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Gregory Decay Arkansas Death Row

Gregory Decay was sentenced to death by the State of Arkansas for two counts of murder. According to court documents Gregory Decay would force himself into an apartment where he shot and killed two men, Kevin Barkley Jones and Kendall Rachell Rice, in their Fayetteville apartment April 3, 2007. Decay would tell police that he believed that the two victims had stolen marijuana and guns from him. Gregory Decay was sentenced to death on both counts of murder

Arkansas Death Row Inmate List

Gregory Decay 2021 Information

ADC Number 000971

Name: Decay, Gregory C

Race BLACK Sex MALE Hair Color BLACK Eye Color BLACK

Height 72 inches Weight 155 lbs.

Birth Date 07/11/1985

Initial Receipt Date 04/28/2008

Facility Varner Supermax

Gregory Decay More News

Attorneys for condemned double-murderer Gregory Decay are taking one more crack at getting his convictions overturned by the Arkansas Supreme Court, arguing jury selection in the death penalty case was flawed.

Decay, 29, gunned down Kevin Barkley Jones and Kendall Rachell Rice in their Fayetteville apartment April 3, 2007. Both were 24. Decay was convicted and given two death sentences in April 2008. Decay must exhaust all state court remedies before beginning the federal appeals process

Death penalty convictions in Arkansas automatically are appealed to the Arkansas Supreme Court for mandatory review. The court upheld the capital convictions in November 2009. A subsequent appeal that claimed ineffective counsel was rejected.

The high court has agreed to at least listen to the latest argument. Decay’s attorneys at the Federal Public Defender’s Office in Little Rock this week filed motions that ask the court to recall its mandate in the case, vacate the convictions and remand the case to settle the record or, if the record in the case cannot be reconstructed, a new trial.

They contend the record was not sufficient for the court to fully review the case. They argue the high court did not receive a full record of the proceedings on appeal, specifically information about juror questionnaires and the striking of some potential jurors before trial.

The motion, by Assistant Federal Public Defender Scott Braden, contends critical parts of the jury selection were done off the record, outside the courtroom and out of Decay’s presence.

“Thirty jurors were excluded before trial began with no record of these exclusions or strikes. At least one of the jurors stricken by the prosecution prior to trial was African American,” according to the motion, “Mr. Decay, a black man charged with killing two white victims, was tried, convicted and sentenced to death by an all-white jury.”

The other African American in the jury pool was never called during jury selection process.

The motion says extensive questionnaires sent to potential jurors before trial were destroyed, preventing them from being made part of the appeal record, and there was no record from the lower court about how they were used in the jury selection process.

“What this court did not know, because the trial court abused its discretion in not making the necessary record, was how this ‘lengthy questionnaire’ was created,” according to the motion. “On April 17, 2008, thirty jurors were peremptorily stricken before trial based solely on this questionnaire and at least one African American juror was excluded in this process. Conducting or allowing this off-the-record proceeding was an abuse of the trial court’s discretion in jury selection.”

The abuse of discretion directly prevented the Supreme Court’s mandatory review, causing a breakdown in the appellate procedure and deprived Decay of his fundamental constitutional rights, according to the motion.

Lawyers from the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office have filed a response saying there are no grounds to recall the mandate because Decay did not ask for the jury selection process to be made a part of the appeal record and his trial attorneys agreed to the jury selection format.

“There is no affidavit indicating that these materials were not available in defense counsel’s files for inclusion on direct review via a motion to settle the record or to supplement the record,” according to the response. “Accordingly, the appellant does not demonstrate that the record was incomplete or that the trial court improperly destroyed the juror’s questionnaires.”

The response, by Assistant Attorney General Karen Wallace, also contends Decay has not demonstrated how the court’s review of the material would have changed the result of his appeal.

Decay walked into the apartment on Sycamore Street and shot Jones in the face with a .40-caliber pistol from less than two feet away. Then he turned and shot Rice in the face. During an interview with police, Decay said he killed Jones and Rice because he believed they had broken into his apartment and stolen marijuana and a gun.

