November 2021 | Page 9 of 19 | My Crime Library

Douglas Feldman Texas Execution

Douglas Feldman was executed by the State of Texas for the murders of two truck drivers in 1998. According to court documents Douglas Feldman would shoot and kill two truck drivers during a 45 minute time frame while he drove around on his motorcycle. Douglas Feldman would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Douglas Feldman would be executed on July 31, 2013 by lethal injection

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A former financial analyst with a history of disruptive behavior was executed Wednesday for the shooting deaths of two truckers in the Dallas area 15 years ago.

Douglas Feldman, 55, received a lethal injection for gunning down Robert Everett, 36, of Missouri and Nicholas Valesquez, 62, of Texas.

Feldman mimicked the announcement a judge or jury makes when announcing a verdict, using the names of his victims and declaring he had found them guilty of crimes against him.

“I have sentenced them both to death. I personally carried out their executions,” he said in a loud voice, adding that he carried out their executions in August 1998.

“As of that time, the state of Texas has been holding me illegally in confinement and by force for 15 years,” Feldman said. “I hereby protest my pending execution and demand immediate relief.”

He appeared very nervous, breathing quickly and his feet twitching under a sheet. As the drug began taking effect, he grimaced twice, took a few deep breaths and began snoring. Then all movement stopped.

Feldman was pronounced dead 13 minutes after the lethal drug was injected at 6:28 p.m. local time.

Feldman’s attorney, Robin Norris, filed a clemency petition with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles that was turned down Monday. Multiple courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, earlier rejected appeals on Feldman’s behalf.

Feldman, from Richardson, was riding his motorcycle the night of Aug. 24, 1998, and said Everett, driving an 18-wheeler, cut him off on a Dallas County freeway so he took out his 9 mm pistol, pulled up alongside the truck cab and shot him. Feldman testified at his capital murder trial that he was still angry about 45 minutes later when he spotted Valesquez, a gasoline tanker driver filling a Dallas service station, and shot him.

“A security camera catches him shooting the man in cold blood,” Jason January, the former Dallas County assistant district attorney who prosecuted him, said. “Several counties were frightened as this unidentified motorcyclist was out acting like ‘The Terminator.'”

Feldman was arrested more than a week later, after shooting and wounding a man at a fast-food restaurant and driving off. A bystander saw the shooting and reported his license plate number to police, who tracked him down and found Feldman with two pistols and nearly 300 rounds of ammunition. Ballistics tests confirmed one of the guns was used in all three shootings.

“It feels wonderful to cause their death and to watch their pain,” he said in one of 81 letters he wrote to a former girlfriend while awaiting his trial. The writings from the magna cum laude Southern Methodist University graduate were introduced into evidence.

“God forbid I ever had my finger on the button to launch a nuclear explosive device because I guarantee that I would wipe as many of these bastards off the face of the planet as I am able!” he said in another letter.

Without remorse, he also acknowledged the killings while testifying at his capital murder trial.Feldman became the 11th prisoner executed this year in Texas and third this month. At least seven other inmates are scheduled to die in the coming months in the nation’s busiest capital punishment state

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/douglas-feldman-former-financial-analyst-executed-in-texas-for-1998-road-rage-killings/

Andrew Lackey Alabama Execution

Andrew Lackey was executed by the State of Alabama for a murder committed during a robbery. According to court documents Andrew Lackey was attempting to rob 80-year-old Charles Newman, a World War II veteran inside of his home when the elderly man was shot and stabbed seventy years. Andrew Lackey would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Andrew Lackey would be executed by lethal injection on July 25, 2013

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Andrew Reid Lackey, a convicted killer who prisoners rights groups said was mentally ill, was executed Thursday evening in Atmore, Ala.

Lackey, 29, was convicted in 2008 of the slaying of 80-year-old Charles Newman, a World War II veteran Lackey was trying to rob. Newman was shot, stabbed 70 times and beaten in his Limestone County home on Halloween night 2005.

Lackey made the request last year to halt his appeals process and set a date for his execution, which was the first in Alabama since October 2011.

“He took the stand and explained to the judge why he wanted to be executed,” Limestone District Attorney Brian Jones said, of a hearing in 2012. “He said he was remorseful for what he’d done and wanted to go ahead and pay for his crime.”

