days later. During which, prosecutors revealed that blood stains, a shovel and cleaning supplies were discovered in Eisenhauer’s car. Lovell’s bag and blanket were discovered in Keepers’ dorm.

On the fifth day of the trial, Eisenhauer entered a no-contest plea after the data recovered from his phone was presented the previous day. Judge Robert Turk found him guilty of all of the three charges he faced, which were first-degree murder, abduction and concealing a dead body.

On June 26, 2018, Eisenhauer was sentenced to 75 years in total for three charges: 60 years for first-degree murder, 10 years for abduction and five years for concealing a dead body. After he serves 50 years in prison, Eisenhauer will be on probation for 20 years.

Eisenhauer’s defense attorneys John Lichtenstein and Tony Anderson of Roanoke asked for a penalty that fell within sentencing guidelines that ranged from 23 years and nine months to 39 years and seven months behind bars. However, Turk said he was exceeding the guidelines because of the seriousness of the crime.

Keepers’ trial began on Sept. 17, 2018, and also lasted five days. Prior to the trial, Keepers pleaded guilty to concealment of a dead body. Keepers’ defense attorneys Kris Olin and John Robertson hoped that some evidence related to the concealment charge could be excluded in the trial in September.

During the trial, the prosecutors presented evidence including security photos of Keepers and Eisenhauer at Cook Out, where they allegedly planned the murder, and Walmart, where the pair purchased a shovel, among other items. In addition, the prosecutors also presented GPS data that mapped the pair’s route to Cook Out and Walmart, as well as a trip near Lovell’s home and a location off of Craig Creek Road where Lovell was reportedly later killed.

The defense made the claim that Keepers was in love with Eisenhauer and the murder would still happen even if Keepers was not involved. However, Chief Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Patrick Jensen presented a series of text messages between Keepers and Eisenhauer following the murder of Lovell. In the messages, Keepers instructed Eisenhauer to get some sleep because he deserved it. Jensen then exclaimed, “She’s proud!”

On the fourth day of the trial, the jury found Keepers guilty of accessory before the fact and recommended a 40-year sentence in prison.

Turk followed the jury’s recommendation and imposed the sentence. Keepers pleaded guilty to concealment of a dead body in August. Turk added five years in prison for the concealment charge, but the term will be suspended after Keepers serves 40 years in prison.

In addition, Keepers is also required to be supervised by a probation officer for 10 years after she serves her prison sentence and cannot have any contact with Lovell’s family.

http://www.collegiatetimes.com/news/david-eisenhauer-natalie-keepers-sentenced-to-prison-in-connection-to-nicole-lovells-murder/article_2a495d40-f67c-11e8-888f-eb9b3af5fa96.html

David Eisenhauer FAQ

David Eisenhauer 2021

David Eisenhauer is incarcerated at Red Onion State Prison, a supermax facility

David Eisenhauer Release Date

David Eisenhauer is not eligible for release until 2068

David Eisenhauer Videos

Kyle Smith Teen Killer Murders Grandparents

Kyle Smith was sixteen years old when he murdered his Grandparents in Oklahoma. According to court documents Kyle Smith would hack his Grandparents: David Garrick, 60, and Rose Garrick, 57 to death with a machete before setting their house on fire. This teen killer would be sentenced to life in prison plus ten years.

Kyle Smith 2023 Information

Gender: Male

Race: White

Height: 6 ft 0 in Weight: 279 lbs

Hair Color: Blond Eye Color: Hazel

OK DOC#: 646186Birth Date: 3/24/1994

Current Facility: NORTH FORK CORRECTIONAL CENTER, SAYRE

Reception Date: 10/11/2011

Kyle Smith More News

A Midwest City teenager admitted in court Tuesday that he murdered his grandparents with a machete, killed their dog and set their house on fire.

Kyle Alexander Smith, 17, was sentenced to life in prison, plus 10 years.

Under current law, the earliest he can be released on parole would be 2057.

Smith pleaded guilty to arson, conspiracy to commit arson, animal cruelty and two counts of first-degree murder.

The punishment was the outcome of a plea deal with prosecutors. He agreed to testify against two friends, who are charged as accessories.

