Death Row Inmates | My Crime Library

Alejandro Umana Federal Death Row

Alejandro Umana was sentenced to death by the Federal Government for the murders of two brother in North Carolina. According to court documents Alejandro Umana would walk into a crowded restaurant and fatally shoot two brothers, Ruben and Manuel Salinas, for he believed they had insulted his gang. Alejandro Umana was arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. As of 2021 he remains on Federal Death Row

Federal Death Row Inmate List

Alejandro Umana 2021 Information

Register Number: 23077-058
Age:	36
Race:	White
Sex:	Male
Located at: Terre Haute USP
Release Date: DEATH SENT

Alejandro Umana More News

Alejandro Enrique Ramirez Umaña shot and killed two brothers, Ruben and Manuel Salinas, at point-blank range in a restaurant in Greensboro, North Carolina, because Umaña perceived that the brothers had insulted Umaña’s gang, Mara Salvatrucha, commonly known as MS–13. A jury convicted Umaña of all counts for which he was charged, including two counts charging him with murder in aid of racketeering, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1959(a)(1), and two counts charging him with committing murder while using a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) and (j)(1). The convictions on those charges subjected Umaña to a maximum sentence of death.

During the sentence selection phase of Umaña’s trial, the government introduced evidence implicating Umaña in several Los Angeles shootings: one on Fairfax Street on July 27, 2005, where two persons were shot and killed, and one in Lemon Grove Park on September 28, 2005, where a group of four persons were shot at and one was killed and two were injured.

On the occasion of the Fairfax Street murders, Umaña was in the passenger seat of a car with several other MS–13 members. The car pulled up alongside two males walking down the street, and the two groups began flashing gang signs at one another. The two males on the street were graffiti artists, or “taggers,” and they made hand gestures that were perceived as challenging MS–13. Some or all of Umaña’s group exited the car to confront the taggers. There were conflicting accounts about what happened next. Umaña’s fellow MS–13 members claimed that Umaña shot the two taggers, but two civilian eye witnesses claimed that the driver of the car shot them.

On the occasion of the Lemon Grove Park murder, two men approached a group of four who had just finished playing basketball and were sitting on bleachers in the park. Without a word, the two men took out guns and opened fire on the group. One of the four basketball players was killed, while two others were wounded. The fourth, Freddie Gonzalez, who was apparently the target of the attack, escaped uninjured. Several pieces of evidence linked Umaña to this murder. First, Gonzalez identified Umaña in a photo lineup and confirmed the identification in court, although he admitted to some uncertainty. Also, Umaña admitted to driving the shooters to the basketball court, although he denied being a shooter himself. Finally, ballistics matched the gun used in the Fairfax Street murders with the gun used in the Lemon Grove Park murder, and there was no evidence that anyone but Umaña was present at both crime scenes.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-4th-circuit/1664329.html

Rejon Taylor Federal Death Row

Rejon Taylor was sentenced to death by the Federal Government for the kidnapping and murder of Guy Luck in Tennessee. According to court documents Rejon Taylor would go to the victims home in Georgia with two associates were he would kidnap the restaurant owner at gunpoint. Rejon Taylor would force the victim into a car where he was then driven to Tennessee where he was shot multiple times. Rejon Taylor would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. As of 2021 he remains on Federal Death Row

Federal Death Row Inmate List

Rejon Taylor 2021 Information

Register Number: 41070-074
Age:	36
Race:	Black
Sex:	Male
Located at: Terre Haute USP
Release Date: DEATH SENT

Rejon Taylor More News

[Taylor] had been responsible for various thefts and burglaries from [Guy] Luck’s house and other nearby residences in Atlanta between 2001 and 2003. On August 6, 2003, [Taylor], along with codefendants Sir Jack Matthews and Joey Marshall, went to Luck’s house with the intention of robbing him. After confronting Luck at gunpoint, Marshall guarded Luck while [Taylor] began looking through Luck’s house. Inside the house, [Taylor] took around $600 or $800. Marshall testified [Taylor] later told him there was a warrant or other document connected with [Taylor’s] arrest on theft charges in another case, which suggested Luck could be a witness against [Taylor].

At gunpoint, Luck was forced outside his house and into his van. [Taylor] got in the driver’s seat, while Matthews guarded Luck in the back. [Taylor] and Matthews each had a gun. [Taylor] drove the van onto Interstate 75 and traveled north from Atlanta. They made a brief stop at a gas station in north Georgia before eventually crossing into southeast Tennessee, where [Taylor] exited the expressway and drove into the Chattanooga suburb of Collegedale. During the trip, Marshall followed behind in a car registered to [Taylor’s] mother.

