YOKAMON LANEAL HEARN (EXECUTED IN TEXAS ON JULY 18, 2012)

            On this date, July 18, 2012, Yokamon Laneal Hearn was executed by lethal injection in Texas. He was convicted of the March 26, 1998 murder of Frank Meziere in North Dallas, Texas. I got the information about him from clarkprosecutor.org.

INTERNET SOURCE: http://www.clarkprosecutor.org/html/death/US/hearn1301.htm

Yokamon Laneal Hearn

Victim, Frank Meziere

Summary: Hearn (19) and Delvin Diles (19) approached Frank Meziere (23) as he washed his car at a coin-operated car wash in North Dallas. They forced Meziere at gunpoint into his own car, then drove to a deserted area. Two other companions, Dwight Burley, 20, and Teresa Shirley, 19, followed in a second car. Hearn and Diles then shot Meziere several times in the head and upper body. The assailants then took the victim's wallet and personal items and fled in his vehicle. Meziere's body was discovered the next morning. He had twelve bullet wounds from 9 mm and .22-caliber weapons. His car was also discovered later that morning, abandoned in a shopping center parking lot. Hearn and his companions were caught on videotape by a security camera at a convenience store adjacent to the car wash. At trial, Teresa Shirley testified as an eyewitness / accomplice to the murder of Meziere.

Diles pleaded guilty to capital murder and was sentenced to life in prison. Burley and Shirley both pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery and received 10-year sentences. They were discharged in 2008. 

Citations:
Hearn v. State, No. 73,371, slip op. (Tex.Crim.App. Oct. 3, 2001). (Direct Appeal)
Ex parte Hearn, 310 S.W.3d 424 (Tex. Crim. App. 2010). (PCR)
Hearn v. Cockrell, 73 Fed.Appx. 79 (5th Cir. 2003). (Habeas) 

Final/Special Meal:
Texas no longer offers a special "last meal" to condemned inmates. Instead, the inmate is offered the same meal served to the rest of the unit. 

Final/Last Words:
"I'd like to tell my family that I love y'all and I wish y'all well. I'm ready." 

Internet Sources:
Texas Department of Criminal Justice - Executed Offenders (Hearn)
Hearn, Yokamon L.
Date of Birth: 11/6/78
DR#: 999292
Date Received: 12/31/98
Education: 10 years
Occupation: Unknown
Date of Offense: 3/26/98
County of Offense: Dallas
Native County: Dallas
Race: Black
Gender: Male
Hair Color: Black
Eye Color: Brown
Height: 5' 8"
Weight: 184
Prior Prison Record: None. 

Summary of incident: On March 26, 1998, Hearn and 3 co-defendants approached the victim (a 26 year old white male) with a gun. They forced the victim into his own car, took him to a deserted area, and shot him 12 times in the head and upper body, resulting in his death. Hearn and the co-defendants took the victim's wallet and personal items and fled in the victim's vehicle. 

Co-Defendants: Delvin Dites; Dwight Burley; Theresa Shirley 

Texas Attorney General
Friday, February 27, 2004 
Media advisory: Yokamon Laneal Hearn scheduled for execution 

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit temporarily stayed Yokamon Laneal Hearn's execution, requested supplemental briefing and heard oral argument. After reviewing the case, the high court granted Hearn's stay of execution and remanded the case to the district court. 

Austin – Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott offers the following information about 25-year-old Yokamon Laneal Hearn, who is scheduled to be executed after 6 p.m. Thursday, March 4, 2004. On December 11, 1998, Hearn was sentenced to die for the capital murder of Frank Meziere in North Dallas in late March 1998. 

FACTS OF THE CRIME 

Evidence admitted at trial established that on March 25, 1998, then 19-year-old Hearn and three others drove to North Dallas for the expressed purpose of making some money. The group carried with them two shotguns, a .22 caliber pistol, and a Tec-9 automatic. At about 10:30 p.m. the group observed Frank Meziere preparing to wash his 1994 Mustang in a coin-operated car wash. Hearn devised a plan to steal the car and instructed his accomplices how to proceed. Hearn and his companions abducted Frank Meziere at gunpoint and drove him to a secluded location where Hearn used the Tec-9 to shoot Meziere. Meziere died as the result of multiple close-range gunshot wounds to the head. Hearn then drove away in Meziere’s Mustang in search of a “chop shop” for stolen cars. A city electrician discovered Meziere’s body in a roadside field early the next morning. Two hours later a patrol officer discovered Meziere’s abandoned Mustang in a shopping center parking lot. 

PROCEDURAL HISTORY 

March 31, 1998 – Hearn was indicted in the 282nd District Court of Dallas County, Texas. 

December 11, 1998 – Hearn was sentenced to death. 

Direct Appeal 

October 3, 2001 – Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Hearn’s conviction and sentence.
April 15, 2002 – U.S. Supreme Court denied Hearn’s petition for writ of certiorari off direct appeal.
Habeas Proceedings 

December 14, 2000 – Hearn filed application for writ of habeas corpus in the state trial court. 

August 1, 2001 – The state trial court recommended that habeas relief be denied. 

November 14, 2001 – Court of Criminal Appeals denied habeas corpus relief in an unpublished order. 

March 4, 2002 - Hearn filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the U.S. District Court. 

July 11, 2002 – U.S. District Court denied Hearn’s request for federal habeas relief. 

August 13, 2002 - U.S. District Court denied Hearn’s application for a Certificate of Appealability. 

June 25, 2003 – The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied Hearn’s request for COA 

September 22, 2003 – Hearn filed a petition for writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court. 