The Equal Justice Initiative has said Lackey was mentally ill and recently attempted suicide, but there were no last-minute attempts to appeal the sentence of execution.

Four members of his family spent Lackey’s final day with him, and stayed to witness the execution. He asked for a last meal of turkey bologna, French fries and grilled cheese.

A curtain was drawn back on the witness room at 6 p.m. to reveal Lackey already strapped to a gurney. Lackey’s mother, father, brother and aunt were there, as well as two women and a man representing the victim’s family.

The warden at Holman Correctional Facililty asked if Lackey had anything to say.

“No sir, I don’t,” Lackey said.

Chaplain Chris Summers prayed with Lackey as corrections officers administered the lethal injection, and the curtain was closed at 6:15 p.m.

He was declared dead at 6:25 p.m.

https://www.upi.com/blog/2013/07/26/Alabama-executes-convicted-perhaps-mentally-ill-murderer/9141374855304/

Vaughn Ross Texas Execution

Vaughn Ross was executed by the State of Texas for a double murder. According to court documents Vaughn Ross would shoot and kill Texas Tech dean Douglas Birdsall and 18-year-old Viola Ross McVade. The victims bodies were found in Birdsall vehicle. DNA found at the scene would tie Vaughn Ross to the double murder. Viola Ross McVade was Vaughn’s girlfriend sister and the two had a stormy relationship. Vaughn Ross would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Vaughn Ross would be executed by lethal injection on July 17, 2013

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The U.S. Supreme Court is considering an appeal to block the execution of a former Texas Tech graduate student convicted of a 2001 double slaying in Lubbock.Vaughn Ross is to die Thursday evening in Huntsville for the fatal shooting of a university dean and an 18-year-old woman who was with him in a car. Prosecutors say Viola McVade was the sister of Ross’ girlfriend and had been feuding with Ross. They say Tech’s associate dean of libraries, 53-year-old Douglas Birdsall, was at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Vaughn Ross is to die Thursday evening in Huntsville for the fatal shooting of a university dean and an 18-year-old woman who was with him in a car. Prosecutors say Viola McVade was the sister of Ross’ girlfriend and had been feuding with Ross. They say Tech’s associate dean of libraries, 53-year-old Douglas Birdsall, was at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Ross’ attorneys say lawyers at his trial and in earlier stages of his appeals were deficient and his case should be reviewed.

The execution would be the second this week and 10th this year in Texas

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/vaughn-ross-execution-ex-grad-student-set-to-die-for-killing-2-in-texas/

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A former Texas Tech graduate student said he was lied on before becoming the 10th inmate executed in the state this year, and the second in three days.

Vaughn Ross, 41, was killed by lethal injection for a double murder committed in Lubbock in January 2001. Ross was convicted of killing 53-year-old Douglas Birdsall and 18-year-old Viola Ross McVade, whose bodies were found in Birdsall’s car near a gully.

In his final statement, Ross was both calm and defiant.

”This is what it is,” he said to his friends and loved ones. “I know this is hard for ya’ll but we are going to have to go through it. We know the lies that were told against me in that court. We know it’s not true. I want y’all to be strong and keep going.”

Except, there were no witnesses at the execution on Ross’s behalf, though his mother Johnnie Ross had been outspoken following the 2002 conviction. Ross did not address either of the victim’s family or admit to guilt in his final statement.

“You know I don’t fear death,” Ross said, both his chest and right arm strapped to the death chamber gurney. “I know we weren’t expecting this, but this is what it is.”

Birdsall’s brother Roger stood silently witnessing the execution through a barred death chamber window. After the drugs were administered and Ross was visibly sedated, the victim’s brother wiped a single tear from his left eye.

Roger Birdsall declined to speak with reporters to hasten the process, one Texas Department of Criminal Justice official said.

Birdsall’s son, Nathaniel, told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, his father raised him to believe the death penalty was unjust.

“I am saddened that the loss of two lives will be needlessly compounded by the taking of a third,” he said.

The U.S. Supreme Court denied a final appeal by Ross roughly half an hour before he was taken from his holding cell at 6:03 p.m. Ross was pronounced dead exactly 35 minutes later.

