On
this date, July 14, 2009, a serial killer by the name of John Joseph Fautenberry
was executed by lethal injection in Ohio. He was the 30th person
executed by the State of Ohio since 1976. Surprisingly, the abolitionists in
Ohio kept quiet about his case. I will post about his profile from clarkprosecutor.org
and murderpedia.
John Joseph Fautenberry |
INTERNET SOURCE: http://murderpedia.org/male.F/f1/fautenberry.htm
INTERNET SOURCE: http://www.clarkprosecutor.org/html/death/US/fautenberry1170.htm
Citations:
State v. Fautenberry, 72 Ohio St.3d 435, 650 N.E.2d 878 (Ohio 1995). (Direct Appeal)
State v. Fautenberry, 78 Ohio St.3d 320, 677 N.E.2d 1194 (Ohio 1997) (PCR)
State v. Fautenberry, 72 Ohio St.3d 435, 650 N.E.2d 878 (Ohio 1995). (Direct Appeal)
State v. Fautenberry, 78 Ohio St.3d 320, 677 N.E.2d 1194 (Ohio 1997) (PCR)
Two eggs sunny-side up, fried potatoes, two pieces of fried bologna, four pieces of wheat bread, two pieces of wheat toast with butter, four slices of tomato, a side of lettuce and mayonnaise, two Three Musketeers candy bars and two packages of Reese's peanut butter cups.
Final Words:
None.
Internet Sources:
Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction(Clemency Report)
Inmate#: OSP #A279-989
Inmate: JOHN FAUTENBERRY
DOB: July 4, 1963
County of Conviction: Hamilton County
Date of Offense: 02-17-91
Guilty Plea: 07-23-92 (no contest)
Date of Sentencing: 09-16-92
Presiding Judge: William J. Morrissey Jr., William S. Matthews, Gilbert Bettman
Prosecuting Attorney: Arthur M. Ney Jr.
Gender: Male
Race: White
Institution: Southern Ohio Correctional Facility
Convictions: Count 1: Aggravated Murder (Death), Count 3: Aggravated Robbery (10-25 yrs), Count 4: Grand Theft (2-10 yrs), Count 5: Grand Theft (1 1/2 - 5 yrs)
John Fauntenberry is brought into
Juneau District Court on March 18, 1991, for his arraignment on murder charges.
|
ProDeathPenalty.Com
In
November 1990, John Fautenberry, who had recently quit his job as a
cross-country truck driver, met Donald Nutley at a truck stop outside Portland,
Oregon, and the two men went target shooting together. After they had finished
and were leaving the range, Fautenberry shot Nutley in the head and stole
$10,000 from him. Fautenberry then drove to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he stayed
with his sister for a short time before traveling to Connecticut to visit an
old friend.
In
February 1991, while en route back to Cincinnati, Fautenberry — out of money
and in need of gasoline to continue his travels — stopped at a truck stop in
New Jersey. There he met Gary Farmer, who, after learning of Fautenberry’s need
for money, offered to buy Fautenberry breakfast and give him money. Fautenberry
got into the cab of Farmer’s truck, shot Farmer in the head, and took his
wallet. Fautenberry then returned to his sister’s residence in Cincinnati.
On
February 17, 1991, after another brief stay in Cincinnati, Fautenberry again
left his sister’s residence, this time on foot, in search of money. Fautenberry
walked down Highway 125, in the eastern suburbs of Cincinnati, stopped at the
on-ramp to Interstate 275, and began hitchhiking. Joseph Daron offered to give
Fautenberry a ride. Daron intended to travel only ten miles north to his home
in Milford, Ohio, but, upon learning that Fautenberry wanted to go north to
Columbus, Ohio, he drove Fautenberry an extra ten miles and dropped him near
the intersection of Interstate 275 and Interstate 71, which goes directly to
Columbus. As he exited Daron’s vehicle, Fautenberry reached back into the car
and shot Daron twice in the chest. Fautenberry then drove Daron’s car south to
Cincinnati, and threw Daron’s body into a wooded area on the north bank of the
Ohio River, where it was eventually found more than a month later by the local
authorities. Fautenberry took Daron’s car, wallet, briefcase, wristwatch, and
Bible, and returned to Oregon.
Fautenberry
arrived in Portland on February 24, 1991, and spent the next few days at the
Oregon coast with some old friends and acquaintances, including a woman named
Christine Guthrie. Guthrie accompanied Fautenberry back to Portland from the
coast, and along the way, they stopped on an old logging road. Fautenberry
escorted Guthrie to a secluded portion of the woods, shot her three times in
the back of the head, and stole her bank card. A few days later, after
withdrawing cash from her bank account, Fautenberry traveled to Juneau, Alaska,
where he began working aboard a fishing boat.
On
March 13, 1991, Fautenberry met Jefferson Diffee at a local bar, and the two
men went to Diffee’s apartment. While there, Fautenberry beat Diffee,
handcuffed him, and stabbed him seventeen times, which resulted in his death.
