Earl Forrest was executed by the State of Missouri for three murders. According to court documents Earl Forrest went over to the first two victims home demanding they buy a mobile home from him. When an argument broke out Earl Forrest would shoot and kill Harriet “Tottie” Smith and Michael Wells. When police attempted to arrest him Earl Forrest would shoot and kill Dent County Deputy JoAnn Barnes. Earl Forrest would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Earl Forrest would be executed by lethal injection on May 11 2016
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A man who killed two people in a drug dispute and a sheriff’s deputy in a subsequent shootout was put to death Wednesday in what could be Missouri’s last execution for some time.
Earl Forrest, 66, died by injection for the December 2002 deaths of Harriett Smith, Michael Wells and Dent County Sheriff’s Deputy Joann Barnes. He was pronounced dead at 7:18 p.m. CDT, according to the Missouri Department of Corrections.
Forrest’s fate was sealed hours before his punishment when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to halt the execution and Democratic Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon turned down a clemency request
Court documents showed Forrest had been drinking when he went to Smith’s home in the southern Missouri town of Salem and demanded that she fulfill her promise to buy a lawn mower and mobile home for him in exchange for introducing her to a source for methamphetamine. Wells was visiting Smith at the time. An argument ensued, and Forrest shot Wells in the face. He shot Smith six times and took a lockbox full of meth valued at $25,000.
When police converged on Forrest’s home, he shot Barnes and Dent County Sheriff Bob Wofford, according to court documents. Earl Forrest was shot in the face in the exchange of gunfire. He then put some meth in his mouth, crawled to the door and yelled, “I surrender. We need help. People down.”
Forrest’s girlfriend, Angela Gamblin, also was shot in the burst of gunfire. She and Wofford survived, along with Forrest.
Missouri has been one of the most prolific states for executions in recent years, second only to Texas. With the execution of Forrest, the state has put 19 men to death since November 2013, including six inmates last year. Forrest was the first in 2016.
Daniel Lucas was executed by the State of Georgia for a triple murder. According to court documents Daniel Lucas and Brandon Rhode broke into the home and when they was surprised by the home owner they would shoot and kill 37-year-old Steven Moss, his 15-year-old daughter Kristin and his 11-year-old son Bryan. Daniel Lucas and Brandon Rhode would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Brandon Rhode was executed in 2010. Daniel Lucas would be executed in 2016
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A late April execution date has been set for man convicted in the 1998 triple murders of a central Georgia trucking company owner and his two children, authorities said Thursday.
Daniel Lucas is scheduled to be executed at 7 p.m. on April 27 at the state prison in Jackson, said a statement from Commissioner Homer Bryson of the Department of Corrections. Georgia executes inmates using an injection of the barbiturate pentobarbital.
Lucas, 37, received the death sentence in 1999 for the killings of Steven Moss, 37, his 11-year-old son Bryan and 15-year-old daughter Kristin, who interrupted a burglary at their home near Macon in central Georgia.
Another man convicted in the murders, Brandon Joseph Rhode, was put to death in September 2010. His execution was delayed by about a week after Rhode tried to kill himself by slashing his arms and throat just hours before he was initially set to be executed.
Lucas and Rhode were searching the Moss home for valuables in April 1998 when Bryan Moss saw them through a front window, and entered through a back door armed with a baseball bat, prosecutors have said. They say the two then wrestled Bryan to a chair and Lucas shot him in the shoulder.
Lucas then led the boy to a bedroom and shot him multiple times, prosecutors have said.
Rhodes met Kristin as she got home from school and forced her to sit on a chair and shot her twice with a pistol, according to court records. Rhode then ambushed Steven Moss when he arrived home, shooting him four times with the same pistol. Lucas later shot the two children again to make sure they were dead, according to the records.
Moss’ wife, Gerri Ann, discovered the bodies when she returned home from work.
Several witnesses saw Rhode’s vehicle as the pair fled the house and one of them identified Lucas as the passenger, prosecutors have said. Damage to the vehicle’s front and rear bumpers matched damage to a propane tank and a cinder block at the Moss home.
Georgia has already executed three inmates this year and a fourth is scheduled to die Tuesday.A late April execution date has been set for man convicted in the 1998 triple murders of a central Georgia trucking company owner and his two children, authorities said Thursday.
Daniel Anthony Lucas is scheduled to be executed at 7 p.m. on April 27 at the state prison in Jackson, said a statement from Commissioner Homer Bryson of the Department of Corrections. Georgia executes inmates using an injection of the barbiturate pentobarbital.