While he was in jail, tape-recordings showed Ross admitting to his mother that he “might have” been involved in the murders.

Matt Powell, the Lubbock County district attorney who prosecuted the case, told The Associated Press last week that it was the closest thing they had to a confession, and that “a guy could never lie to his mama.”

The AP cited court documents that show Birdsall was introduced to McVade through a friend in pursuit of a prostitute.

Rather than claiming innocence, Ross has contended his previous appeals attorneys neglected to note that his trial lawyers didn’t present evidence that may have persuaded jurors to sentence him to life in prison. Assistant Texas Attorney General Tomee Heining argued that that Ross’ trial lawyers called witnesses on Ross’ behalf and managed an “admirable mitigation defense” even though Ross had instructed his family and friends not to cooperate.

Ross was linked to the murders after detectives found his and Birdsall’s DNA on part of a latex glove in the car. Blood from both victims was traced through DNA tests on Ross’ sweatshirt.

Birdsall was an associate dean of libraries at Texas Tech and McVade was the sister of Ross’ girlfriend, with whom there was a feud. Prosecutors contended that McVade was the intended target and Birdsall was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The victims suffered 11 wounds, and McVade was shot three times in the head at close range.

There are 279 death row inmates in Texas and like Ross, 108 of them are black. The remaining six executions on the schedule are white and Hispanic males, three apiece.

Huntsville holds the nation’s most active death chamber. This was the 502nd state execution since 1982.

Douglas Alan Feldman is set to die on July 31.

https://www.itemonline.com/news/state-executes-former-texas-tech-grad-student-in-slayings/article_d608b180-e1a7-5517-9821-cda6f60191ab.html

John Quintanilla Texas Execution

John Quintanilla was executed by the State of Texas for the murder of a retired Sheriff Deputy. According to court documents John Quintanilla was released from prison a few months before he decided to rob and amusement park. During the armed robbery John Quintanilla would shoot and kill Victor Billings as he attempted to stop the robbery. John Quintanilla would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. John Quintanilla would be executed by lethal injection on July 17, 2013

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A Texas man convicted of fatally shooting a retired sheriff’s deputy during the robbery of an amusement center more than a decade ago was put to death Tuesday.

John Manuel Quintanilla received lethal injection for gunning down 60-year-old Victor Billings at a game room in Victoria, about 125 miles southwest of Houston. The 2002 slaying came just a few months after Quintanilla had been released from prison after serving a sentence for several burglary convictions.

Asked to make a final statement before his execution, Quintanilla told his wife he loved her.

“Thank you for all the years of happiness,” he said. He never acknowledged his victim’s friends or relatives, including two daughters, who watched through a window.

As the lethal drug began taking effect, he snored about a half dozen times, then stopped breathing. He was pronounced dead 15 minutes after being given the drug.

Quintanilla’s wife, a German national who married him by proxy while he was in prison, watched through an adjacent window and sobbed.

Quintanilla, 36, became the ninth Texas inmate to receive lethal injection this year and the 501st since the state resumed carrying out capital punishment in 1982. His was the first of two executions set for this week; the other is planned for Thursday.

Quintanilla’s punishment was carried out after the U.S. Supreme Court refused two last-day appeals.

His lawyers contended his confession was coerced by authorities threatening to also charge one of his sisters and that the statement improperly was allowed into evidence at his trial in 2004. The lawyers obtained affidavits from two jurors who said the confession was key to their decision to convict him.

“It is clear that Quintanilla would not have been convicted of capital murder if his confession had not been admitted – a fact confirmed by two of his jurors,” appeals lawyer David Dow told the high court.

“There wasn’t any coercion whatsoever,” Dexter Eaves, the former Victoria County district attorney who was lead prosecutor at the trial, recalled last week. He also said that while the robbers, who fled with about $2,000, were masked, witnesses were able to “describe very clearly who the triggerman was.”

Court records show Billings, a retired chief deputy from nearby Edna in adjacent Jackson County, was at the game center with his wife on the Sunday before Thanksgiving in 2002 when the gunmen came in through a back door. Billings approached one of them and grabbed the barrel of the gunman’s rifle “so no one else was going to be hurt, and paid for it dearly,” Eaves said.

He said Billings was shot three times, the last one fired while he was on his knees.

