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George Ochoa Oklahoma Execution

George Ochoa was executed by the State of Oklahoma for a double murder committed during a robbery. According to court documents George Ochoa and Osvaldo Torres would force their way into a home and would shoot and kill the two homeowners, 38 year old Francisco Morales and his 35 year old wife, Maria Yanez. Both George Ochoa and Osvaldo Torres would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Osvaldo Torres was granted clemency and was resentenced to life without parole. George Ochoa would be executed by lethal injection on December 4, 2012

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An Oklahoma death row inmate was executed Tuesday for the 1993 shooting deaths of an Oklahoma City couple.

George Ochoa, 38, was given an injection of lethal drugs at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary at McAlester less than a month after the state Pardon and Parole Board rejected Ochoa’s request that it recommend Gov. Mary Fallin reduce his death sentence to life in prison.

Ochoa is one of two men convicted of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of Francisco Morales, 38, and Maria Yanez, 35. Investigators say Morales was shot 12 times and Yanez 11 times in their bedroom on July 12, 1993. The couple’s three children were inside the house at the time of the shootings.

Ochoa claimed he had been shocked and suffered injuries during his incarceration, but prosecutors said his claims of hallucinations and harm were likely an attempt to feign mental incompetence. Courts prohibit the execution of people who do not understand why they are being punished.

Officials said earlier psychological evaluations showed no evidence of delusions or hallucinations, and that claims about such didn’t start until he was charged.

Ochoa lost a late attempt at having his execution postponed when the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday denied his request for a stay. A federal appeals court on Monday rejected arguments that Ochoa was mentally unfit to be executed and a challenge to the state’s procedure for determining sanity.

Prosecutors said there was little evidence to suggest a motive for the killing, but no doubt that Ochoa and his co-defendant, Osbaldo Torres, 37, were responsible. Ochoa and Torres were stopped by police near the crime scene and were described by police as “sweating and nervous,” court records show.

Torres, a Mexican citizen, was also convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in the shootings, but his sentence was reduced by then-Gov. Brad Henry in 2004. Henry imposed a sentence of life without parole after Mexican government officials raised concerns that Torres was not given a chance to speak with the Mexican consulate after being accused, as required by international conventions

https://www.foxnews.com/us/oklahoma-executes-george-ochoa-for-the-1993-shooting-deaths-of-couple-while-children-at-home

Gary Allen Oklahoma Execution

Gary Allen was executed by the State of Oklahoma for the murder of his fiancee. According to court documents Gary Allen would shoot to death his fiancee following a breakup. When Gary Allen was being taken into custody he was in a struggle and attempted to shoot the officer, however the officer moved and Gary Allen shot himself in the eye. Gary Allen was convicted and sentenced to death. Gary Allen would be executed by lethal injection on November 6 2012

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An Oklahoma man who was put to death Tuesday evening despite claims that he was insane spent his final moments rambling about the presidential election and appeared startled when a prison official announced the start of the execution.

Garry Thomas Allen, 56, was executed for the 1986 killing of his fiancée, 24-year-old Lawanna Gail Titsworth, outside an Oklahoma City day-care center. His attorneys had argued that Allen should not be put to death because he could not understand the judgment against him.

Allen appeared confused moments after prison officials lifted a curtain separating the death chamber from witnesses. Slurring his words, Allen spoke for two minutes in an address that mentioned Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. His execution was held at 6pm Tuesday, one hour before polls closed in Oklahoma.

“Obama won two out of three counties,” Allen said. “It’s going to be a very close race.”

At 6:02pm, a prison official announced that the execution was about to begin.

“What? Huh?” Allen said.

When the drugs began to flow, Allen grunted several times and wiggled his feet. He was pronounced dead at 6:10pm.

Titsworth had moved out of the home she shared with Allen and their two sons four days before her death. Allen confronted Titsworth and shot her twice in the chest. She ran with a center employee toward the building, but Allen pushed the worker away, shoved Titsworth down some steps and shot her twice more in the back, according to court records.

Titsworth’s sister-in-law, Susan Titsworth, issued a statement after the execution, on behalf of the family.

“Our beloved Gail, daughter, sister and mother of two young boys, was taken from our family tragically and senselessly due to domestic violence,” the statement said. “For over 25 years, we have waited for justice to be served and for this sentence to be carried out. We are thankful to close the book on this chapter today but we will never stop grieving the loss of Gail.”

A police officer responding to a 911 call tussled with Allen before shooting him in the face, according to court documents. Allen was hospitalized for about two months with injuries to his face, left eye and brain. He entered a blind guilty plea to first-degree murder, meaning he had not reached a plea deal with prosecutors and did not know what the sentence would be. A judge sentenced him to die.

