SERIAL KILLER, JOHN JOSEPH FAUTENBERRY (EXECUTED IN OHIO ON JULY 14, 2009)

            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 30^th 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

Clasificación: Serial killer

Characteristics: Robberies - Truck driver

Number of victims: 6

Date of murders: 1990 - 1991

Date of birth: July 4, 1963

Victims profile: 5 men and 1 woman

Method of murder: Shooting / Stabbing with knife

Location: Alaska/Ohio/New Jersey/Oregon, USA

Status: Executed by lethal injection in Ohio on July 14, 2009 John Joseph Fautenberry

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)

Final/Special Meal:
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.