November 2021 | Page 13 of 19

Ronnie Threadgill Texas Execution

Ronnie Threadgill was executed by the State of Texas for a murder during a carjacking. According to court documents Ronnie Threadgill was attempted to steal a vehicle when he shot and killed the driver 17-year-old Dexter McDonald.. Ronnie Threadgill would be convicted and sentenced to death.

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A North Texas man was executed Tuesday evening for fatally shooting a teenager during a carjacking outside a nightclub 12 years ago.

Ronnie Threadgill, 40, received lethal injection in Huntsville less than two hours after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a last-day appeal.

“To my loved ones and my dear friends, I love y’all and appreciate y’all for being there,” Threadgill said. “I am going to a better place. To all the guys back on the row, keep your heads up, keep fighting. I’m ready. Let’s go.

He nodded to a female friend standing a few feet away behind a window, then smiled broadly, showing off a mouthful of gold teeth. As the lethal dose of pentabarbital began taking effect, he took several deep breaths, then began snoring loudly. Within a few seconds, the sounds stopped.

He was pronounced dead 25 minutes later, at 6:39 p.m. CDT. It was the third execution in Texas this year.

Attorneys for Threadgill unsuccessfully argued his case deserved court review because he had deficient legal help during his 2002 capital murder trial when he was sentenced to die for the killing of 17-year-old Dexter McDonald. The appeal argued he would not have received a death sentence if he had better legal representation, and asked that his case be returned to a lower court.

McDonald was sitting in the back seat of a friend’s idling car near Corsicana, about 60 miles south of Dallas, on April 15, 2001, when Threadgill started shooting then jumped inside the vehicle and drove off. He threw McDonald from the car; the teenager died of a gunshot wound to the chest. Threadgill, who already had a long criminal record, led officers on a chase along Interstate 45 through Navarro County. He lost control of the stolen car and slid into a ditch, then ran away. Police found him hiding at a truck stop, clinging to an axle under a parked semitrailer.

A bandana that witnesses said the carjacker was wearing was found stuffed under the truck trailer. Blood on Threadgill’s clothing matched McDonald’s blood. Threadgill’s fingerprints were found on the stolen car.

Rob Dunn, one of Threadgill’s trial attorneys, said the number of people who saw the attack left “no wiggle room” to convince jurors that someone else was responsible for the crime. He said his strategy had been to try to keep him off death row.

“There was a multitude of witnesses there at that club that had seen him there and then the shooting took place, and a multitude of witnesses watched him drag the deceased out of the car at the end of the block and throw him down,” Dunn said.

Prosecutors called nearly a dozen witnesses during the punishment phase to show Threadgill’s reputation for trouble. He already had felony convictions for cocaine possession and burglary and misdemeanor convictions for assault, resisting arrest, theft, criminal trespass, criminal mischief and marijuana possession. Three months before the fatal carjacking, Threadgill was released from a prison on mandatory supervision, a form of parole.

A clinical psychologist testifying for the defense showed Threadgill was chemically dependent and came from a family with a history of substance abuse. His mother testified that she was on parole for drug possession at the time.

Appeals lawyer Lydia Brandt argued to the Supreme Court that jurors weren’t given an accurate picture of Threadgill’s abusive and tumultuous childhood, nor were they told that his mother encouraged her children in criminal activity and that his mother, male relatives and his three siblings all had criminal records.

But state attorneys told the justices his legal help throughout had been proper and competent. His appeal with the punishment fast approaching was “nothing more than a meritless attempt to postpone his execution,” according to Stephen Hoffman, an assistant Texas attorney general.

At least 10 other Texas prisoners have executions scheduled in the coming months, including another inmate set to die next week.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/texas-executes-convicted-killer-ronnie-threadgill-for-north-texas-carjack-slaying-12-years-ago

Larry Mann Florida Execution

Larry Mann was executed by the State of Florida for the kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of a ten year old girl. According to court documents Larry Mann would kidnap ten year old Elisa Nelson and would later sexually assault and murder the child by striking her in the head with a metal object. Larry Mann would be convicted and sentenced to death. Larry Mann would be executed by lethal injection on April 10, 2013.