Smith lived with David Garrick, 60, and Rose Garrick, 57. They were hacked and stabbed to death inside their house late March 22, prosecutors said. Their bodies were found after the house was set on fire the next morning.

Smith was captured later March 23 in Chickasha. He told one witness he was going to Mexico, police reported.

He was then 16. He turned 17 on March 24.

https://www.oklahoman.com/article/3597337/midwest-city-teen-who-hacked-grandparents-to-death-pleads-guilty-to-murder-arson

Kyle Smith Other News

A teenager cursed at his grandparents and laughed as he made a cellphone video late March 22 of their mutilated bodies, police reported.

Kyle Alexander Smith spoke in a “demonic-type voice” at the video’s start, a friend, Jonathan Siders, told police.

Smith lived with David Garrick, 60, and Rose Garrick, 57. He is accused in a double-murder charge of hacking and stabbing them to death with a machete inside their house March 22. He and two friends are accused of setting the house and bodies on fire the next morning.

He was captured in Chickasha March 23. He told one witness he was going to Mexico, police reported.

He was then 16. He turned 17 on March 24.

His attorney, Assistant Public Defender Shea Smith said, “We know this boy is mentally ill, and we are exploring all angles of this case.”

Police alleged shortly after Smith’s arrest that he made a cellphone video of the crime scene. New details about that video are contained in police reports reviewed last week by The Oklahoman.

The video was created about 11:30 p.m. March 22, police reported.

In the video, Smith repeatedly used profanity and spoke at first in a deep raspy voice, police reported.

Using expletives, Smith said, “Look at all those guts. That’s … crazy. F— both of you,” police reported.

The grandmother’s body was in the kitchen. The grandfather’s body was in a hallway.

Early in the video, Smith stepped on his grandmother’s hand and stuck the machete in one of her eyes, police reported. He later stuck the machete into his grandfather’s head wound and said, “That’s … gross,” police reported.

He at one point turned on a light and focused the video on his grandfather’s bloody face, according to the reports. A police examiner wrote he can be heard saying, “Smile for the … camera.” He then made a laughing sound, according to the reports.

The police reports reveal the attack came after the grandmother stopped Smith from sneaking out of the house that night to meet his friend, Siders.

Police reported Siders said he had gone to the house to see if Smith could go out. Siders said he left after he heard the grandmother yell at Smith to get back in the house, according to the reports.

Siders told police Smith later that night came to see him. He said Smith was driving David Garrick’s pickup.

Siders quoted Smith as saying in the pickup, “I killed them,” according to the police reports.

Siders said Smith showed him a few seconds of the video. According to the reports, Siders recalled saying to Smith, “You didn’t really do this. Did you?”

Siders told police Smith replied, “Yes,” then said, “No. I’m just kidding.”

Siders also told police Smith held up a baggie of methamphetamine and said, “I have a hundred dollars. Let’s go party.” Siders said he did not go with Smith.

Siders, 20, has not been charged in the case.

Two other of Smith’s friends are charged with being accessories.

Rose Garrick’s friends told police she had been having difficulties with her grandson.

Police were told Rose Garrick had taken Smith’s car keys away and told him he couldn’t drive again until he finished school homework he had been assigned to do over spring break, according to the reports. Police said he was a student at Moore High School.

Rose Garrick confided to one friend that Smith became very upset about being disciplined and shredded what homework he had done, according to the reports.

The grandmother said Smith then kicked the spindles out of a porch railing.

The grandmother also had said she planned to take Smith to see his counselor March 23, police reported. She wanted him to be changed back to an old prescription because he wasn’t behaving well on new medication, according to the reports.

His mother, Michelle Smith, of Moore, had taken him to dinner for his birthday March 22.

She told police he said then that the new medication he was taking made him more aggressive, according to the reports.

The reports reviewed by The Oklahoman did not disclose exactly why Smith was seeing a counselor.

His mother said she thought he was being seen for ADHD, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Police in March reported finding a “demonic drawing” on a bedroom floor of the burned house.

The reports reviewed by The Oklahoman did not reveal anything about any interest by Smith in the occult.

His grandparents in 2010 sent Smith to a well-regarded Kansas military school after he was charged with arson but could not afford to send him again, records show.