Allen’s attorneys argued he was not competent enough to enter the plea. They also contended he was mentally impaired when he killed Titsworth, that he had been self-medicating for a mental illness and that his mental condition became worse on death row. The US constitution forbids the execution of inmates who are insane or mentally incompetent.

A judge halted Allen’s original execution, on 19 May 2005, after a psychological examination at the prison indicated that Allen had mental problems. Three years later, a jury rejected Allen’s claim that he should not be put to death. The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board had voted in April 2005 to recommend that Allen’s death sentence be commuted to life without parole. That clemency recommendation was not acted on until this year, when Republican governor Mary Fallin denied it.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/nov/07/oklahoma-executes-garry-thomas-allen-insanity

Timothy Stemple Oklahoma Execution

Timothy Stemple was executed by the State of Oklahoma for the murder of his wife. According to court documents Timothy Stemple would report his wife missing, the next day her body would be found badly beaten. Turns out Timothy Stemple took out a large insurance policy on her and proceeded to beat her to death with a baseball bat. Timothy Stemple would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Timothy Stemple would be executed by lethal injection on March 15, 2012.

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An Oklahoma man convicted of killing his wife with help from a relative of his mistress to collect insurance money was put to death by injection Thursday.

Timothy Shaun Stemple shook his head no when asked if he had any last words, as members of his family and his wife’s sat separately from each other watching the condemned man through glass.

The 46-year-old Stemple gasped for about 20 seconds, his eyes opened and he groaned. He then laid still with closed eyes and his face turned pale. He was pronounced dead at 6:11 p.m.

His family had asked the governor to stay the execution so that medical testimony disputing his accomplice’s account of the 1996 attack on Trisha Stemple could be heard in court. Stemple’s mother, his 21-year-old daughter and his sisters held each other by their hands and arms as he was being put to death. One of his sisters held his crying daughter’s face close to hers.

Afterward, Trisha Stemple’s sister, Deborah Ruddick-Bird, said the day was not about Timothy Stemple. She said it was “about justice, finality and closure for my gorgeous sister, Trisha, and my family.”

“Today we put a period at the end of the chapter that held us captive for far too long,” Ruddick-Bird told reporters. “Today we breathe again. Today we move forward and move on.”

Trisha Stemple, 30, was beaten with a plastic-covered baseball bat and run over by a pickup truck Oct. 24, 1996, along a Tulsa highway. Her husband maintained his innocence throughout the trial and appeals process. And at a clemency hearing last month, he declined to address Pardon and Parole Board members.

The board denied his plea for clemency.

https://www.oklahoman.com/article/feed/360187/oklahoma-executes-man-for-wifes-1996-slaying

Gary Welch Oklahoma Execution

Gary Welch was executed by the State of Oklahoma for the murder of a man over drugs. According to court documents Gary Welch and the victim Robert Dean Hardcastle, 35, were involved in an argument over drugs when Gary beat and slashed Robert with a beer bottle causing his death.. Gary maintain the killing was in self defense however the judge felt differently and sentenced him to death. Gary Welch would be executed by lethal injection on January 6, 2013.

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The state of Oklahoma executed Gary Roland Welch on Thursday evening for his role in a 1994 slaying in Ottawa County.

As soon as the lethal injection was administered at 6:05 p.m., Welch began to chant repeatedly, “Valhalla. Odin. Slay the beast!” until he lost consciousness. He was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m.

Welch, 49, offered no apology or show of remorse for the slaying of Robert Dean Hardcastle, 35, in a dispute over drugs in Miami, Okla.

He gave a short speech before the injection in which he thanked the inmates of the Oklahoma State Penitentiary’s H unit for clanging on their cell doors before his execution – a tradition the inmates view as a sign of respect.

“I want to acknowledge that my brothers are here for me, to send me off on my journey,” he said. “They are here on my behalf. They’ve already given me my little send-off. So let’s get it on, because that’s what we’re here for.”

He then began his chant, presumed to be a reference to Norse mythology.

Welch maintained that he killed Hardcastle in self-defense, and he appeared unrepentant and indignant at a clemency hearing in December.

“I was right on 8/25/94, and I’m right now,” Welch said at the hearing. “I’m not coming up here today crying, begging and sniveling for my life. I’m only here to speak my mind.”

A few weeks after that hearing, Welch attempted suicide in his cell with a contraband razor blade. He recovered and was deemed competent for Thursday’s execution.

Prosecutors said Welch assaulted Hardcastle in the victim’s duplex and then chased him outside when he fled. Welch and co-conspirator Claudie Conover continued assaulting Hardcastle in a ditch at the end of the street, where multiple witnesses said they saw Welch punch and stab Hardcastle before slashing him with a broken beer bottle.

Conover originally was sentenced to death, as well, but his sentence was reduced to life in prison without parole possible. He died of natural causes in 2001 at the Dick Conner Correctional Center in Hominy.