Lucas, 37, received the death sentence in 1999 for the killings of Steven Moss, 37, his 11-year-old son Bryan and 15-year-old daughter Kristin, who interrupted a burglary at their home near Macon in central Georgia.
Another man convicted in the murders, Brandon Joseph Rhode, was put to death in September 2010. His execution was delayed by about a week after Rhode tried to kill himself by slashing his arms and throat just hours before he was initially set to be executed.
Lucas and Rhode were searching the Moss home for valuables in April 1998 when Bryan Moss saw them through a front window, and entered through a back door armed with a baseball bat, prosecutors have said. They say the two then wrestled Bryan to a chair and Lucas shot him in the shoulder.
Lucas then led the boy to a bedroom and shot him multiple times, prosecutors have said.
Rhodes met Kristin as she got home from school and forced her to sit on a chair and shot her twice with a pistol, according to court records. Rhode then ambushed Steven Moss when he arrived home, shooting him four times with the same pistol. Lucas later shot the two children again to make sure they were dead, according to the records.
Moss’ wife, Gerri Ann, discovered the bodies when she returned home from work.
Several witnesses saw Rhode’s vehicle as the pair fled the house and one of them identified Lucas as the passenger, prosecutors have said. Damage to the vehicle’s front and rear bumpers matched damage to a propane tank and a cinder block at the Moss home.
Georgia has already executed three inmates this year and a fourth is scheduled to die Tuesday.
Kenneth Fults was executed by the State of Georgia for the murder of his neighbor during a robbery. According to court documents Kenneth Fults would break into his neighbors home and during the process would shoot and kill nineteen year old Cathy Bounds after smothering the woman with a pillow. Kenneth Fults would steal the victims car and fled the scene. Kenneth Fults would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Kenneth Fults would be executed by lethal injection on April 12, 2016
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A Georgia inmate convicted of the fatal shooting of a woman during a 1996 crime spree had his request for a stay of execution rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, hours before he received a lethal injection.
Attorneys for inmate Kenneth Fults had asked the nation’s highest court to consider arguments that a juror who imposed the sentence was motivated by racial bias. The request presented to Justice Clarence Thomas on behalf of the court had been denied, the court said in a statement Tuesday afternoon. It gave no explanation for the decision.
Fults was executed at 7:37 p.m. Tuesday at the state prison in Jackson, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections.
In a statement the department said Fults “accepted a final prayer and declined to make a final statement.”
The 47-year-old inmate had pleaded guilty to killing a neighbor, 19-year-old Cathy Bounds, during a burglary in January 1996, and a jury sentenced him to death
On Tuesday, Fults had visits with 17 relatives, a friend and an attorney and two paralegals, officials said.
On Monday, the State Board of Pardons and Paroles declined to grant clemency for Fults. The parole board is the only entity in Georgia that can commute a death sentence.
Prosecutors have said Fults killed Bounds during a weeklong crime spree that began when he stole two guns during burglaries. After trying unsuccessfully to kill his former girlfriend’s new boyfriend with one of the stolen guns, Fults broke into the trailer next to his, where Bounds lived with her boyfriend.
Bounds, who was home alone, pleaded for her life and offered him the rings on her fingers, but Fults forced her into the bedroom, wrapped electrical tape around her head, put her face-down on the bed, put a pillow over her head and shot her five times in the back of the head, prosecutors said.
Fults’ lawyers said in a clemency petition that their client had an extremely tough childhood characterized by abuse and neglect and an intellectual disability that keeps him from behaving appropriately
“Mr. Fults, the man, committed a terrible, tragic act when he killed Cathy Bounds,” they wrote. “But before the man existed, there was an innocent, vulnerable child in his place. And that child, Kenny, fell through the cracks.”
They also pointed out what they said were flaws in his sentencing trial, including a juror they said was motivated by racial bias and a defense attorney who fell asleep and failed to provide jurors with adequate information.
In their filing with the Supreme Court, Fults’ lawyers argued his death sentence is unconstitutional because one of the jurors who imposed it was motivated by racial prejudice.
During jury selection for Fults’ trial in 1997, juror Thomas Buffington, who was white, told the judge and lawyers on both sides that he felt no racial prejudice.
An investigator working with Fults’ lawyers eight years later spoke to Buffington about his jury service. Buffington, who was 79 at the time of the interview and has since died, twice used a racial slur when talking about Kenneth Fults, who is black.