Jesse Westeen, 28, was convicted of being an accomplice. He pleaded guilty to driving Decay to the apartment. He was sentenced to 50 years.

Decay was the first person to be given a death sentence in Washington County since 1981. A convict from Washington County hasn’t been executed since 1920. Several others were sentenced to death in the interim, but their sentences were either commuted to life in prison when the U.S. Supreme Court declared the death penalty unconstitutional in 1972 or their sentences were overturned on appeal. The death penalty was reinstated in 1976.

Benton County last had a murderer executed in August 1996 when Frankie Parker was put to death for killing his former in-laws and holding his ex-wife hostage in 1984 in Rogers.

Death row

Benton County has three men on Arkansas’ death row. Zachary Holly, 30, was sentenced to death earlier this week for the murder, kidnapping and rape of 6-year-old Jersey Bridgeman. Don Davis was sentenced to die in 1992 for the execution-style killing of Jane Daniel of Rogers. Brandon Lacy was sentenced to die in 2009 for the murder of Randy Walker. Circuit Judge Robin Green ruled that Lacy is entitled to another sentencing hearing, which is on appeal. Washington County has two men on death row: Decay and Zachariah Marcyniuk. Both men were sentenced to death in 2008. Marcyniuk, 36, stabbed University of Arkansas student Katie Wood to death after breaking into her apartment and laying in wait for her.

https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2015/may/31/decay-claims-jury-selection-flawed-seeks-new-trial/

Derek Sales Arkansas Death Row

Derek Sales was sentenced to death by the State of Arkansas for the murder of a disabled man. According to court documents Derek Sales was serving a seventy five year prison sentence for rape and kidnapping when he escaped from a Warren jail. On the run Derek Sales would break into the home of the victim, Willie York, who was confined to a wheelchair. The victim would be murdered in his home. Derek Sales would be arrested in the victim’s home the day after the murder. Derek Sales would be convicted and sentenced to death.

Arkansas Death Row Inmate List

Derek Sales 2021 Information

ADC Number 000968

Name: Sales, Derek

Race BLACK Sex MALE Hair Color SALT & PEPPER Eye Color BROWN

Height 71 inches Weight230 lbs.

Birth Date 01/08/1961

Initial Receipt Date 01/29/1986

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A Warren man convicted in the April 2005 killing of a man in a wheelchair has been sentenced to death.

Bradley County Circuit Court Judge Bynum Gibson on Thursday sentenced Gibson Derek Sales, 46, to death, following a jury’s recommendations. A jury deliberated about two hours before returning with the death sentence, said Prosecutor Thomas Deen.

The jury convicted Sales of stabbing and strangling Willie York, 56. Sales also received a life sentence on an aggravated robbery charge.

Police said they found Sales in York’s home the day after the April 16, 2005, killing.

Sales was already serving 75 years in prison before a Christmas Eve 2005 escape from a Warren jail. He and another prisoner overpowered guards with pepper-spray and a sock loaded with bars of soap. Police captured Sales shortly after his escape.

Deen said Sales had previously been in prison for other convictions, including rape and kidnapping

https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2007/may/19/warren-man-convicted-murder-sentenced-death/

Derek Sales Other News

Willie York, whom Sales knew and visited, was found murdered in his home on April 16, 2005. York, who suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, had very limited use of his hands and could not walk. For this reason, York was mostly confined to a recliner and a bed that was kept in the living room of his home. It was adduced at trial that Sales was aware that York, who sold beer by the can out of his home, used a cigar box as a cash register and as storage for some personal papers. Sales was also aware of the fact that York kept this cigar box near him at all times.