Last week, he waived his preliminary hearing in Oklahoma County District Court. Next up is a conference in August to schedule a trial date.

https://www.oklahoman.com/article/3582818/midwest-city-teenager-cursed-laughed-in-video-of-dead-grandparents-police-say

Kyle Smith FAQ

Kyle Smith Now

Kyle Smith is currently incarcerated at the North Fork Correctional Center

Kyle Smith Release Date

Kyle Smith is serving a life sentence plus 10 years

Jennie Bunsom Teen Killer Murders 7 Year Old

Jennie Bunsom is a convicted teen killer who would plead guilty to the murder of her seven year old nephew. According to court documents Jennie Bunsom was involved in a fight with her girlfriend and she would take out her anger on her seven year old nephew Jordan Vong. Jennie Bunsom would tell police that she pushed the child off of a bed and then covered his mouth causing Jordan Vong to suffocate. Jennie Bunsom would plead guilty to second degree murder and is awaiting sentencing. Jennie Bunsom would eventually be sentenced to 7 years in youth detention in June 2021

Jennie Bunsom 2023 Information

Name:BUNSOM, JENNIE
Age:18
Ethnicity:ASIAN
Gender:FEMALE
Hair Color:BLACK
Eye Color:BROWN
Height:5′ 4 “Weight:120

DOC Number:191537
Est. Parole
Eligibility Date:07/22/2025
Next Parole
Hearing Date:This offender is scheduled on the Parole Board agenda for the month and year above. Please contact the facility case manager for the exact date.
Est. Mandatory
Release Date:07/22/2025
Est. Sentence
Discharge Date:
Current Facility
Assignment:YOUTHFUL OFFENDER SYSTEM-PUEBLO

Jennie Bunsom More News

The 16-year-old girl who is accused of killing her 7-year-old nephew was identified on Tuesday morning by the Denver District Attorney’s Office.

Jennie Bunsom was charged Monday as an adult with first-degree murder after deliberation and first-degree murder of a person under the age of 12 by a person in a position of trust in the death of Jordan Vong.

According to an arrest affidavit, on the day Vong died, Aug. 6, Bunsom was upset after having a fight with her girlfriend. About 12:43 p.m., the child came downstairs and asked her to play video games with him. Bunsom told police that she instructed the child to go upstairs but instead he went to sit on her bed, upsetting her. She said she pushed the 7-year-old off the bed and he hit his face on the floor. When the boy began to cry, Bunsom said she placed her hand over his mouth and plugged his nose, holding down the struggling child until he stopped moving. She told police she then put the body under her bed before wrapping him in a blanket and placing him in one of the two portable closets in her room.

Vong was reported missing about 4:30 p.m. on Aug. 6 from the 4900 block of Fairplay Street near Chambers Road and Bolling Drive. Police combed through neighborhoods. Hundreds of posters were put up and officers searched a 20-block radius around the home. The FBI was also called in. The next night, police revealed Jordan’s body had been found. Bunsom was arrested the next morning. She is being held without bond.

The Denver Office of the Medical Examiner is working to determine Vong’s cause of death.

https://truecrimedaily.com/2018/08/14/teen-girl-accused-of-killing-her-7-year-old-nephew-charged-as-adult-with-murder/

Jennie Bunsom Other News

The March 22 attack on a Boulder King Soopers that killed ten people resulted in many significant news stories getting less attention than they deserved — including the guilty plea entered by Jennie Bunsom, who was tried as an adult for killing her seven-year-old nephew, Jordan Vong, back in 2018, when she was just sixteen.

Bumsom’s acceptance of second-degree murder and tampering-with-a-body charges closes out that tragedy — legally, at least. But it also suggests that the recent charging of Kevin Bui and Gavin Seymour, both sixteen, as adults for a case of arson that killed five people in August 2020 may well be replicated in more high-profile cases involving juvenile defendants.

A former Montbello resident, Bunsom turned sixteen on August 5, 2018. At 4:23 p.m. the next day, August 6, according to the case’s probable-cause statement, Vong’s mother dialed 911 and reported her son missing. She said he’d last been seen in the living room of their residence, on the 4900 block of Fairplay Street, about 45 minutes earlier. Denver police officers responded to the call quickly, and they were followed by members of the department’s major crimes missing and exploited persons (MEP) unit, who determined that the “Vong family’s statements to detectives were inconsistent.”