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Larry Eugene Mann, who crushed a little girl’s skull 32 years ago, died Wednesday night as chemicals coursed through his veins.

Mann was executed by lethal injection at Florida State Prison for the murder of 10-year-old Elisa Vera Nelson, whom he abducted one morning in 1980 as she rode her bicycle to school in Palm Harbor.

He was pronounced dead at 7:19 p.m. He was 59.

Afterward, Jeff Nelson, Elisa’s brother, stood in the light of a setting sun outside the prison, joining a crowd of about 50 people who turned out to offer support. Nelson, who was 12 when his sister was killed, thanked authorities for the capture and prosecution of Mann. He also thanked Gov. Rick Scott, who signed Mann’s death warrant

For three decades, he said, lawyers have talked about how Mann has changed in prison, how he studied the Bible and prayed and expressed remorse.

But no one ever talked about Elisa, he said.

She had a cheeky grin and bested a little league team full of boys. She was a cheerleader and dancer who loved to play teacher and tutored neighborhood kids.

She was a fun-loving fifth-grader with big blue eyes and shades of gold running through long, blond hair. She loved reading and learning and meeting new people. She tumbled through gymnastic lessons. At home, she hung posters of John Travolta on her bedroom wall. She had a cat named Smokey and a dog named Stupid.

Her parents, David and Wendy Nelson, moved to Florida from Michigan in the early 1970s and started a successful construction business.

On the morning of Nov. 4, 1980, Wendy Nelson took her daughter to an orthodontist to be fitted with braces. She wrote a note to excuse Elisa’s tardiness from class at Palm Harbor Middle School. Just after 10:30 a.m., Elisa pedaled off to school on her blue and silver bike.

Elisa’s parents reported her missing later that day and Pinellas sheriff’s deputies launched a massive search. Nearly half of Palm Harbor turned out to help, one deputy later testified. Before sunset, a sheriff’s helicopter spotted Elisa’s bike in a drainage ditch north of the school.

The next day, two men searching an isolated, weed-choked orange grove west of County Road 39 found her body beneath an avocado tree.

Her throat had been cut, an autopsy showed, but she died from a single blow to the head from a concrete block.

The crime began to unravel after someone phoned a TV station and said authorities should look at Mann. Detectives later learned the call came from one of his neighbors, who had seen him washing dirt off the tires on his 1957 Chevrolet pickup shortly after Elisa went missing.

It wasn’t the first time Larry Mann had been investigated for a violent crime. In 1973, in Mississippi, he forced his way into an apartment where a woman was baby-sitting a 1-year-old boy. He made the woman commit a sex act, threatening to harm the child if she didn’t. He was later arrested and served time in prison.

Before that, when he was a teen, Mann kidnapped a 7-year-old girl from a church parking lot and molested her.

A forensic exam of Elisa’s bike turned up a set of fingerprints under the seat and near the front tire. They belonged to Larry Mann.

But the case’s biggest break came a few days later when Mann’s wife, Donna, went to his truck to retrieve his glasses. On the front seat, she found Wendy Nelson’s note excusing Elisa for being late to school. It was stained with blood. She gave the note to detectives.

They searched his truck and found blood and hair matching Elisa’s inside the cab. A paint scraping from the rear bumper matched paint from Elisa’s bike. And pieces of foam rubber from the front seat matched pieces stuck to Elisa’s clothing.

Prosecutors theorized that Mann abducted Elisa intending to molest her, but did not go through with it. When she tried to escape, he killed her. A jury convicted him of first-degree murder in April 1981 and recommended death by a 7-5 vote.

But legal errors led him to be resentenced twice — in 1983 and 1990. And appeals kept him alive on death row for more than three decades. Few men on death row had been there longer.

In that time, lawyers argued, Mann changed. He corresponded with Sister Loretta Pastva, a nun and professor at Notre Dame College in Ohio, writing her more than 400 letters.

“He realizes the seriousness of the thing he did,” Pastva testified in a 1998 appellate hearing. “He is very sorry about it. He does not expect anything, any special treatment, but he would wish for some mercy.”