On the day of the murder, Sales was at the York home several times and purchased several beers from York. When York’s family left his home at approximately 6:30 that evening, Sales was there, and he was still there later in the evening when York’s granddaughters brought him dinner and when York’s daughter stopped by for a short visit. Later that night, two of York’s granddaughters went to the home to help York get into bed. When they arrived at the house, they could not see York sitting in his recliner and then noticed a shadowy figure, whom they recognized as Sales, moving about the house. Concerned, they called 911. One of the officers at the scene confronted Sales on the front porch of the home, and after Sales tried to flee, he was taken into custody. York was then found inside the home lying in a pool of blood on the floor. He was pronounced dead at the scene, and the medical examiner later determined that there were three possible causes of his death: strangulation, blunt-force trauma to the abdomen, head, and chest, and a stab wound of the neck. Sales was subsequently charged with residential burglary, aggravated robbery, and capital murder, although the residential burglary charge was later nol-prossed.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/ar-supreme-court/1679451.html

Thomas Springs Arkansas Death Row

Thomas Springs was sentenced to death by the State of Arkansas for the murder of his estranged wife. According to court documents Thomas Springs would drive head on into his estranged wife’s vehicle. He would get out of his car and walk over to her vehicle where he smashed her face off of the dashboard before returning to his vehicle and grabbed a knife. Thomas Springs would go back to his wives vehicle and stabbed the woman multiple times. Thomas Springs would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Arkansas Death Row Inmate List

Thomas Springs 2021 Information

ADC Number 000966

Name:Springs, Thomas L

Race BLACK Sex MALE Hair Color BLACK Eye Color BROWN

Height 68 inches Weight 172 lbs.

Birth Date 06/25/1962

Initial Receipt Date 11/18/2005

Facility Varner Supermax

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A Sebastian County jury voted unanimously Wednesday to sentence Thomas Leo Springs to death by lethal injection for the murder of his estranged wife, Christina Springs.

On Tuesday the five-man, seven-woman jury found Thomas Springs, 43, guilty of capital murder and two counts of aggravated assault in connection with a Jan. 21 attack on his wife at the intersection of North Greenwood and Rogers avenues. Witnesses testified during the three-day trial that Springs deliberately rammed a car occupied by three people, one of them his wife, then stabbed his wife to death as she sat in the car.

The jury deliberated for about 3 1/2 hours before returning a sentence of death for capital murder and six years in prison and a $10,000 fine for each count of aggravated assault, with the sentences to run consecutively.

The jury found that all three of the aggravating factors alleged by Sebastian County Prosecuting Attorney Steve Tabor existed, including previous violent felonies committed by Springs; endangerment of other peoples’ lives in the commission of the crime; and commission of the crime in an especially cruel or depraved manner.

The jury was required to find that at least one aggravating factor existed before it could impose the death penalty. The only other possible penalty was life in prison without parole.

Jurors also found that several of the mitigating factors alleged by Chief Public Defender John Joplin existed, including Springs’ emotional distress over the fact that his wife had left him and taken their children, but there was no mitigating factor that all 12 jurors agreed on.

In death sentence cases, an appeal is automatic.

After the sentence was announced, three of the six children Thomas and Christina Springs had together were allowed to make statements. Thomas Springs cried as Joshua Mooring, 13, Matthew Mooring, 15, and Chantelle Mooring, 18, spoke in turn.

“I forgive you,” Chantelle Mooring said to her father, after noting that she will never be able to tell her mother she is getting married, and her mother will never get to be a grandmother.

Springs also was allowed to speak. Sobbing loudly, he told his children he was sorry, told them to take care of each other and said he deserved to die.

In interviews after the trial, attorneys for both sides described the case as tragic.

“It was a tragedy to begin with, and it’s a tragedy the way it ended,” said Cash Haaser, one of the public defenders who represented Springs.

Tabor said he felt “an overwhelming sense of sadness about the whole affair” but said the jury “worked hard, they paid close attention, and I think they reached the verdict that the law calls for them to make.”

Joshua Mooring said after the trial that he believed his father should have received a life sentence.

“I will now be an orphan when my dad gets the death penalty,” he said.

