Fort Worth Star-Telegram from Fort Worth, Texas • 18

1 8A TELEGRAM I SUNDAY NOVEMBER 24 1985 71vrcisiniontrniktoccit r'tellatallatataf '1985 FORT WORTH STAR According to the Texas Department of Corrections 10 convicted murderers have been executed in Texas since the state's capital pun hy boy turned killer he de for de eth row 1 4 4b11'F-17---- es 'tkr tit tit400 Ak 10" -irzi 4)mi? 3 I rs- Ii 0 --I------------- officer That meant Al had served his sentence and no parole official needed bother keeping track of him Returning to his parents' home the 22-year-old went to work roofing houses with his father Ronald moved out after six months his younger brother James said in court when the family argued about whether Ronald's girlfriend Kathy Jarmon could live at the Allridge house In January 1984 he went to work nights at a Taco Inn restaurant on East Berry Street whet-Q James was manager James was "sharp and reliable" but talked constantly about "black supremacy" said Dwight Crawford the restaurant's owner "Ile didn't like whites or Mexicans he talked about it all the time" Crawford said Ronald Allridge who worked as an hourly minimum-wage food server did not appear to like anyoneCrawford said The restaurant's security guard an expolice officer could sense something dangerous about Allridge "His girlfriend would come in and he'd treat her like she wasn't there" Crawford said "It was like he had no feelings at all" There was a baby one of two children Allridge said Jarmon had by him whom Crawford said he fed at the restaurtant "Ile was hun gry and I wasn't going to let a child go hungry" Crawford said Ronald barely acknowledged that the woman or the baby was evel there he said He described Ronald as "someone you couldn't push too hard or you wouldn't try to push too hard" The two brothers would talk of staying out late drinking In March 1984 James was fired from the restaurant for showing up at work late Ills older brother quit the next day body several fellow students said On April 12 in a crowded hallway he fired three shots into Lorenzo Kneeland a sharp-tongued "ole dude" OD Wyatt talked of little else as rumors flew about the two having fought over the burglary or over a girl But the reason for the shooting never came out during the year and a half of court proceedingsthat followed Meanwhile as he awaited trial Ailridge was arrested in another department store where he was caught taking a 22-caliber pistol There were two trials in Tarrant County Juvenile Court involving his certification as an adult and two appeals to the 2nd Court of Civil Appeals At the juvenile court trials which centered on Allridge's mental health and maturity one psychiatrist and two psychologists took the stand One psychologist said the youth suffered from paranoid schizophrenia a mental disorder characterized by withdrawal indifference and hallucinations A second said he had paranoid tendencies Dr Eugene Bonham a Fort Worth psychiatrist said Allridge had no mental health problems A jury agreed with Bonham and his belief that Allridge knew right from wrong The experts were unanimous on one observat youth suffered from "deep feelingsof inadequacy" "This individual appears to act primarily in his own best interests and is not that concerned about people other than himself and those members of his family" Bonham wrote "Ile also gives the impression of having a deep-seated sense of inadequacy which he handles when confronted by authority figures by being extremely courteous or by putting up a 'black screen' Bonham explained the "screen" Tr ishment law was reinstated in January 1974 of the 10 men who have been executed by lethal injection at the board for inmates and the salaries judges and other court personnel involved with the case Capital murder also opens the door to a long appeal process that sometimes results in a conviction being overturned which means the case has to be tried all over again perhaps years later Going into the Attridge trial the district attorney's office was looking at a losing record so far this year for getting the death penalty In two cases in which prosecutors sought the death penalty in 1985 the defendants received life sentences either because the jury deadlocked on the punishment phase of the trial or simply refused to give the accused the death penalty In one of those cases Jimmy Loyd Mead 41 was sentenced to death for the 1979 murder of Crowley police officer James Michael Carpenter But in 1983 the Court of Criminal Appeals overturned the case because one juror was improperly rejected from the panel During a retrial this year Mead ended up getting a life sentence instead of the death penalty In the other case Sammie Oliver Jr 31 was accused of capital murder in the 1982 robbery and slaying ot Joe Franklin Derryberry a Lake Worth grocery store employee But during a trial this year a jury 'Forget Prosecutors felt confident in asking for death penaI4 1Y o'-'40 i 1 4 t1 ti i -A AC 44r Af l'r '2'il: 7T tgl NcrePvx 4zirrt Ellis I Unit near Hunstsville three of them were convicted of capital murder in Tarrant County The three are: Charles Brooks Jr 40 the first inmate to die after the capital punishment law was reinstated Brooks was executed Dec 6 1982 for the 1976 shooting death of Fort Worth used-car lot employee David Gregory 2 Charles Milton 34 was executed June 25 1985 for the 1977 staying of Fort Worth liquor store owner Menaree Denton 3 Henry Martinez Porter 43 was executed July 9 1985 