The local police discovered Fautenberry’s fingerprints at the scene of the
crime, and on March 16, 1991, they arrested him for the murder of Diffee. The
police then searched Fautenberry’s storage locker and hotel room, where they
found Daron’s briefcase, wristwatch, and Bible.
On
March 17, 1991, while in police custody, Fautenberry called Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) Agent Larry Ott and left a message indicating that he
wanted to talk. Agent Ott went to the jail, informed Fautenberry of his Miranda
rights (which Fautenberry subsequently waived), and recorded Fautenberry’s
confession to the murders of Nutley, Farmer, Daron, and Guthrie. Fautenberry
accurately described the wounds inflicted upon each victim, and indicated that
robbery was the motive for each killing. A few days later, Fautenberry called
his old girlfriend, Olivia Priest-Herndon, and told her that he was “only after
. . . money” and that he “did it so he gotta pay the price now.” Fautenberry
also confessed to Tom Nelson of the Portland Police Department, informing
Nelson where the bodies of Nutley and Guthrie were located.
In
August 1991, Fautenberry pleaded guilty in an Alaskan state court to the murder
of Jefferson Diffee, and the court sentenced him to 99 years’ imprisonment. In
September 1991, the Alaskan authorities transferred Fautenberry to Hamilton
County, Ohio, the county in which Cincinnati is located, where a grand jury had
returned a five-count indictment charging Fautenberry with two counts of
aggravated murder (both pertaining to the death of Daron), aggravated robbery,
theft of a motor vehicle, and theft of a credit card. The aggravated murder
charges included two specifications, either of which would render Fautenberry
eligible for the death penalty under Ohio law: (1) killing Daron while
committing aggravated robbery; and (2) killing Daron as part of a course of
conduct involving the purposeful killing of two or more persons.
Fautenberry
waived his right to a trial by jury and later proffered a no-contest plea to
all counts and specifications in the indictment. Under Ohio law, a capital
defendant who waives his right to trial by jury and elects to be tried by the
court, is actually tried by a three-judge panel. Furthermore, even on a
no-contest plea, the prosecution must produce evidence to prove aggravated
murder with the specified aggravating circumstances. The prosecution presented
the three-judge panel with evidence, including the murder weapon, various other
pieces of physical evidence, and transcripts of Fautenberry’s confessions to
Agent Ott, Officer Nelson, and Ms. Priest-Herndon. After reviewing this
evidence, the court concluded beyond a reasonable doubt that Fautenberry was
guilty of all counts and specifications in the indictment, and accepted his plea.
In
September 1992, the three-judge panel held a sentencing hearing. The defense
presented its mitigating evidence, which included testimony from Fautenberry,
Dr. Nancy Schmidtgoessling, and friends who knew Fautenberry well. Those
friends included Louise Corcoran (a long-time friend of Fautenberry’s family),
Ms. Priest-Herndon (Fautenberry’s former girlfriend with whom he had lived),
and Mary Theresa Slayback (a friend with whom Fautenberry lived during his
early twenties). After hearing all of this evidence, as well as the testimony
of the six law-enforcement officers presented during the mitigation hearing by
the prosecution, the three-judge panel imposed the death penalty, finding that,
despite the defense’s “thorough job in presenting the mitigating factors,” it
was beyond a reasonable doubt that the aggravating factors sufficiently
outweighed the mitigating factors.
UPDATE:
On July 8, 2009, Ohio governor Ted Strickland denied a clemency request from
Fautenberry. Strickland said he thoroughly reviewed the case of 45-year-old
John Fautenberry before making his decision. The Ohio Parole Board unanimously
recommended last month that Strickland reject mercy for Fautenberry. UPDATE:
Fautenberry declined to make a final statement before he was executed. John
Fautenberry, 45, shook his head Tuesday and said no when technicians asked him
whether he wanted to say any final words. Joseph Daron's daughter Rachel, who
was 4 when her father was murdered, attended the execution with her mother, but
they remained in a waiting room and did not watch. The 22-year-old said she
wished the execution had come sooner, but she did not expect to hear any last
words from Fautenberry. "I knew he's not sorry," she said. "He
didn't care. And even if he did, it's not going to bring my dad back or any of
the other victims back." Fautenberry died by lethal injection at the
Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, hours after the U.S. Supreme Court denied
a request to delay his execution on a claim that he had brain damage. Six people
watched the execution on behalf of victims' families. Fautenberry had no family
members or friends present. One of the witnesses was Charlene Farmer, the
mother of Gary Farmer, a fellow trucker whom Fautenberry was convicted of
killing. Afterward, she said she had traveled to Ohio from Tennessee for the
execution with the hope that Fautenberry would finally apologize to her for
killing her son. She said she believed Fautenberry died an easy death. "My
son laid in the truck for they don't know how long with a bullet in his
brain," she said.
Murderer John Fautenberry looks over documents before a mitigation hearing in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court in 2001. |
PLEASE GO TO THE VFFDP BLOG TO HEAR FROM THE VICTIM’S FAMILY
MEMBER.
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