The Fresno Bee du lieu suivant : Fresno, California • 13

The Fresno Bee Sunday April 28 1996 A13 Countdown to execution i a i 4 -A 3 1 Death Row inmates from the Valley Fresno Tulare Madera Kings and Merced counties Wiliams: Eiller silent as end nears Wilbur Leu Jennings 56 Fresno County On Death Row since 1988 Convicted of lour slayings hi 1983 and 1984 that earned him the nickname bank killer Prosecutors said Jennings of Selma killed Linda Johnson 28 Olga Cannon 23 Jackie Frazier 26 and Karen Robinson 21 and dumped their bodies in or near Fresno County canals and ditches Itoy Jones 45 Merced County On Death Row since 1982 Convicted of shooting Carolyn Grayson 32 six times and dumping her body in an alfalfa field near Los Banos in December 1981 Prosecutors said Grayson was killed to prevent her from testifying against Jones in a Fresno murder case Convicted of killing Visalia nurse Ivon Fontbriant In March 1988 An autopsy showed Pontbriant 59 had been severely beaten probably raped and bound with a telephone cord Her death was caused by a knife wound to the neck so forcibly delivered it severed her spinal column Christopher Tobln34 Mara County On Death Row since 1990 Richard Lacy Letner 35 Mars County On Death Row since 1990 Photos by Mark Crosse The Fresno Bee In cold blood Mark Pazin recalls removing the bodies from the house In the background Raymond Anthony Lewis 34 Fresno County On Death Row since 1991 Convicted of beating to death Sandra Simms 40of Fresno in May 1968 Prosecutors said Simms was robbed of about $5 before her head was smashed with a board in an alley Lewis reportedy wanted the money to buy drugs 1 Continued from Pag A1 penalty was reinstated in 1978 and the second by lethal injection But he will not go quietly into the grave execution has raised classic themes of life and death good and evil right and wrong Is Williams a monster? Or is he too the victim of his crimes a mentally ill man who will pay with his life for demons beyond his control? Courthouses are thick with claims and counterclaims Supporters are appealing for life pleading that he is a manic-depressive poorly served by his lawyer during a 1979 trial A ray of hope flickers in the legal Bystem where two appeals to block the execution are on desks Thursday Gov Wilson denied for mercy despite pleas from his relatives bad thing is how bad he feels about what he did when he was out of his mind" Edward Williams has said of his father ever get loose of thinking about it and being Borry for what he did It rats him up but he change the past Tom Sawyer the Merced County sheriff feels no eympathy and sees no place in society for a remorseless drifter who executed two cousins shot Meza during sex and reveled in the bloodshed Sawyer called the details of death horrible it is hard for me to describe to decent Williams knew right from the sheriff said is a murderer He actually eqjqyed doing what he Unlike his victims Williams had no roots in Merced and few roots at all outside of prison were just a place on the side of the road for Sawyer said The clean white house still Btands on the daily in rural Merced though its residents shoo away the curious and the media It faces north rising up beside an almond orchard across from a newly planted field and next to a pen of noisy peacocks On that night in 1978 not far from railroad tracks that parallel Highway 99 Williams and his victims were like trains hurtling toward a terrible collision The stray has been told and retold in piles of court testimony investigative reports and legal documents Williams then a tattooed and troubled 31-year-old was a felon bearing the baggage of roughly 10 years in prison He was living near In September he met the man Robert Tyson who would be his accomplice in murder Tyson then 26 and Williams worked odd jobs stole from an employer and robbed a couple at gunpoint in Modesto The two men pawned some stolen goods and reserved others for a i that Tyson and his wife jr Ryan Michael Marshall 30 ftiara county On Death Row since 1986 Convicted of killing Silva Teague near Visalia in January 1985 Prosecutors said Marshall and two others intended to steal guns from the home of a friend But the friend's mother was home and Marshall killed her they said because Bhe had chosen a new name and was traveling with a circus Defense lawyers also Bee as crucial evidence 600 pages of newly released prison records documenting medical and psychiatric history Lawyers argue those records support the contention that before the murders Williams suffered a bipolar mood disorder and other problems Lawyers say the mood disorder commonly known as manic-depression stems from a chemical imbalance