for the 1975 shooting death of Fort Worth police officer Henry Mailloux Also six Tarrant County murderers are among the 219 inmates now awaiting the death penalty They are: 1 Ronald Keith Allridge 25 convicted last week for the shotgun slaying of Carla Otto 19 2 Jerry Lee Hogue 34 convicted in 1980 for tying up an Arlington woman and killing her by setting fire to her house 3 Larry Keith Robison 29 convicted in 1983 for the murder of Bruce Garner one of five people slain near Lake Worth in 1982 4 Bruce Callins convicted in May 1982 for the 1980 armed robbery and murder of Allan Huckleberry at a topless bar in Tarrant County 5 Kenneth Granviel 35 convicted in 1975 for the stabbing death of 2- year-old Natasha McClendon in 1974 Granviel also confessed to six other murders 6 Joe Mario Trevino 22 convicted in 1984 in the robbery and slaying of an 80-year-old Haltom City woman Blanche Miller in 1983 SOURCE: Tarrant County District Attorneys Office and the Texas Department of Corrections Star-Telegram deadlocked on punishment and the presiding judge had no choice but to give Oliver a life sentence Prosecutors say that making a decision about whether to try a case as capital murder instead of a lesser degree of murder depends a great deal on what a jury might do It also depends on a defendant's record and whether prosecutors can prove to a jury that the accused will be a continuing threat to society Under the law in order to give the death penalty the jury must find that the accused person is a threat to society that the defendant committed the murder deliberately and also committed the murder without provocation Last month the district attorney's office reduced a capital murder charge to murder against Jessie Van Hill 26 who is charged with stabbing a man 15 times in 1982 and taking his wallet Richard Roper the assistant district attorney prosecuting the case said that even though the crime was outrageous there were no eyewitnessesas in the Allridge case Roper also said that while Van Hill had a prior record for burglary and assault the record included nothing as serious as murder rapeor kidnapping about it' "That's why I don't understand it" the father said in a telephone interview "He can be so nice sometimes" Ronald AI said he is especially saddened about his situation because he wanted to do something with his life Instead he said he realizes that his trial was only the beginning of a "long waiting process" that will go on for years as he takes his case to state and federal appeals courts and awaits possible execution lie said he probably will continue reading books something he loves to do and will wait to see what happens with his appeal As the interview drew to a close Al 'ridge said he found irony in a system that allows a jury to "sit in judgment on a man's life and not even know what his voice sounds like" "Those people don't know me" he said "They don't look at me as a person They just looked at me as the defendant" Allridge also said he was not shocked when he heard Judge Charles Dickens sentence him to death "Nothing in particular went through my mind" when the sentence was read he said "I knew what was going to happen even before the trial started I just knew in my mind and in my heart that's what the jury would do" Allridge said "They are normal people They probably felt like they had to do it" Continued from Page I Fort Worth murders to which Allridge would confess But they were yet to come There was no reason for Fredricks unease when she looked at the quiet skinny 6-foot 15-yearold "I just got cold chills It was a very strange reaction I was actually afraid This is the only student that I had this feeling with when he reappeared" Fredrick told a jury later that year Several months after the meeting Allridge fatally shot a fellow OD Wyatt student with a semiautomatic pistol he stole from a department store near his home in the middle-class Rolling hills area Nine years later after six mean years in prison for the shooting he told police that he pulled triggers again killing two people during a wave of 13 armed robberies in convenience stores pizza parlors and hamburger stands across the city in late 1984 and early 1985 Wednesday a Tarrant County jury took three hours to decide to order Allridge to die for the March 25 shotgun murder of Carla McMillen Otto 19 in a Fort Worth fast-food restaurant "She raised her hands as if to say she didn't have any money" testified Cary Jacobs 24 who was sitting across the table from Otto Allridge fired a blast from a 16-gauge shotgun into her chest from four feet away Throughout the eight-day trial as photographs of two bloody bodies and visibly shaken witnesses passed before him Allridge never broke his stone-faced stare Nicknamed "Iceberg" by his 22-year-old brother James he lived up to it when Judge Charles Dickens read the death sentence In shackles he was led off to wait for the outcome of what prosecutors said will beseveral years of appeals What sent theson of a woman who spent 100 hours a month going door to door as a khova h's Witness on his way to death row? Who is Allridge behind what a psychiatrist once called his "black screen?" INTERVIEWS WITH Attridge his parents and others who knew him psychiatric testimony in the 1976 shooting case and testimony during the last two weeks draw at least a partial portrait of Tarrant County's sixth contribution to death row since 1974 They show him growing from a shy put-upon youth who wanted