Such thoughts stoked the ire of Elisa’s surviving family.

“It is glaringly apparent that there is something fundamentally flawed with a justice system that takes over 32 years to bring to justice a pedophile who confessed to kidnapping and murdering a 10-year-old girl,” Jeff Nelson said. “Several juries of Mann’s peers decided that his crime was so heinous that he should die for it. For the last 12,000 days, there have been arguments about pieces of paper that have no bearing on the facts of this case. … But there is never any deliberation about what he did to Elisa in that orange grove on that November morning.”

Earlier in the day, Mann prepared a written statement. It quoted Bible verse, Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death: but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Larry Mann had a last meal of fried shrimp, fish and scallops, stuffed crabs, hot butter rolls, cole slaw, pistachio ice cream and Pepsi.

Twenty-one witnesses stared at their reflections in a rectangular window as the execution team prepared behind a brown curtain.

At 7:03 p.m., the curtain rose. Mann lay strapped to a gurney. His bald white head peeked out the end of a white sheet that covered his body. An intravenous tube pierced his left arm.

He lifted his head and looked through the window. He leaned back and gazed at the ceiling.

A prison official asked if he wanted to say anything.

“Uh, no, sir.,” Larry Mann said.

The chemicals began flowing at 7:04. The witnesses watched in silence. Mann closed his eyes. His chest rose and fell.

At 7:07, his mouth slipped open. His cheeks turned ashen.

At 7:19, a man in a white coat appeared from behind a curtain. He lifted Mann’s eyelids and shined a light. He put a stethoscope to his chest.

It was over in 15 minutes. The curtain closed.

https://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/larry-mann-executed-for-palm-harbor-girls-1980-killing/2114432/

Rickey Lewis Texas Execution

Rickey Lewis was executed by the State of Texas for a murder committed during a robbery. According to court documents Rickey Lewis would break into a home where he would murder George Newman and would sexually assault his fiance. Rickey Lewis would be executed by lethal injection on April 9 2013

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A Texas convict with a lengthy criminal history was executed Tuesday evening for fatally shooting a man and raping the slain man’s fiancee during a home break-in more than 22 years ago.

Rickey Lewis already had been in and out of prison five times in less than seven years when he was arrested three days after the killing of 45-year-old George Newman and attack on Newman’s fiancee in 1990 at their home in a rural area of Smith County, about 90 miles east of Dallas.

Lewis, 50, acknowledged the rape, but not the killing.

“If I hadn’t raped you, you wouldn’t have lived,” he told Newman’s fiancee, Connie Hilton, in the moments before the single lethal dose of pentobarbital was administered. “I didn’t kill Mr. Newman and I didn’t rob your house.

“I was just there. … I’m sorry for what you’ve gone through. It wasn’t me that harmed and stole all of your stuff,” he said to Hilton, who stood behind a glass window a few feet away. The Associated Press normally does not name rape victims, but Hilton, 63, agreed to be identified.

Rickey Lewis said the two people responsible for Newman’s killing are still alive. He didn’t identify them.

He told Hilton he watched her flee the house to get help. “When I saw you in the truck driving away, I could have killed you, but I didn’t,” he said. “I’m not a killer.”

Rickey Lewis thanked his friends who watched through a nearby window “for the love you gave me.”

“I thank the Lord for the man I am today. I have done all I can to better myself, to learn to read and write,” he said, appearing to choke back tears. “Take me to my king.”

As the drug began taking effect, he said he could feel it “burning my arm.”

“I feel it in my throat. I’m getting dizzy,” Lewis said before he started to snore and, seconds later, lost consciousness.

He was pronounced dead 14 minutes after the lethal dose began.

The U.S. Supreme Court last week refused to review Lewis’ case and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles unanimously voted against a clemency request.

No last-day appeals were filed by his attorneys to try to halt the execution, the second this year in Texas.

Earlier appeals focused on whether Lewis, a ninth-grade dropout who worked as a laborer, was mentally impaired and ineligible for the death penalty under Supreme Court rulings. The claims included a suggestion from Lewis’ attorneys that the court reconsider a denial it made in his case in 2005. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals refused that recommendation on Monday.