in the brain The disease tortured Williams moods and behavior and because he lacked the proper medication and turned to Btreet drugs it ultimately twisted him into a murderer last execution and first ly lethal iqjectum was Feb 23 when William Bonin died for the murders of 14 young men and boys The last Valley man executed was Robert Alton Harris of Visalia who died in April 1992 for killing two teen-age boys in San Diego Today the Valley has 28 inmates on death row Fifteen are from Fresno County For Williams the clock continues to tick toward Friday But friends family lawyers and even activists like Sister Helen Prqjean author of Man Walking" are trying to stop time Family members have declined interview requests But in clemen- Ronald Avery McPeters 37 Fresno County On Death Row since 1986 Convicted of shooting Linda Marie Baltazar-Pasnick 27 in front of a Fresno last-food restaurant in February 1986 Witnesses said McPeters who was panhandling had been chased away from Baltazar-Pasnkxs car in the drive-through lane and later returned to shoot the woman Evidence This Ruger 22-caliber semi-automatic pistol was used by Keith Daniel Williams to kill three people in Merced in 1978 uncomfortable Wharton then a Merced newspaper reporter felt the two men were said her husband Jack Wharton The two men looked unkempt and Williams had a cold Btare Dhaiyu said recently that some- Richard Lewis Phillips 46 Madera County On Death Row since 1980 Convicted of shooting to death bulding contractor Bruce 28 in December 1977 Prosecutors said Phillips shot Bartulis and fellow contractor Ron Rose 28 then set the men afire in a remote area of Madera County Rose survived Charles Keith Richardson 33 Mara County On Death Row since 1992 Convicted of raping and killing 11-year-old April Holley in Tulare in December 1988 April was found drowned in her bathtub Richardson was a paroled sax offender at the time of his arrest cy appeals and court papers they say williams is remorseful and ask for many had a hard life a real hard life and that led him to do bad said Kirby TouveU Williams half-sister Another half- and her friend and did our best to get out of there" They Boon left as did Leo Marias and Salvador Macias retired to his bedroom Tyson and Williams left Baying they were going to buy more beer In his confession Williams describes returning with guns drawn and Macias were upstairs and the two men confronted Vargas downstairs Williams told Tyson to bring Vargas upstairs and take Meza downstairs and care of the Williams executed the two men but Tyson complete the job I started to shoot her there but like Tyson was getting all freaked out so I told him to grab her I said get in the back seat with Williams said nearly 18 Douglas Ray Stankewitz 37 Fresno County On Death Row since 1978 Convicted of killing Theresa Graybeal 22 of Modesto in February 1978 Stankewitz formerly of North Fork and Fresno kidnapped Graybeal In Manteca and forced her to drive to the Fresno area where he shot and killed her blood radiating from the bodies was he said Nearly 20 years later he remembers it too clearly just kind of absorb it and let it out in different ways" Pazin said Tyson surrendered to police five days later and led them to nude body Sylvia Wharton identified her jewelry including a pendant signifying hope faith and charity Williams was captured six weeks later in Kingman Ariz Both men were convicted in separate trials but Tyson the chief witness against Williams received a life sentence Williams was acquitted of rape an autopsy report said body was too decomposed to prove a sexual assault Williams was judged sane despite a capacity" defense and sentenced to death But the protracted legal battle over his life was just beginning So far there have been roughly a dozen appeals seeking to pre-1 life Defense law-i part 1 I py his trial counsel and a shoddy defense The courts have been unmoved by claims of ineffective counsel which is a familiar line of appeal current lawyers say his crimes were inextricably linked to a mental illness that jurors heard nothing about Last year the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals said a more sympathetic outcome was unlikely even if more evidence had been offered The two current appeals rest on old and new evidence For example lawyers say they recently dug up new details of prosecution deals with the help of Karen Tyson former wife In a declaration according to one appeal Karen Tyson supports the claim that prosecutors cut a secret deal with Robert Tyson agreeing not to seek the death penalty in exchange for his testimony against Williams Karen Tyson was difficult to lo- Townsel 28 Anthony Lett Madura