Matthew Mooring spoke of feeling a mix of emotions about his father.

“I feel bad for him and I love him, but sometimes people make mistakes, and he made one. I wish what happened hadn’t happened. I wish I was with my mom right now,” he said.

Laura Eagle, one of Christina Springs’ sisters, said the sentence did not relieve her pain.

“We thought there would be closure, but it wasn’t a good feeling,” she said.

Kelly Repking, another of Christina Springs’ sisters, said she also felt no closure, but she hoped that good would come from Thomas Springs’ execution.

“Hopefully this will send a message to abusers that domestic violence needs to stop,” said Repking, who was in the vehicle with her sister when Thomas Springs attacked and killed his wife.

The defense called three witnesses Wednesday before resting its case.

Shelly Blanton, who was Thomas Springs’ supervisor at Whirlpool, described him as a good worker and said his eyes lit up when he talked about his children. Blanton said Springs’ demeanor was “down and quiet” after his wife and children moved out in December.

Greg Kannady, Springs’ pastor, testified that Springs was “someone who really cared about his family.”

Jennifer Springs, Thomas Springs’ sister, testified that her brother phoned her, crying, at 4 a.m. after his wife and children moved out.

Tabor told jurors that none of the witnesses for the defense lived with Thomas and Christina Springs.

“None of them saw the dark side of Thomas Springs, that habitually abuses, that habitually is violent to others,” he said.

Joplin urged jurors not to take Springs out of his children’s lives forever. He reminded the jury that on Tuesday one of the children, 12-year-old Jacob Springs, asked his father if someday he would explain why he did what he did.

“You’re not going to get an answer from a tombstone that says Thomas Leo Springs,” Joplin said.

Mickey Thomas Arkansas Death Row

Mickey Thomas was sentenced to death by the State of Arkansas for the murder of two women during a robbery. According to court documents Mickey Thomas who was in the middle of a crime spree would enter the Cornerstone Monument Co. where he would fatally shoot two women inside of the store. At the time of the murders Mickey Thomas was facing charges of sexual assault in another part of the State. Mickey Thomas would be arrested, charged and sentenced to death

Arkansas Death Row Inmate List

Mickey Thomas 2021 Information

ADC Number 000965

Name:Thomas, Mickey D

Race BLACK Sex MALE Hair Color BLACK Eye Color BROWN

Height 64 inches Weight 194 lbs.

Birth Date 09/25/1974 Initial Receipt Date 09/29/2005

Facility Varner Supermax

Mickey Thomas More News

On June 14, 2005, DeQueen Police found the bodies of two women at Cornerstone Monument Company after receiving a call about a possible

break in. Mona Shelton, the owner of the company, had been beaten and shot once in the head. Donna Cary, a customer, had been shot once in the head at close range. Police received a report of a black male with a white bag walking away from the front of Cornerstone Monument Company and getting into a pewter or copper-colored Ford Mustang with an Oklahoma license plate. Police broadcast this description to area law enforcement officers, and at 11:27 a.m., Trooper Jamie Gravier of the Arkansas State Police spotted the Mustang traveling west near the Oklahoma-Arkansas border. Gravier attempted to stop the vehicle, and a high-speed chase ensued into Broken Bow, Oklahoma.
Oklahoma police ultimately located the vehicle parked behind the Broken Bow residence of Hazel Thomas, [Thomas’s] mother, but the driver had already left the area. That same afternoon, police received a report that a black male with a gun had just stolen a Broken Bow resident’s Mercury Cougar. The Oklahoma authorities spotted the vehicle, and they were able to apprehend [Thomas].
[Thomas] waived extradition to Arkansas and was charged in Sevier County with two counts of capital murder in the deaths of Mona Shelton and Donna Cary. The case was transferred to Pike County where [Thomas] was convicted of two counts of capital murder and was given a sentence of death for each count.
https://casetext.com/case/thomas-v-kelley-4

Billy Thessing Arkansas Death Row

Billy Thessing was sentenced to death by the State of Arkansas for the murder of an elderly woman. According to court documents the victim, sixty seven year old Mattie Basinger, was found dead in her home. The woman had been stabbed multiple times. One of Billy Thessing friends would go to the police and tell them of Thessing involvement. Billy Thessing would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Arkansas Death Row Inmate List

Billy Thessing 2021 Information

ADC Number 000964

Name: Thessing, Billy

Race CAUCASIAN Sex MALE Hair Color BROWN Eye Color HAZEL

Height 69 inches Weight 180 lbs.