Hilton declined to speak with reporters after the execution. In a first-person account she wrote of the attack, she said she got out of bed the night of Sept. 17, 1990, after her barking dog woke her and saw a man in the hallway with a shotgun.

She screamed, and Newman responded and was shot in the face. A dog in the home was also killed.

Hilton tried hiding in a bathroom, was struck at least twice in the head and then assaulted for over an hour by Lewis while the other two people Lewis claims were there stole items from the house.

She testified she was ordered to “quit whimpering,” felt a gun barrel on her and was told someone would find her in the morning.

According to court documents, she was left in the kitchen with her hands and feet bound. As Lewis and his partners fled in her truck, she managed to free herself, crawled to Newman to find him dead and then climbed out a window to seek help.

Lewis was arrested three days later after he was seen with some of the items stolen from the house. DNA evidence linked him to the attack.

“There’s still a lot of fear in the back of my mind because the other two men never were caught,” Hilton told the AP last week. “You never know if there’s going to be retaliation.

“He’s never told anyone and as far as I’m aware of, nobody knows. On the other hand, if he were to tell who was with him, that would confirm his guilt, and he’s not going to do that.”

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in 1996 upheld Lewis’ conviction but reversed his death sentence, finding jurors had faulty instructions when considering his sentence. At a new punishment trial the following year, Lewis again was sentenced to die.

Lewis’ mother, who has since died, testified a 10-year-old Lewis shot his father to protect her. Testimony indicated Lewis’ father had abused him as a child.

Records showed Lewis first went to prison in 1983 for burglary, was paroled and returned to prison as a parole violator. He continued to be a repeat offender and parole violator. His arrest on capital murder charges for Newman’s slaying came six months after his most recent release.

Evidence showed two months before the Newman shooting he stole a truck and led police on a chase. Then four days before the attack, Lewis used a sawed-off shotgun during a store robbery in Tyler.

https://dfw.cbslocal.com/2013/04/09/texas-executes-man-for-1990-fatal-shooting-rape/

Steven Thacker Oklahoma Execution

Steven Thacker was executed by the State of Oklahoma for a murder committed in 1999. According to court documents Steven Thacker during a ten day crime spree would murder three people in three different States from December 1999 to January 2000. As well as receiving a death sentence in Oklahoma he was also sentenced to death in Tennessee. Steven Thacker would be executed for the murder of Laci Dawn Hill, 25, who was kidnapped and sexually assaulted. Steven Thacker would be executed by lethal injection on March 12, 2013

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A man convicted of killing three people in three different states was executed Tuesday evening at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.

Steven Ray Thacker, 42, waived his right to a clemency hearing last month and was put to death by lethal injection Tuesday evening in the prison’s execution chamber.

In the hours before his execution, Thacker visited with clergy and family, prison officials said. He also was served his last meal — a large meat lover’s pizza, a small bag of peanut M&Ms and an A&W root beer — at around noon.

Witnessing the execution were six members of the media; family members of each of Thacker’s three victims; Thacker’s step-father, Donald Johnston, two people from the federal public defenders office, a clergy member on behalf of Thacker; two law enforcement representatives; Oklahoma Department of Corrections Director Justin Jones and three DOC employees.

Before the execution process began, one of the federal public defenders placed his hand in a consoling manner on Thacker’s step-father’s back. The hand remained there throughout the execution.

At 6:02, the blinds between the witness room and the execution chamber were raised. Five additional DOC employees, including OSP Warden Anita Trammell and an attending physician, were with Thacker in the execution chamber.

Thacker then gave his last statement.

“I’d like to apologize sincerely to the families of Laci Hill, Forrest Boyd and Ray Patterson. I don’t deserve it but as God has forgiven me, I hope you will forgive me for the pain I’ve caused.

“I would like to thank my family and friends for your love and support. When my body is gone, my spirit will be with them.

“Jesus Christ died for my sins. God has forgiven me and eternity in heaven is mine.”

Thacker then turned his head slightly and winked at his step-father, who then in turn raised his head to Thacker.