Once he pled guilty, I knew I would vote for the death penalty because that’s what that (N-word) deserved,” Buffington said, according to the signed, April 12, 2005, affidavit in the court record.
State and federal courts have consistently declined to consider Fults’ argument that his sentence was unfairly imposed because of racial bias, mostly for procedural reasons that have to do with when the argument was first raised. The U.S. Supreme court in October declined to take up the issue on appeal.
As the scheduled execution loomed, Fults’ lawyers asked the high court to take the case directly, not as an appeal. They argued it was very similar to another case the court agreed last week to hear.
The state argued in a court filing Monday that this case did not demonstrate the “exceptional circumstances” necessary for the Supreme Court to take it on directly.
Fults was the fourth man executed in Georgia this year. Another man, Daniel Lucas, is scheduled to die April 27.
Pablo Vasquez was executed by the State of Texas for the murder of a twelve year old boy. Pablo Vasquez would meet the victim, David Cardenas, at a party. After the party Pablo Vasquez and his cousin fifteen year old ndres Rafael “Andy” Chapa would follow the victim and strike him in the head with an iron bar. The twelve year old boy would be dragged across a four lane highway were he was brutalized, robbed, murdered and scalped. Pablo Vasquez would later tell the police that the devil told him to do it. Pablo Vasquez would be convicted and sentenced to death. Vasquez would be executed by lethal injection on April 6, 2016
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Twelve-year-old David Cardenas was still alive when his killer drank the blood from his wounds, according to a videotaped confession Pablo Lucio Vasquez later gave police. After Cardenas’ April 1998 murder, his body was mutilated and buried in a shallow grave in Donna, Texas.
Vasquez, who admitted slitting Cardenas’ throat and beating him to death before stealing a ring and chain from the body, was executed Wednesday for the crime. He was 38.
“I started hearing voices in my head, and I told my cousin that somebody was telling me to kill him,” Vasquez said in his confession.
After his final appeals were denied by the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday afternoon, Vasquez was strapped to a gurney in the Huntsville Unit shortly after 6 p.m. He was injected with a lethal dose of pentobarbital and pronounced dead at 6:35 p.m.
In his final statement, he thanked his family and apologized to Cardenas’ family.
“This is the only way that I can be forgiven,” he said from the execution chamber. “You got your justice right here.”
In his last appeal, Vasquez claimed he wasn’t given a fair trial because the court “repeatedly excused prospective jurors with sympathies against the death penalty but still qualified to serve,” according to the petition originally filed with the state. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals had already rejected his claim.
In previous unsuccessful appeals, Vasquez’s attorneys argued that the murder shouldn’t have been considered a capital crime because Vasquez didn’t kill Cardenas intending to rob him, according to court documents. They have also claimed that his trial counsel was ineffective for not using an insanity defense.
Sometime in the early morning of April 18, 1998, Cardenas, Vasquez, then 20, and Vasquez’s cousin, 15-year-old Andres Chapa, left a party together. Vasquez had been drinking, smoking marijuana and snorting cocaine, according to his confession
When they got to the house where Chapa’s mother was staying, Vasquez said he “blacked out” and started hearing voices telling him to kill Cardenas. He struck the boy several times in the back of the head with a pipe.
Pablo Vasquez then slit Cardenas’ throat while Chapa began to prepare a grave, Vasquez said.
“He was still saying something, and I picked him up in the air,” Vasquez said in his confession. “The blood was dripping and got it all over my face. So, I don’t know, I mean something just told me drink.”
Vasquez put Cardenas back down, and Chapa hit the boy in the face with a shovel five or six times, according to Vasqeuz’s statement.
The two dug a small hole, placed Cardenas in it, and covered him with grass and pieces of wood.
When police found Cardenas’ body on April 22, he was scalped and missing a foot, arm and part of his other arm. Skin had been cut from his back, court documents stated.
Pablo Vasquez confessed to the murder after his arrest and was indicted on capital murder charges for the boy’s death and the theft of his jewelry. He was convicted and sentenced to death in March 1999 in Hidalgo County, just over 17 years ago.
Chapa was also convicted but received a 35-year-sentence because he was a minor. He first became eligible for parole last year but was denied in December. His next shot at parole is in 2020, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
Rod Ferrell was known as the Vampire Killer or being part of the Vampire Clan which was a group of young teenagers who would end up murdering two people in Florida. Rod Ferrell who believed he was a vampire and convinced a number of teens to go with him to New Orleans. The teens included Charity Keesee, Dana Cooper and Howard Scott Anderson. On the way they decided to pick up another fiend Heather Wendorf. The group were having car trouble and decided to steal the Wendorf vehicle however it soon turned into a double murder as Heather parents were brutally murdered.