to prove himself to someof his rougher schoolmates to an ex-con with minimum-wage fast-food jobs as his only stake in the world to a cold-hearted stick-up man capable of shooting his boss twice in the head stealing POO and going home to sleep Attridge was born Sept 271960 in West Germany where his father James Vernon Attridge Jr was stationed as a US Army staff sergeant The family which at that time included his mother Otha Ree and younger brother James Vernon III moved to Fort Worth in 1969 Retiring early because of a bad heart the father turned to work as a mechanic and air-conditioning repairman In 1972 the Allridges moved into a brick house at 2425 Annglen Drive where Ronald and his brother shared an attic bedroom The family had "a close relationship" according to a report filed in Tarrant County Juvenile Court but Ronald appeared to be closer to his mother than his father The mother and sons attended church three times a week In school the elder Attridge son was a and student possessing what tests said was an average intelligence What everyone remembers most about him at that time was his shyness "He was quiet didn't have much to say" recalled a physical education teacher who knew Attridge at OD did not relate well to his peers" said another teacher "He appeared to be a loner" Attridge's parents said that they believed that their son had some kind of mental illness from birth "There was always something wrong there" Otha Ree Attridge said in a telephone interview Wednesday "Even after they convicted him he acted like nothing happened Ile says Mom how are It just tears your heart out" Outside class Attridge was anything but popular particularly with a clique of five or six OD Wyatt students who would call each other "ole dude" "I remember one time I saw some dudes picking on him and he started crying They would talk about him somebody was always bothering him" said Marion Lewis a student who talked about Attridge in testimony in 1976 In his sophomore year he cut about a quarter of his classes There were six trips to the vice principal's office that year mainly for disturbing class THAT SPRING at age 15 Al committed his first crime He burglarized a Montgomery Ward department store in March took three pistols several watches and some ammunition and started showing one pistol around at school He said he was going to shoot some RONALD SET TO working at several filling stations and convenience stores briefly and then started delivering for Domino's Pizza in June 1984 That same month James and Ronald and Kathy Jarmon moved into a first-floor $400-a-month apartment at the Colony Square Apartments near the corner of Interstate 820 and Granbury Drive according to lease records "From what I can tell everything changed for James when they all moved in together in that apartment" said Crawford who hired James back in July James a former honor student at Forest Oak Middle school started carrying a pistol he said "Ile was talking all the time about how a black man couldn't get arrested or sent to prison because the law won't get the black man" Ronald would come by the store he said and both appeared to become more strident more aggressive with other People he said James stopped wearing his perfectly pressed white shirts Meanwhile Ronald Attridge worked at several Domino's shops where nobody seems to have gotten to know him Steve Black then manager of a Domino's in the Texas Christian University area said he fired him in December 1984 when he began to suspect him of stealing from the register Ile too called Attridge "quiet" Three months earlier Crawford had accused James of stealing about $700 in store receipts he was supposed to have deposited A complaint was filed but no charges were brought In November according to Allridge's confessions the wave of 13 armed robberies began In January Ronald went to work at Crusty's Pizza on Walton Avenue in Wedgwood On Jan 14 when nobody else was in the shop he put a pistol to the back of 19-year-old manager Buddy Joe Webster's head and shot him twice Ile took $300 from a drawer delivered a few pizzas returned to the shop and called police The money and gun he left in his car's glove compartment Attridge stated in his confession After telling Fort Worth police he found Webster dead he went home and went to sleep TWO MONTHS LATER he fired the shotgun blast that killed Carla Otto at a Sycamore School Road Whata burger and sent him to death row Apparently the "screen" the psychiatrist spoke of nine years earlier came down for a moment when Al signed a confession that figured so prominently in last week's trial He cried said Don Carter his court-appointed attorney Now Allridge's parents are urging that their son be studied to find out what is wrong with him His father said he isn't asking for leniency or for "bending the law" But he said he will do whatever is necessary including "writing to President Reagan if I have to" to get state prison officials to hire behavioral experts to "find out what makes Ronald Allridge tick" "I'm not saying don't punish him" his father the state says that he deserves death then carry it out But what good is it going to do to kill Ronald without finding out what caused him to do these things?" By MARK SENNOTT Star-Telegram Writer They had a textbook capital murder case When prosecutors Greg Pipes and Sharen Wilson began studying the evidence against Ronald Keith Allridge several months ago they were convinced they had all the elements