County Letrice On Death Row sines 1991 Convicted of slaying his pregnant girlfriend Martha Diaz 24 and her brother-in-law Maurido Martinez Jr 23 in September 1989 Prosecutors said he killed Diaz because she was going to testify against him in a spousal abuse complaint Hope Kristine Clevidence said her brother is a gentle loving when medicated for his illness Ten relatives also have asked for Williams' life to be spared Some say they want to play God and others describe prison as the best punishment Jose Alfredo Ibarra the grandson of Salvador Macias asked the for mercy because want his family to feel as bad as we But other relatives those who mourn lost fathers and brothers want the final justice of death after nearly 18 years of heartache Rafael Vargas brother said Williams already has lived an extra lifetime Miguel Vargas Jr son supported the execution in a letter to Gov Wilson loved my father dearly and I know he loved Vargas wrote have my father back so my only wish is that justice will Meanwhile Williams sits in a San Quentin Prison cell He has declined requests for an interview Pre-execution reports by psychiatrists and the prison chaplain are in the works Witnesses are being planned at their Galt home On Oct 6 two of their customers were Miguel Vargas 31 and his girlfriend 25-yearld Lourdes Mea Williams was interested in car a primer-gray 1973 Plymouth Roadrunner He also was intrigued by of money The next day Williams and Vargas struck a $1500 deal for the car Vargas would not turn over the pink slip until Williams check stolen cleared the bank But Williams lusted after it all: the pink slip the car and the money That night Oct 7 Williams spoke of how easy it would be to kill Vargas and Meza take their money and retrieve the bad check On Oct 8 Tyson and Williams drove to the Vargas home after first stopping at a bar They arrived about 7 pm Vargas and Meza were visiting with Marias 41 and several others: Nadine Dhaiyu Sylvia Wharton and Leo Macias Leo Marias then nearly 80 had helped Vargas and Salvador Marias find the dairy jobs The two women were visiting to check prices on calves Dhaqju said The two women were instantly They drove north heading for a secluded spot and UBing Meza for sex Williams said it was consensual In a secluded spot near Tuolumne City Wiliams executed Meza with four bullets Tyson said Williams bragged about shooting her and then experiencing her "eying in a final twisted sex act Wiliams said be intended to shoot TVBon but because he sniveling and crying" Mmm found the cousins the next morning The sight haunted his dreams until he died his daughter iH For many the crimes the bodies and the blood are un-forgettabla Mark Pazin now a commander with the Sher- ifFs Department helped remove the cousins as a collie student working the ambulance crew The sight of the crumpled men Thaddaeus Louis Rimer 34 Maraud County On Death Row since 1984 Convicted of the April 1984 stabbing death of Roy Savage a math teacher and director of a program for disadvantaged youth at Merced College Savage was stabbed more than 40 times with a buck knife Keonn Wallace 26 Fresno County On Death Row since 1993 Convicted of slaying Hazel Hamilton 83 in January 1991 Hamilton was found strangled beaten and saxuafy assaulted in her Fresno home And in a small octagonal chamber an execution awaits April 17 lawyers file a demency request 1995 1993 1996 Feb 20 -The US Supreme -The 9th April 7 Circuit i Court denies the district court Feb9-TheUS-District Court denies Williams' petition and removes the stay of execution Keith Daniel 1989 Feb 21 Williams files a new petition and request for a stay of execution in US District Court March 8 -The court issues a stay of execution March 24 -The California Supreme Court issues an 1 UIIHliinii opinion animung wiwaiTn conviction Aug 18 -Williams appeals to the US Supreme Court Oct 11 -The higher court -I il iJiliiin genes me pennon April 22 Friends and relatives speak at a demency hearing while lawyers file new appeals in state and federal court Keith Daniel Williams 48 Merced County On Death Row since 1979 Convicted of fatally shooting three Merced residents in October 1978 while stealing back a $1500 check used to buy a car Two men Miguel Vargas 31 and Salvador Macias 41 were killed execution-style while a women Lourdes Meza 25 was kidnapped and shot later petition mnmm judgment Dec 8 Williams files a petition in USb Supreme Court March 11 Merced County Superior Court Judge William Ivey sets a May 3 execution date for Wifliams April 22 -Williams files a notice of appeal in the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals April 24 -Gov Wilson denies clemency i ik.