During questioning by detectives for an unrelated robbery some two months later, Quintanilla made references to the still unsolved Billings case, then led authorities to a canal where divers recovered items used in the holdup.

Prosecutors bolstered their case for Quintanilla’s future dangerousness by presenting evidence he attacked a jailer with a homemade weapon while awaiting trial.

Quintanilla’s accomplice, Jeffrey Bibb, 33, is serving 60 years for murder and 50 years for aggravated robbery.

On Thursday, another Texas inmate is set for lethal injection. Vaughn Ross, 41, is to be executed for a double slaying in Lubbock in 2001.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/john-manuel-quintanilla-texas-inmate-executed-by-lethal-injection-for-killing-of-retired-sheriffs-deputy/

Brian Davis Oklahoma Execution

Brian Davis was executed by the State of Oklahoma for a sexual assault and murder. According to court documents Brian Davis returned home to find his girlfriend and daughter missing. Brian Davis would call his girlfriends mother to ask about their whereabouts. The mother could not reach her daughter and would go over to her daughters apartment. When she arrived the woman would be sexually assaulted and murdered. The woman’s daughter would find her body the next day. Brian Davis would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Brian Davis would be executed by lethal injection on June 25, 2013

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A man convicted of raping and murdering his girlfriend’s mother in 2001 was put to death on Tuesday, despite a recommendation by Oklahoma’s pardon and parole board to commute his death sentence after he apologized.

Brian Darrell Davis, 39, received a lethal injection Tuesday at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. Davis was the third inmate to be executed by Oklahoma this year and the second in as many weeks.

Davis read a biblical-themed statement that included psalms and scripture-based references.

“I shall not die but live. His word is will, and let His will be done,” Davis said. “I give God the last word. Thank you.”

Moments later, Davis looked up at the ceiling as the lethal drug was injected. His eyes slowly closed and his left shoulder began to twitch as the lethal drug took effect.

Davis was pronounced dead at 6:25 p.m., five minutes after the lethal drug was administered.

The state’s parole board had suggested to Gov. Mary Fallin that she cut Davis’ sentence to life without parole. Fallin rejected the board recommendation, with spokesman Aaron Cooper saying the governor reviewed Davis’ file and was “satisfied that justice is being served in this case.”

A jury convicted Davis in 2003 of first-degree murder and first-degree rape in the death of his girlfriend’s mother, Josephine Sanford, 52. Davis was sentenced to death on the murder conviction and 100 years in prison for rape.

The victim’s daughter, Stacey Sanford, discovered her mother dead in November 2001 in the Ponca City apartment she shared with Davis. Prosecutors said Josephine Sanford had six stab wounds, a broken jaw and marks around her neck. DNA evidence showed Davis had sex with the victim.

Davis went to the parole board this month, took responsibility for the victim’s death and apologized. He said the sexual contact was consensual and that a fight broke out after he remarked about its quality.

“I was rude at the end,” Davis said, appearing before the panel by video. “We were mad at each other after my comment. And one thing led to another. It just happened so quick.”

The board voted 4-1 in favor of clemency, prompting Attorney General Scott Pruitt to say the board was usurping the jury that convicted Davis and that the inmate deserved to die for a brutal crime.

Davis’ defense attorney, Jack Fisher, said as the execution date approached that justice was not being served.

“By the end of the clemency hearing, four of the five board members were convinced that justice could only be served by a sentence of life without parole,” Fisher said. “Why Governor Fallin would substitute her judgment for four members of the board is a mystery to me.”

Death penalty opponents, who rallied Monday at the state Capitol to urge Fallin to show mercy, argued that Davis deserved life in prison, not death, after he showed remorse.

They also suggested that since Davis, who is black, was convicted by an all-white jury in Kay County that it wasn’t truly a jury of his peers and there could have been bias.

“Our governor is in a position to make a wrong right,” said Garland Pruitt, president of the Oklahoma City chapter of the NAACP. “Wrongs can be righted, hearts can be changed, but it takes those in office to help make those changes take place.”

Last week, the state executed James Lewis DeRosa, 36, for his part in the brutal killings of a LeFlore County ranch couple in 2000.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/06/25/oklahoma-execution-davis/2458203/