As [Taylor] drove the van around relatively isolated roads in Collegedale, there was a confrontation in the back of the van, in which Matthews fired a shot, which hit Luck in the arm. [Taylor] turned around from the driver’s seat and fired three shots at Luck. The third bullet hit Luck in the mouth and caused his death later that day at Erlanger Hospital. [Taylor] and Matthews left their guns in the van and walked briskly from the van to the car driven by Marshall. They then drove back to Atlanta.

[Taylor] was subsequently arrested and incarcerated pre-trial at the Hamilton County Jail in Chattanooga. While incarcerated there, [he] was part of a group of inmates that attempted to escape.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-6th-circuit/1725962.html

Kaboni Savage Federal Death Row

Kaboni Savage was sentenced to death by the Federal Government for a series of murders in Pennsylvania. According to court documents Kaboni Savage ordered the firebombing of a witness home that resulted in six people being killed including four children. Kaboni Savage was also convicted of six other murders making his total murder convictions twelve. Kaboni Savage was given thirteen death sentences, twelve for murder and one for witness intimidation. Kaboni Savage is currently being held at ADX Florence where he will remain until his death sentence is carried out at the Federal Penitentiary in Terra Haute. As of 2021 he mains on Federal Death Row

Federal Death Row Inmate List

Kaboni Savage 2021 Information

Register Number: 58232-066
Age:	46
Race:	Black
Sex:	Male
Located at: Florence ADMAX USP
Release Date: DEATH SENT

Kaboni Savage More News

A Pennsylvania drug dealer convicted of committing or ordering at least a dozen murders, including the firebombing killings of an entire family, failed Thursday to convince a federal appeals court panel to overturn the 13 death sentences he faces.

That decision against Kaboni Savage came in a 201-page opinion by Chief Judge D. Brooks Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit.

The circuit court ruling leaves Savage, who once ran a wide-ranging and violent drug trafficking ring in the Philadelphia area, with the dubious honor of being the only Pennsylvanian on federal death row.

Investigators said Savage, now 45, inspired terror for more than two decades.

In March 1998, he shot and killed a man for accidentally bumping his car, they said. Later, Savage had the sole witness to that killing, a fellow drug dealer, gunned down the evening before Savage was to go on trial for the murder.

Savage routinely ordered the murders of business rivals or any member of his organization he suspected of being disloyal, investigators said.

They said that in October 2004 Savage ordered a hit on the family of a former colleague who was cooperating with authorities. Hours later, Savage’s associates firebombed the family’s home, killing the other man’s mother, infant son, 15- and 12-year-old nephews and his cousin and her 10-year-old daughter.

Recordings of prison conversations “revealed Savage’s great satisfaction that the killings had taken place, and the intercepted conversations revealed plans to kill yet other witnesses and their families,” Smith wrote.

He cited one recording where Savage said, “By the time of trial everybody be dead.” In other recordings listed in the circuit court opinion Savage raged about killing all the “rats” who were talking to police and their love ones as well.

“You know what it’s going to cost you, your life and your mom’s life,” Savage was taped telling one witness. “I’m going to kill your mother.” In another recording he spoke of punishing a government witness by killing “everything that you love.” Savage added,” Yeah, he got a daughter down my way. I’m going to blow her little head off. She like five.

Several of those who testified against Savage opted to enter the federal Witness Protection Program, Smith noted.

Savage received his death sentences in June 2013, a month after a federal jury convicted him on 12 counts of murder and one of witness retaliation.

In denying Savage’s appeal, Smith rejected his claims that he didn’t receive a fair trial – he claimed prejudice in part because the jury for his case was overwhelmingly white – that the trial judge issued rulings that violated his civil rights, and that prosecutors cherry-picked the evidence to use against him, omitting factors that might have weighed in his favor.

“Exercising the heightened responsibility required of us (in death penalty cases), we discern no grounds entitling Savage to relief on any of the issues he raises,” Smith wrote.

The circuit court ruling was sharply criticized by Savage’s attorney Lawrence S. Lustberg in the following statement.

“In its first decision on a federal death sentence in the modern era, the Third Circuit has failed to offer coherent guidance to trial courts conducting death penalty cases and has endorsed significant infringements on the rights of defendants facing capital punishment. For example, in a truly unprecedented ruling, the court holds that it was acceptable to substitute a new lead attorney for Mr. Savage in the middle of jury selection, a situation in which no lawyer, no matter how experienced, could have rendered an adequate defense. Under the circumstances, it is inconceivable to us that the court of appeals could have been satisfied that a death verdict was appropriate.”