The PC statement notes that because the crawl space in the residence was cluttered, law enforcement officials requested a search warrant in order to be able to conduct a more thorough search. The warrant was drafted at approximately 7:15 p.m. on August 7 and was subsequently granted by a Denver County Court judge.

The MEP investigators began their search of the residence at 8:11 p.m., and 35 minutes later, at 8:46 p.m., a detective located Vong’s body in the basement closet of the bedroom belonging to Bunsom.

According to the statement, the child had “a towel and comforter wrapped around his head, biological matter and blood about his nose, and an unknown imprint on Vong’s chest.”

Early the next morning, Bunsom was interviewed in the presence of her mother, and she was said to have voluntarily agreed to speak to an MEP detective. The story she told, as recounted in the police report, includes a time discrepancy related to the last time Vong’s mother saw him — but it revealed the specifics of the crime.

At about 12:43 p.m. on August 6, Bunsom was in her bedroom, fuming about an argument with her girlfriend, when Vong appeared and asked her to play video games with him. According to the detective’s account, Bunsom told him “No” and said he should go back upstairs, but he refused and laid down on her bed.

The teen said she was “upset” by Vong’s actions, the statement continues, and when he again rejected her order to get off the bed, she pushed him to the floor, causing him to strike his face and start to cry. “She placed her hand over Jordan’s mouth and plugged his nose as Jordan began to struggle for a few minutes,” it reads. “Jordan stopped moving. She put him under the bed.”

What happened next is blotted out in the report. But after an unspecified length of time, Bunsom is said to have removed Jordan from the spot beneath the bed, wrapped him in a blanket and placed his body in one of two portable closets in her room, where it stayed for more than a day before being discovered.

According to the statement, she informed no one in her family about what she’d done “because she was afraid.”

Bunsom’s family was officially advised of the decision to try her as an adult on August 14, 2018. The public defenders assigned to her case objected to this designation, and at a court appearance that December, a Denver District Court judge reportedly agreed to push a hearing on the subject back until May 2019 because the attorneys hadn’t received Bunsom’s mental health records.

No such hearing happened that month, or even that year. But last month, Carolyn Tyler, spokesperson for the Denver DA, told us that Bunsom had “a Preliminary Hearing/Reverse Transfer Hearing scheduled to go for four days starting on 3/22/21-3/26/21” — almost two years after it was initially scheduled. That session resulted in a guilty plea by Bunsom.

Last month, following the naming of Gui and Seymour as suspects in the August arson-murders, Westword published a roundup of juvenile killers tried as adults since the early 1990s. All of the individuals were suspected of committing high-profile crimes, and all but three were male: Bunsom, and Sienna Johnson and Brooke Higgins, who were hit with adult charges for allegedly conceiving of a Columbine-style murder plot at Mountain Vista High School in December 2015, when they were sixteen.

Johnson and Higgins initially fought the adult designation, but they eventually pleaded guilty to counts that straddled the juvenile and adult systems; they were sentenced to stints in Youth Corrections followed by supervised adult parole. As a result, Bunsom — who turned eighteen and legally became an adult last August —will be the first female juvenile suspect on our list to actually serve her time in a prison facility for adults. She’s scheduled for sentencing in May.

https://www.westword.com/news/jennie-bunsom-guilty-plea-colorado-juvenile-killers-update-11927396

Jennie Bunsom Other News

A woman has pleaded guilty in connection with the death of her 7-year-old nephew nearly 3 years ago. Jennie Bunsom was 16 years old when she was charged as an adult in the murder of Jordan Vong.

The charges allege that Bunsom killed her nephew, then wrapped his body in a blanket and hid him in a portable closet in her basement bedroom.

Jordan Vong was reported missing on Aug. 6, 2018. Officers found his body “intentionally concealed” inside the family home in Denver’s Montbello neighborhood just before 9 p.m. on Aug. 7.

According to court documents, Bunsom was upset after an argument with a girlfriend on Aug. 6 when Jordan came into her bedroom, asking to play video games.