they needed to get the death penalty They had an eyewitness to the shotgun slaying in Cary Jacobs who was sitting across the table from Carla McMillen Otto when Allridge shot her with a shotgun from four feet away They had a confession from the 25- year-old Allridge who also admitted to killing two other people and committing 13 armed robberies since he was 15 And Pipes said they had a crime in which a 19-year-old defenseless girl was "blown away" just because she didn't have any money "If there was ever a clear-cut case of capital murder this was it" Wilson said ''l think this is one of the strongest cases (the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office) has had in a while" But it isn't always that way Trying any capital murder case is difficult and costly Some cases can cost taxpayers more than $100000 in defense attorneys' fees room and Jury told: Al says he By MARK SENNOTT Mar-Telegram Writer Ronald Keith Allridge has a message for the 12 jurors who have ordered him to die by injection "Forget about it Don't have any regrets Go back to your friends and your loved ones and go on living your life like you did before I don't bold it against you" the condemned 25-year-old said in an interview from the Tarrant Countylail Allridge received the death penalty Tuesday for the shotgun slaying of 19-year-old Carla McMillen Otto killed March 26 at a Whataburger restaurant on Fort Worth's South Side During an interview Thursday Allridge said he wanted to stand up and tell about himself while his life was unveiled in five weeks of jury selection and testimony Ile never took the witness stand during his trial "Some people might say I am insane Some might say that I am a fool But I am not a cold-blooded killer" Allridge said rolling a cigarette and speaking through the metal screen of a visiting booth on the jail's ninth floor On the advice of Don Carter and Bruce Ashworth Allridge's two court-appointed attorneys who were present during the interview Allridge did not discuss any facts about his case which is being appealed Allridge also was ca utioned about discussing another pending capital of doesn't hold anything against panel Star-Telegram Ronald Allridge signs his notice of appeal after his sentencing by saying "In the presence of his peers he would attempt to be rather boastful and a braggart in attempting to compensate for these feelings" As proof of those feelings the experts referred to his tendency to remain alone and to the letters teacher Sharon Fredrick found in his schoolbooks IN THE TARRANT County Juvetide Detention Center where he mixed with other youths he bragged about shooting Kneeland and would say things such as "this pool ball would make a good weapon" director Bill Austin testified At the same time he said the youth tended to avoid in his schoolwork or in and was "overly playful" Clinical psychologist John Price who testified for the defense predicted that prison life would go hard on Allridge's poor "self-image" But Tarrant County Assistant District Attorney Dale Hanna reminded jurors that there was a boy in his grave Allridge was certified to stand trial as an adult Before the trial he pleaded guilty and in August 1977 began serving a 10-year sentence in the Texas Department of Corrections' Ferguson Unit By November the young newcomer had been in two fights trying to defend himself his father said "Ile says'Idon't want to hurt anyone but I can't help myself' "James Allridge Jr wrote to the warden Ile asked authorities to give his son psychological help calling his incarceration "flestruction" not correction Solitary confinement was the only way he could stay out of fights the father wrote At one point other inmates held Allridge down and branded into his left arm the word "Killer" in 2-inchtall lighted cigarettes according to testimony in his trial for Otto's slaying IN IIIS OWN ACCOUNT of his prison years Allridge said he read "thousands of books" Ile got his high school diploma worked as a computer technician and started piling up "good time" credits which counted toward his sentence In June 1983 with three years' credit he received a "no-bother" release said Paul Mansmann a correctional consultant and former parole murder charge in the January slaying of Buddy Joe Webster Jr an employee at Crusty's Pizza on Walton Avenue in Fort Worth Webster was robbed and shot twice in the head with a 22-caliber pistol Allridge told police after his arrest in Otto's slaying that he shot Webster and then "went home to go to sleep" Along with those two slayings Allridge was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in state prison in 1977 for shooting a fellow student in a hallway at OD Wyatt High School in 1976 A soft-spoken man who says he loves his brothers his mother and father and his wife and two children Allridge said he is as puzzled as anyone about why he is so violent "I really don't know where I went wrong I have tried to figure it out a thousand times I can't explain it 1 don't understand it I don't even want to understand it" he said Allridge's parents James and Otha Ree Allridge of 2425 Annglen Drive in Fort Worth say they believe that their son has been suffering from some form of mental illness since birth James Allridge said that on the night before the Whataburger slaying only hours before his son and two other men burst into the restaurant with guns drawn Ronald Allridge was playfully wrestling on the living room floor with his younger brothers.