Birth Date 09/11/1968

Initial Receipt Date 09/20/2001

FacilityV arner Supermax

Billy Thessing More News

On February 17, 2003, Susan Basinger Sweet went to the home of her mother, Mattie Basinger, a sixty-seven year old cancer survivor. She discovered that Ms. Basinger’s car was not there. She sent her son, Jeremiah, into the home first, but Susan and her children entered subsequently and found Ms. Basinger dead. They immediately went outside and called the Little Rock Police Department.

Takeisha Gilbert, a patrol officer for the department, was the first police officer to arrive at the scene. She observed blood throughout the house and found Ms. Basinger’s body in the bedroom. The autopsy later revealed that Ms. Basinger had a total of six stab and cutting wounds on multiple parts of her body. She also received blunt force wounds to her head.

Two of the stab wounds were in her cheek region, which caused bleeding inside her mouth. The bleeding in her mouth caused her to aspirate blood into her trachea that subsequently went into her lungs. The medical examiner testified at trial that Ms. Basinger was alive when she received all these injuries. He concluded Ms. Basinger was alive and breathing in her own blood for ten to fifteen minutes before a blunt force trauma to her head caused her death.

On February 17, 2003, Pam McNew went to the Benton Police Department to talk to police officers after seeing a news report on television about Ms. Basinger’s murder. She testified at trial that Thessing, a friend since childhood, came to her house late on the evening of February 11, 2003. She saw him in her yard when she returned from the store. He was burning trash in her front yard. They both went into her house, and he told her that he had killed someone earlier that evening. He then went back outside and brought in some groceries, a television set, vitamins, unfilled prescription slips, and a large Bible. Ms. McNew also told the authorities that the car he drove to her house was the car that belonged to Ms. Basinger. She later found Ms. Basinger’s wheelchair in her shed. Police officers also found silverware and credit cards on the premises which were taken from Ms. Basinger.

Ms. McNew further stated that Billy Thessing had tried to convince her fiancé, who was also at her house, to go with him to burn down Ms. Basinger’s home so he could try to make the murder look like an accident. At the ensuing trial, Ms. McNew testified that she, Thessing, and her fiancé used crack cocaine together that night. Although Ms. McNew did not believe Thessing at first, she later ordered him to leave her house, because she had a child and because she did not want to get in trouble herself. She stated that Thessing left in Ms. Basinger’s car. The police officers came and recovered all the things Thessing had left at her home. Ms. McNew received a $400 reward for going to the police.

Also on February 17, 2003, Thessing wrecked Ms. Basinger’s car and was arrested by a Benton police officer for public intoxication. Inside Ms. Basinger’s car, police officers found a pair of boots with Ms. Basinger’s blood on them. Additionally, police investigators found Thessing’s fingerprints in Ms. Basinger’s home.

On April 16, 2003, the prosecuting attorney filed a four-count information against Billy Thessing, charging him with capital murder, residential burglary, and theft by receiving property valued in excess of $2500.00. The information further charged Thessing with misdemeanor theft by receiving property valued at less than $500.00. The information added that Thessing was a habitual offender with four or more prior felony convictions.

Before trial, Billy Thessing moved for an order that he was incompetent to stand trial. He was later judged competent to stand trial at a pretrial hearing. He was tried and convicted of all four charges against him. He was sentenced to death for the capital murder charge.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/ar-supreme-court/1223601.html