Investigators said that’s when Bunsom told him to leave and he refused. She then pushed him off the bed, causing him to hit his face on the floor. When he started to cry, she put her hand over his mouth and plugged his nose. Jordan struggled and then stopped moving.

On Monday, Bunsom pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and tampering with a body. Sentencing is scheduled for May.

https://denver.cbslocal.com/2021/03/22/jennie-bunsom-murder-nephew-jordan-vong/

Jordan Vong Photos

Jennie Bunsom Sentence

Jennie Bunsom, who smothered her 7-year-old nephew to death in their Montbello home in 2018, was sentenced Wednesday to seven years in Youth Offender Services.

Bunsom, now 18, had just turned 16 when she killed Jordan Vong and hid his body in a closet in her room. In March she pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and tampering with a body, both felonies, as part of a plea agreement.

On Wednesday, Bunsom, wearing a COVID-19 facial mask, handcuffed and shackled, addressed the court and District Court Judge Ericka Englert.

“Every day is a reminder of what I did,” Bunsom, sobbing, told the court. “There still has to be justice for Jordan, he was just a child. I took an innocent life, I have to pay for my sins.”

Denver teen who murdered her 7-year-old nephew sentenced to 7 years in Youth Offender Services

Jennie Bunsom FAQ

Jennie Bunsom 2021

Jennie Bunsom is currently incarcerated in the Colorado Juvenile System

Jennie Bunsom Release Date

Jennie Bunsom is scheduled for release in 2025

Jennie Bunsom Videos

William Tommy Zeigler Florida Death Row

William Tommy Zeigler was sentenced to death by the State of Florida for the murders of his wife, Eunice Zeigler, and her parents, Perry and Virginia Edwards, as well as a customer named Charlie Mays at his furniture store in Winter Garden, Florida. According to court documents William Tommy Zeigler would shoot to death Eunica Zeigler, Virginia Edwards and would beat to death Perry Edwards and Charlie Mays. William Tommy Zeigler would also shoot himself in the abdomen according to prosecutors. However William Tommy Zeigler has maintained over the years he was a victim of a botched robbery and not responsible for any of the murders. William Tommy Zeigler would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Florida Death Row Inmate List

William Tommy Zeigler 2021 Information

DC Number:	053948
Name:	ZEIGLER, WILLIAM T
Race:	WHITE
Sex:	MALE
Birth Date:	07/25/1945
Initial Receipt Date:	07/19/1976
Current Facility:	UNION C.I.
Current Custody:	MAXIMUM
Current Release Date:	DEATH SENTENCE

William Tommy Zeigler More News

On Christmas Eve, December 24, 1975, Eunice Zeigler, wife of defendant (hereinafter referred to as wife), and Perry and Virginia Edwards, parents-in-law of defendant (hereinafter referred to as Perry and Virginia), were shot to death in the W.T. Zeigler Furniture Store in Winter Garden, Florida. In addition, Charles Mays, Jr., (hereinafter referred to as Mays), was beaten and shot to death at the same location. Times of death were all estimated by the medical examiner as within one hour of 8:00 P.M. The defendant was also shot through the abdomen.

The state’s theory of the case may be summarized as follows:

Edward Williams had known defendant and his family for a number of years. Williams testified that in June 1975 defendant inquired of him about obtaining a “hot gun.” Williams then went to Frank Smith’s home and arranged for Smith to purchase two RG revolvers. The revolvers were delivered to defendant. Also, during the latter part of 1975 defendant purchased a large amount of insurance on the life of his wife. Thus was shown the means and the motive.

Mays and his wife came to defendant’s furniture store during the morning of December 24 and Mays agreed to meet defendant around 7:30 P.M. The store was closed around 6:25 P.M.

Mays left his home around 6:30 P.M. He went to an Oakland beer joint and saw a friend, Felton Thomas, who accompanied Mays to the Zeigler Furniture Store.

The theory of the state’s case is that defendant had two appointments on Christmas Eve, one with Mays and one with Edward Williams. Prior to these appointments he took his wife to the store and in some manner arranged for his parents-in-law to go there. He killed his wife, Eunice, quickly, and for her, unexpectedly, since she was found with her hand in a coat pocket, shot from behind.