At 6:03, Trammell said, “Let the execution process begin.”

At 6:05, Thacker’s lips bubbled outward and he exhaled heavily. At 6:06 his lips moved slightly and then the color from his face began to drain.

At 6:10, the attending physician pronounced Thacker’s time of death.

Thacker was the first person to be executed in Oklahoma in 2013. The last execution in the state took place at OSP on Dec. 4, 2012, when George T. Ochoa was put to death for the 1993 first-degree murders of Francisco Morales and Maria Yanez. Thacker was the 186th person to be put to death in Oklahoma since 1915.

Following his execution, Laci Hill’s best friend, Marnie Reed, gave a statement on behalf of her family.

“On behalf of Laci’s family and friends I want to thank everyone for the enormous support and love we have received the last 13 years. There are too many people to name individually. Laci impacted many.

“They say time heals all wounds, which I guess is true, but Laci’s murder has left a huge scar to remind us all daily of what we have lost, what we will never have again.

“It was time, justice needed to be served, 13 years was long enough. We believe Steven Thacker deserved to be punished. His selfish act 13 years (ago) destroyed a family and took away a person who was just starting her young life.

“His death won’t erase what happened but hopefully we can now focus on happier memories — memories of the joy Laci brought to our lives. Now we can truly celebrate and remember what an amazing person she truly was.”

When asked her thoughts about the execution, another one of Laci Hill’s friends spoke: “So humane,” Nikki Hodgson said, “He just got to go to sleep .. it’s nothing like what the victims endured.”

The condemned killer arrived at OSP on Feb. 12. Prior to his arrival, Thacker was being held on death row in Tennessee at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.

The request for an execution date for Thacker was made on Jan. 7 by Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt immediately following the U.S. Supreme Court denial of the killer’s final appeal.

“Steven Thacker was sentenced to death for savagely ending the life of an innocent young woman,” Pruitt stated in a press release on Tuesday. “My thoughts are with the families of Laci, Forrest and Ray, who all lost loved ones due to Thacker’s heinous killing spree.”

Thacker was convicted of going on a 10-day killing spree over the Christmas and New Year holidays between December 1999 and January 2000. He killed three people in three states, according to court records.

“In December 2002, Thacker pleaded guilty to the kidnapping, rape and first-degree murder of Laci Dawn Hill, 25, of Bixby,” according to Pruitt.

“Thacker met Hill in her home on Dec. 23, 1999, after answering an ad Hill placed to sell a pool table,” Pruitt said. “When his attempt to rob Hill failed, Thacker kidnapped her and took her to a rural cabin and raped her. Thacker attempted to strangle Hill, but eventually stabbed her in the chest and neck.”

In a videotaped confession, according to police, Thacker told authorities he raped Hill and returned to kill her after realizing she could turn him in.

Thacker then fled to Missouri where he killed 24-year-old Forrest Reed Boyd, stealing his car and credit cards, Pruitt said.

Thacker then drove to Tennessee “where the car ultimately broke down, and he called a tow truck,” according to Pruitt. “Thacker murdered Ray Patterson (age 52), the tow truck driver, after being confronted for using a stolen credit card.”

Thacker was arrested at a Super 8 Motel in Union City, Tenn., after being located by police, according to court documents. After searching Thacker’s motel room, police found several items belonging to Patterson, including credit cards, according to court records. Police also found a pistol, hair dye, two bloodstained coats and two knives, court records state.

Police also searched Thacker’s vehicle and found a third knife, which was covered in Patterson’s blood, court records state. While in police custody, Thacker told authorities “how he had left his home in Chouteau, Okla., on about December 28, 1999, and traveled to Springfield, Mo.,” court records state.

“He left Springfield on December 31 and traveled toward Dyersburg, Tenn., but his car broke down ‘two-and-a-half miles this side of the Mississippi River.’ An unidentified man gave the defendant a ride into Dyersburg and dropped him off at a truck stop,” where he obtained a name and phone number for a local tow-truck driver.