Eventually the police would catch up with the Vampire Clan in Louisiana and Rod Ferrell, Charity Keesee, Dana Cooper and Howard Anderson were all arrested and charged with the double murders. Rod Ferrell who was seventeen at the time of the murders was convicted and sentenced to death however the Supreme Court would rule that executing people who committed their crimes as a juvenile was unconstitutional and he was resentenced to life in prison without parole. The other teen killers would receive lesser sentences. Dana Cooper and Charity Keesee have been released. Heather Wendorf was never charged
Rod Ferrell, known as a teen vampire cult leader convicted in the beating deaths of a Eustis couple, lost his bid to shorten the life sentences he is serving.
The 55-page decision, written by Circuit Judge G. Richard Singeltary in Lake County and posted online April 7, concluded Ferrell, now 40, was not entitled to relief granted to other teen killers in light of a 2016 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole for a juvenile is cruel and unusual punishment.Advertisement
The judge concluded Ferrell, now 40, is “irreparably corrupt.”
“Despite the recent changes in the law, life is still an appropriate sentence for a juvenile who committed murder if the facts and circumstances justify,” Singeltary wrote in his order. “In this case, the facts of the double homicide of Richard Wendorf and Naoma Ruth Queen, as well as the armed burglary and armed robbery, are among the most appalling.”
The order is not yet official because Ferrell has the right to be present in open court to hear its pronouncement, though he can waive that right. A hearing to conclude the re-sentencing process has not yet been scheduled because most court proceedings are suspended to reduce the risk of spreading coronavirus.
Wendorf and Queen were parents of Heather Wendorf, then 15, who ran away with Ferrell’s blood-drinking cult from Kentucky.
She was never charged in the killings. Ferrell said she never explicitly asked him to kill her parents.
Ferrell bludgeoned the couple to death with a crowbar inside their home Nov. 25, 1996, crimes which spawned books, a movie and an HBO documentary.
He became friends with Heather at school in Eustis before he moved with his mother to Murray, Kentucky.
Originally sentenced to death, Ferrell’s punishment was reduced to life without parole by an earlier U.S. Supreme Court ruling outlawing death sentences for juveniles.
Miami-based defense lawyer Terence M. Lenamon, who also represents Markeith Lloyd, who is charged in the death of an Orlando police officer, had asked the judge to impose new sentences that could have made Ferrell eligible for release some day. The lawyer argued Ferrell was not “one of the rarest of children whose crime reflects permanent incorrigibility,” a character flaw for which the U.S. Supreme Court justices said a term of life in prison for a youthful offender could be a just and fair punishment.
The high-court’s reasoning was based on the notion that most but not all children have “diminished culpability and heightened capacity to change.”
In November, Singeltary listened to three days of testimony about the crimes and Ferrell, including from the once-boastful and now-apologetic vampire leader himself.
“He has adjusted to incarceration, and he has a good prison record,” the judge wrote, citing testimony from prison officials and mental-health experts. “However, the continuation of his pattern of fabrication and manipulation of the narratives of his crimes in order to serve his own interest demonstrates that he is neither changed nor rehabilitated.”
Singeltary rejected unsubstantiated claims by Ferrell that he was impaired by drugs when he killed the couple and motivated to protect Heather from sex abuse.
The judge said “all credible evidence” showed the couple to be hard-working, middle-class parents trying their best to provide a loving, safe home for their two daughters and that Ferrell killed and robbed Heather’s parents because he needed money and a bigger, more reliable vehicle to get his “vampire family” to New Orleans.
No factors have been overlooked or minimized,” Singeltary wrote.
But the judge also cited a plea made during Ferrell’s re-sentencing by the couple’s other daughter, Jennifer. She begged Singeltary to keep Ferrell in prison.
Seventeen at the time, she had come home from a part-time job at Publix and discovered the nightmarish scene when she flicked on the lights.
In his order, Singeltary recounted a callous statement Ferrell gave Baton Rouge police who arrested him and others at a Howard Johnson’s motel.
“Thought about waiting for [Heather’s] sister…but decided, nah, why bother? Let her come home, have a mental breakdown, call the police, which I was correct, she did.”
Rod Ferrell is currently incarcerated at the Tomoka Correctional Institute
Rod Ferrell Release Date
Rod Ferrell is serving a life without parole sentence
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