Because of the location of her body, Virginia was probably trying to hide among the furniture. Perry probably surprised defendant with his strength and stamina as they struggled for some time. After defendant subdued Perry and rendered him harmless, defendant shot him. Considering the fact that a bullet penetrated Virginia’s hand, the state said it was likely she was huddled in a protective position when she was executed.

Defendant then left the store, returning to meet with Mays who had arrived there at about 7:30. He was probably surprised to see the presence of another man, Felton Thomas, with Mays. He took Thomas and Mays to an orange grove to try the guns. The state says that the purpose of the trip was to get the two to handle and fire the weapons in the bag. From the grove he returned to the store, but was unsuccessful in getting Mays or Thomas to provide evidence of a break-in. He did, however, get Thomas to cut off the lights in the store. The three returned to defendant’s home. Defendant got out, went to the garage, came back and took a box of some kind to Mays and told him to reload the gun. They returned to the store. Defendant could not persuade Thomas to enter the store, so Thomas lived. When Thomas disappeared, the defendant returned to his home and picked up Edward Williams. Defendant had killed Mays.

Defendant was successful in getting Williams partially inside the back hallway. Defendant put a gun to Williams’ chest and pulled the trigger three times, but the gun did not fire. Williams said, “For God’s sake, Tommy, don’t kill me,” and ran outside, refusing to return to the store. The state says that the empty gun was as much a surprise to defendant as it was to Williams. The state says that in all probability defendant thought he was holding the gun that Mays had shot in the orange grove and which defendant told Mays to reload.

When he was unable to get Williams into the store, the defendant became desperate and conceived the idea that he would appear uninvolved if he happened to be one of the victims. Accordingly, he shot himself and then called Judge Vandeventer’s residence where he knew the police officers would be.

The defendant denies that he had any contact with Smith or purchased any guns from him. He says that the increase in the amount of the insurance policy [on his wife’s life] was pursuant to advice on an estate plan. Defendant says that his wife, Perry, and Virginia were killed during the course of a robbery; that Mays was involved in the robbery but was killed by his confederates; that he was shot by the burglars and left to die. The jury obviously did not believe the testimony of the defendant. To have believed his story, the jury would necessarily have had to disbelieve the testimony of Smith, Thomas, and Williams and would have had to have found no significance in the other substantial evidence.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/fl-supreme-court/1216764.html

Harry Phillips Florida Death Row

Harry Phillips was sentenced to death by the State of Florida for the murder of parole officer Bjorn Thomas Svenson. According to court documents Harry Phillips would shoot to death Bjorn Thomas Svenson and would later brag about the murder after he was arrested to fellow inmates. Harry Phillips would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Florida Death Row Inmate List

Harry Phillips 2021 Information

DC Number:	008035
Name:	PHILLIPS, HARRY F
Race:	BLACK
Sex:	MALE
Birth Date:	04/21/1945
Initial Receipt Date:	04/30/1974
Current Facility:	UNION C.I.
Current Custody:	MAXIMUM
Current Release Date:	DEATH SENTENCE

Harry Phillips More News

During the evening of August 31, 1982, several rounds of gunfire were heard in the vicinity of the Parole and Probation building in Miami. The body of parole supervisor Bjorn Svenson was found in the parking lot, the victim of multiple gunshot wounds. Forensic evidence demonstrated that Svenson was shot twice in the chest and fled a short distance before being killed by repeated shots in the head and back. Svenson was the supervisor of several probation officers who were in charge of Phillips’ parole.

For two years prior to the murder, Svenson and Phillips had encounters regarding Phillips’ unauthorized contact with a probation officer, with Phillips being advised to stay away from probation officers and the parole building unless making an authorized visit. After one such incident, Phillips’ parole was revoked and he was returned to prison for approximately twenty months.

On August 24, 1982, several rounds of gunfire were shot through the front window of a home occupied by the two probation officers who had testified against Phillips. Following Svenson’s murder, Phillips was incarcerated for parole violations. Several inmates testified that Phillips told them that he had killed a parole officer.

Phillips was re-sentenced to death in Miami-Dade County on April 20, 1994.