“This is especially so because the Third Circuit also resolved many issues in the prosecution’s favor even though dozens of important portions of the lower-court proceedings were held off the record, and even though Mr. Savage’s appellate lawyers, who were not involved in the trial, diligently attempted to create an appropriate appellate record. As a result, we were left in the dark about what actually happened. But the court nevertheless concluded that no error occurred. We will continue to pursue relief based on these and other similarly flawed rulings in the panel’s decision.”

https://www.pennlive.com/news/2020/08/murderous-pa-drug-trafficker-cant-escape-his-13-federal-death-sentences-us-court-rules.html

Thomas Sanders Federal Death Row

Thomas Sanders was sentenced to death by the Federal Government for the kidnapping and murder of twelve year old Lexis Roberts. According to court documents Thomas Sanders began dating Lexis Roberts mother Suellen Roberts. After dating for a few months the threesome went on a vacation near the Grand Canyon, on the way home from the trip Thomas Sanders pulled over the vehicle and fatally shot Suellen Roberts before taking off with Lexis still in the vehicle. Sanders would drive cross country to Louisiana where he would murder the twelve year old girl by shooting her four times and slitting her throat. Thomas Sanders would be convicted and sentenced to death. As of 2021 Thomas Sanders remains on Federal Death Row

Federal Death Row Inmate List

Thomas Sanders 2021 Information

Register Number: 15967-043
Age:	63
Race:	White
Sex:	Male
Located at: Terre Haute USP
Release Date: DEATH SENT

Thomas Sanders More News

A federal jury in the Western District of Louisiana today returned a verdict imposing the death penalty on a Las Vegas man for the brutal kidnapping and murder of a 12-year-old girl. This case represents the first time the death penalty has been imposed in federal court in the Western District of Louisiana.

Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Stephanie A. Finley and Special Agent in Charge Michael J. Anderson of the FBI’s New Orleans Division made the announcement.

Thomas Sanders, 57, was convicted on Sept. 8, 2014, of one count of kidnapping resulting in death and one count of using a firearm during a crime of violence resulting in death, for the kidnap and murder of Lexis Roberts in the fall of 2010.

“This is a heartbreaking case,” said Assistant Attorney General Caldwell. “A young girl witnessed the murder of her mother, was held captive for days, and had her life cut tragically short by a senseless, brutal murder. We hope today’s verdict will help Lexis’s family as they continue to struggle with the loss of their loved ones.”

“These types of cases are never easy, but today we remember the victims, their families and their loved ones,” said U.S. Attorney Finley. “The nature of the crime and the level of violence involved are something that we never get used to no matter how long we have done this. The severity of the sentence imposed against Sanders underscores the senseless brutality of his acts against an innocent 12-year-old girl. Lexis Roberts was needlessly taken from a family that loved her, and she was denied the most fundamental right of life, and they were denied the joy of knowing what that life could have been. Still, we do not lose sight of the fact that this trial and sentencing also represent the right of due process that was extended to Sanders, and a jury of his peers has rendered justice. Nothing, no trial or sentence, can ever bring Lexis or her mother back, but we hope that the verdict brings some measure of closure to Lexis’s family. The prosecutors and the law enforcement agencies that assisted in this case are to be commended for their hard work. The importance of their collective efforts cannot be overstated.”

“Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of the victims who have endured unimaginable grief while awaiting the just verdict and sentence for such horrific crimes,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Anderson.

Evidence admitted during trial established that Sanders met Suellen Roberts, 31, in the summer of 2010 when Roberts rented a storage unit at a warehouse in Las Vegas where Sanders worked. Roberts and Sanders began dating, and approximately two months later Roberts agreed that she and her 12-year-old daughter, Lexis, would go on a trip with Sanders over the Labor Day weekend to a wildlife park near the Grand Canyon. As they were returning to Nevada after three days of traveling, Sanders pulled off Interstate 40 in a remote location in the Arizona desert and shot Suellen Roberts in the head and forced Lexis Roberts into the car, keeping her captive.

Sanders drove several days across the country before he murdered Lexis Roberts in a wooded area in Catahoula Parish, Louisiana. Evidence at trial established that Sanders shot Lexis Roberts four times, cut her throat and left her body in the woods, where a hunter found her body on Oct. 8, 2010. A nationwide manhunt ensued, and Sanders was arrested on Nov. 14, 2010, at a truck stop in Gulfport, Mississippi, by FBI agents and a Harrison County Sheriff’s Deputy.

At trial, the jury heard a recorded confession in which Sanders admitted killing the mother and daughter.