“While at this truck stop, (Thacker) called the victim and asked him to tow his vehicle into the service station,” court records state. “Once they arrived back at the victim’s service station, (Thacker) attempted to pay the victim (Patterson) with the stolen credit card, but the card was rejected.

“According to (Thacker), ‘he wasn’t gonna give my credit, my card back ‘cause I couldn’t pay the bill … And I knew I was wanted in other states, so I just stabbed him and took off.’”

Along with his Oklahoma death sentence, Thacker was serving 10 years for kidnapping and 50 years for first degree rape in Oklahoma. He was sentenced to death in Tennessee for first degree murder and was sentenced to life for a murder charge in Missouri.

https://www.mcalesternews.com/news/three-state-killer-was-executed-tuesday-night-at-osp/article_1910b0bf-5285-5e62-9a1b-f84705d77aa5.html

Frederick Treesh Ohio Execution

Frederick Treesh was executed by the State of Ohio for the murder of security guard. According to court documents Frederick Treesh was on a multi state crime spree which would end with the shooting death of Henry Dupree in Eastlake on Aug. 27, 1994. Frederick Treesh was also suspected of killing another man in Michigan however he was not charged. Frederick Treesh would be executed by lethal injection on March 6, 2013.

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A man who fatally shot an adult bookstore security guard in 1994 at the end of a multistate crime spree was executed today.

Frederick Treesh received a single powerful dose of pentobarbital and was pronounced dead at 10:37 by Donald Morgan, warden of the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville.

Treesh was sentenced to die for killing Henry Dupree in Eastlake on Aug. 27, 1994.

Treesh, in a last statement, apologized for the death of Dupree, but said he wouldn’t say he was sorry to family members of a video store clerk killed in Michigan who were witnessing the execution.

“I’ve never been tried, I’ve never been charged,” he said.

After a few more comments he said, “If you want me murdered, just say it.”

Treesh was the 50th inmate put to death by the state since it resumed executions in 1999.

Gov. John Kasich denied Treesh clemency last week, following the recommendation of the state parole board, which ruled unanimously last month that the evidence showed Dupree was seated when shot and hadn’t shown any sign of being a threat to Treesh. The board also said Treesh’s decision to shoot a clerk in the face as he left the store suggests Treesh’s “murderous intent” when coming to the store.

Treesh and his co-defendant “gratuitously brutalized, humiliated and killed innocent people, most of whom, like Dupree, posed no real or perceived threat to them,” the board said.

Prosecutors say Treesh, 48, and the co-defendant robbed banks and businesses, committed sexual assaults, stole cars, committed carjackings and shot someone to death in a Michigan robbery during a spree that also took them to Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Treesh’s attorneys described him as a cocaine addict who was high during the robbery and is deeply sorry for what happened.

“Hindsight, regret and remorse cannot turn back the clock and cannot return Mr. Dupree’s life,” they said in a petition for clemency. “What Fred can do and has tried to do is to help prevent others from making the same mistakes he did” by teaching them to avoid drugs.

His lawyers also alleged Treesh’s rights were violated during a prolonged interrogation as he was coming down from a drug high, which contributed to his death sentence. They also say Treesh suffers from health problems, including a seizure disorder, that raise concerns Ohio’s lethal injection process would cause him suffering amounting to cruel and unusual punishment.

Prosecutors contend Treesh intentionally murdered Dupree and tried to kill others, including police officers in pursuit.

“Treesh has never taken responsibility for his actions,” Lake County Prosecutor Charles Coulson wrote. “Treesh still claims ‘the cocaine made him do it.’ ”

Coulson also noted that courts previously determined Treesh’s constitutional rights weren’t violated.

Treesh declined to be interviewed by the parole board.

The parole board cited Treesh’s refusal to be interviewed as evidence he has not grown or improved as a person in prison

Treesh’s prison behavior is indicative of “a self-indulgent, petulant and immature individual,” the board said.

He was never prosecuted for the crimes in the other states, according to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office.

Ohio’s most recent execution was in November, when the state put to death Brett Hartman for the 1997 stabbing and dismemberment of an Akron woman.

https://www.cleveland.com/metro/2013/03/ohio_executes_frederick_treesh.html