Oklahoma Assistant Attorney General Robert Whitaker argued that forensic evidence and court testimony in Welch’s case contradicted his claims of self-defense.

Two hours before Welch killed Hardcastle, he had pulled a knife on someone else in the Miami area, demanding drugs.

He killed Hardcastle to send a message regarding a shipment of drugs that had been sent to the wrong address and turned over to police, prosecutors argued.

“Gary Welch had a 15-year history of violent crimes that included multiple assaults on women and police officers, burglary, stabbings and carrying concealed weapons before his conviction for murder,” Attorney General Scott Pruitt said in a written statement.

“The punishment of death as chosen by a jury of Welch’s peers is reserved for the most heinous crimes. My thoughts are with Robert Hardcastle’s family and what they have endured for the past 17 years.”

Hardcastle had twin sons who were 2 years old when their father was killed.

Several of Hardcastle’s family members, along with law enforcement officials from Ottawa County, witnessed Welch’s execution, the first of the year in the state as well as the country.

https://tulsaworld.com/news/local/oklahoma-executes-gary-roland-welch-for-1994-ottawa-county-slaying/article_41466004-6218-53c0-98dd-fb0e1b6c476a.html

Johnny Black Oklahoma Execution

Johnny Black was executed by the State of Oklahoma for the murder of a man and the attempted murder of another. According to court documents Johnny Black and four other men would fatally beat Bill Pogue and injured his son-in-law Richard Lewis in 1998. Many believe the murder was a case of mistaken identity. Johnny Black would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Johnny Black would be executed by lethal injection on December 17 2013

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Oklahoma on Tuesday executed a 48-year-old man convicted of the 1998 stabbing death of a horse trainer from Ringling.https://9295d6fb9eaecdadaefc512f23b0e17a.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

Johnny Dale Black was pronounced dead at 6:08 p.m. Tuesday at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. He was the second inmate executed by the state in the past two weeks and the sixth put to death in Oklahoma this year.

Black was convicted of first-degree murder for fatally stabbing Bill Pogue, 54, during a roadside attack near the southern Oklahoma town that left Pogue with 11 stab wounds, broken ribs and punctured lungs. Pogue’s son-in-law, Rick Lewis, was also attacked. Lewis suffered more than a dozen wounds but later recovered.

At a hearing before the state Pardon and Parole Board last month, Black begged forgiveness for his actions. But he insisted that he was merely trying to defend his brother, Jimmy Black, from Pogue. The brothers had approached Pogue and Lewis after mistaking their car for that of someone else they had been searching for.

“I deserve to be punished for what I did, but not for defending my family,” Johnny Black told the board in November.

About 15 minutes before the execution, fellow death row inmates began banging the doors of their cells in a tribute to the condemned man.

Witnesses to the execution included Black’s mother, his attorney and a spiritual adviser. Four members of the victim’s family also attended.

Before the lethal drugs were administered, Black, who was lying on a gurney with needles attached to both arms, made eye contact with his mother, and both shook their heads affirmatively.

“This isn’t accomplishing anything,” Black said. “It’s just another death, another family destroyed.” Black did not apologize to the victim’s family or acknowledge the crime he was convicted of.

Looking at his mother, Johnny Black said, “I love everybody. I love you. You can count on that, Momma.”

As the lethal drugs were administered, Black took several deep breaths as his mother wept.

The victim’s family did not make a statement after the execution. But Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt said Black was sentenced to death by a jury of his peers “for the murder of an innocent grandfather and upstanding member of the community.”

Pogue’s relatives and friends had petitioned the board last month to carry out the execution instead of commuting Black’s death sentence to life in prison without parole.

“What will bring justice in this tragic case? How can atonement be made for this hideous murder?” wrote Pogue’s widow, Lonnetta. “No mercy was shown to Bill on that fateful night. He got no second chances at life.

“I ask you, board members, to let justice be done,” she wrote.

Lewis related the mental anguish and survivor’s guilt he’s experienced since 1998.

“Tell me how, as the only surviving victim, that I can explain the feeling of being the one that survived,” Lewis said. “Tell me how to explain to my son – who was 18 days old when this happened – how his daddy couldn’t save his granddad.”

Pogue’s son, Charles Pogue, told the board how the family has battled through bouts of depression and “extreme anger” since Pogue was killed.

“Dad got to be a grandfather for 18 days before his life was taken,” Charles Pogue said. “Unfortunately, my two daughters never got to meet their pops.

“I also haven’t had the heart to tell them what happened that evening. It’s hard to figure out how to tell a 12 and 5-year-old about how evil a person can be,” he said.

Randy Bauman, Black’s attorney, declined last week to comment on the case.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/johnny-dale-black-killer-convicted-in-1998-stabbing-death-executed-in-oklahoma/