This case was investigated by the FBI’s New Orleans Division, Central Louisiana Safe Streets Task Force, Catahoula Parish Sheriff’s Office, Harrison County Sheriff’s Office, Yavapai County Arizona Sheriff’s Office, Coconino County Arizona Sheriff’s Office, and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. Trial Attorney Julie Mosley of the Criminal Division’s Capital Case Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys William J. Flanagan and Brandon B. Brown prosecuted the case.

https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/neworleans/news/press-releases/jury-imposes-death-sentence-on-a-las-vegas-man-for-kidnapping-and-murdering-a-12-year-old-girl

Ricardo Sanchez And Daniel Troya Federal Death Row

Ricardo Sanchez and Daniel Troya were sentenced to death by the Federal Government for the murders of a family on a Florida highway that included two children. According to court documents Ricardo Sanchez and Daniel Troya were owed money by the father of the family and made everyone pay. Jose Luis Escobedo, 28; his wife, Yessica Guerrero Escobedo, 25; and their sons, Luis Julian, 4, and Luis Damian, 3 were all shot multiple times. Ricardo Sanchez and Daniel Troya were convicted and sentenced to death As of 2021 both men remain on Federal Death Row

Federal Death Row Inmate List

Ricardo Sanchez 2021 Information

Register Number: 75820-004
Age:	37
Race:	White
Sex:	Male
Located at: Terre Haute USP
Release Date: DEATH SENT

Daniel Troya 2021 Information

Register Number: 75817-004
Age:	37
Race:	White
Sex:	Male
Located at: Terre Haute USP
Release Date: DEATH SENT

Ricardo Sanchez And Daniel Troya More News

Two men were sentenced to death Wednesday for the drug-debt slaying of a family of four on the side of a Florida highway, including two young boys who died in their mother’s arms.

Daniel Troya, 26, and co-defendant Ricardo Sanchez Jr., 25, both received two death sentences, for the two child victims, and five life terms each at separate hearings.

District Judge Daniel T.K. Hurley called Troya “enormously dangerous” and gave each man additional years in prison on lesser counts.

The sentencings marked the first imposition of a federal death penalty in Florida since the federal government reinstated capital punishment in 1988.

“I must confess I have no confidence that Mr. Troya would not do this again if the opportunity presented itself,” the judge said before reading Troya’s sentence.

Troya, who like Sanchez was shackled at the waist and guarded by four bailiffs, offered an apology during his court session.

“First and foremost, to the victims and family members, I would like to apologize,” he said. “Basically, I’m sorry to my family, the people that put faith in me to be good.”

He also apologized for throwing a plastic water bottle at prosecutors in March after a jury recommended the death penalty for both men. As he was led from the courtroom, Troya nodded to his mother, father and sister, who were silently crying.

The judge said Troya grew up in a “wonderful family” and added, “I have no idea how Mr. Troya got to be the person he is today, but he is an enormously dangerous person who has no regard for the taking of a human life.”

Troya and Sanchez were convicted March 5 of killing Jose Luis Escobedo, 28; his wife, Yessica Guerrero Escobedo, 25; and their sons, Luis Julian, 4, and Luis Damian, 3. Their bodies were found in the grass alongside Florida’s Turnpike on Oct. 13, 2006, shot at close range.

The victims had moved to Palm Beach County from the Brownsville, Texas, area a few months before they were killed.

Prosecutors say Jose Escobedo was involved in a drug ring with the defendants. They said Troya and Sanchez killed him and his family to settle a debt, then stole 15 kilograms (33 pounds) of cocaine from Escobedo.

Yessica Escobedo suffered 11 gunshot wounds while cradling her two young sons in her arms in an apparent attempt to shield them. The boys were shot a total of 10 times. Jose Escobedo was shot five times.

Prosecutors said bullet casings at the scene were linked to ammunition at the defendants’ home. They also said Troya and Sanchez’s fingerprints were found on turnpike tickets from the night of the killings.

On Wednesday, Sanchez told the court he was innocent.

“I want to tell Luis (sic) and Yessica’s families sorry for the tragedy or whatever,” Sanchez said. “But I am going to hold on to my innocence because I am innocent and they will see that when it comes back on appeal.”

Defense attorneys had claimed the case was flimsy, questioned the reliability of government witnesses who stood to gain favor in their own criminal proceedings, and pointed to the lack of witnesses to the actual crime. They claimed the killings were the work of a Mexican drug gang.

Two others — Danny Varela, 28, and Liana Lopez, 20 — also were convicted in March in the same case on drug conspiracy and weapons charges. They face life sentences at hearings scheduled Friday. Authorities said Escobedo was the drug supplier for the gang led by Varela.

https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna30723603