November 17, 2003 – Supreme Court denied Hearn’s petition for writ of certiorari. 

CRIMINAL HISTORY 

During the punishment phase of Hearn’s trial, the jury learned that he had be been involved in numerous prior offenses including the burglaries of four habitations, arson, an aggravated robbery, an aggravated assault, a sexual assault, a terroristic threat combined with unlawful carrying of a weapon, a criminal trespass to steal a bicycle, and a schoolyard assault over another bicycle. 

Texas Execution Information Center by David Carson.
 

Yokamon Laneal Hearn, 33, was executed by lethal injection on 18 July 2012 in Huntsville, Texas for the kidnapping, murder, and robbery of a 26-year-old man. 

In the evening of 26 March 1998, Hearn, then 19, and Delvin Diles, also 19, approached Frank Meziere, 23, at a coin-operated car wash in North Dallas. They forced Meziere at gunpoint into his own car, then drove to a deserted area. Two other companions, Dwight Burley, 20, and Teresa Shirley, 19, followed in a second car. Hearn and Diles then shot Meziere several times in the head and upper body. The assailants then took the victim's wallet and personal items and fled in his vehicle. Meziere's body was discovered the next morning. He had twelve bullet wounds from 9 mm and .22-caliber weapons. His car was also discovered later that morning, abandoned in a shopping center parking lot. Hearn and his companions were caught on videotape by a security camera at a convenience store adjacent to the car wash. Hearn and Diles were arrested several days later. Burley and Shirley were arrested eight months later. 

At Hearn's trial, Teresa Shirley testified that she was the driver of the second car. She said that Meziere had his arms raised and appeared to be begging for his life as Hearn swung a Tec-9 semiautomatic rifle back and forth. The rifle, Shirley testified, had been stolen in an apartment burglary the previous day. Hearn fired at Meziere and kept shooting him even after he fell to the ground. Diles also shot at the victim several times with his revolver, she testified. Shirley further testified that Hearn later bragged about the killing. She said he waved around a newspaper account stating that Meziere had been shot in the head - or "domed" in street slang, and he told her, "I told you I domed him. I told you. I told you." 

At age 19, Hearn had no prior felony convictions. Testimony at his punishment hearing indicated that he had an unadjudicated history of burglary, robbery, sexual assault, and other offenses. A jury convicted Hearn of capital murder in December 1998 and sentenced him to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence in October 2001. 

Hearn had previously been scheduled for execution on 4 March 2004, but on that day, he received a last-hour stay from the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals so that his attorneys' claims that he was mentally retarded could be further investigated. The federal courts ultimately rejected this claim, as did the state courts when they reconsidered the issue in 2010. All of his subsequent appeals in state and federal court were denied. Delvin Juan Diles pleaded guilty to capital murder and was sentenced to life in prison. He remains in custody as of this writing. Dwight Paul Burley and Teresa Shavonn Shirley both pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery and received 10-year sentences. They were discharged in December 2008 and November 2008, respectively. 

"I'd like to tell my family that I love y'all and I wish y'all well," Hearn said in his brief last statement at his execution. "I'm ready." The lethal injection was then started. He was pronounced dead at 6:37 p.m. 

Hearn was the first prisoner in Texas to be executed using only one chemical. Historically, Texas and other the other states using lethal injection administered a series of three drugs to perform executions. In 2011, however, the first drug, sodium thiopental, became scarce due to a manufacturer's decision to cease producing it. Some states, including Texas, switched to pentobarbital for the first drug in the series, while Ohio eliminated the three-drug protocol and began using pentobarbital alone. Texas switched to a single dose of pentobarbital for Hearn's execution because its supply of the second drug in the series - pancuronium bromide - had expired. 

Yokamon Laneal Hearn

ProDeathPenalty.Com

Yokamon Hearn was sentenced to death for the carjacking and fatal shooting of a Dallas-area stockbroker. Acting on a tip in March of 1998, police arrested Yokamon Hearn and Delvin Diles just after midnight at a room in the Delux Inn. They abducted Frank Meziere, 23, of Plano, at a carwash, taking him to an industrial area of east Oak Cliff and shooting him repeatedly in the head. Some men driving to work about 6 a.m. the next day spotted his body in a patch of grass. Meziere's car was found about an hour later. 

Police said they had determined that Hearn and Diles carjacked Meziere when he pulled into a carwash. A police spokesman said that "they forced him into his car and drove to the murder scene." Meziere's father said that "I just hope justice can be done as soon as possible. I've always been in favor of the death penalty, and I stand by that now." Dallas County criminal records showed Diles had received 5 years of probation the previous summer after pleading guilty to a felony burglary charge; Hearn had been charged with misdemeanor theft, a case which was still pending at the time of Frank's murder. 

UPDATE: Frank Meziere had watched a Dallas Mavericks basketball game at a restaurant with a friend and before heading home stopped at a self-service car wash to clean his black Mustang convertible. The 23-year-old Plano stockbroker, a 1996 Texas A&M University graduate, never made it home. His body was found the next day, March 26, 1998, along the side of a road in an industrial area of Oak Cliff, an area of south Dallas. He had been shot in the head 10 times. His car was found about 5 miles away, abandoned and with the lights on. 

"Having dealt with murders, you think you've seen it all," said Jason January, a former Dallas County assistant district attorney. "But this innocent victim was shot almost for sport. "It was just the sheer overkill of the thing that was ludicrous." Yokamon Hearn bragged to friends about how he "domed" Meziere, meaning he shot him in the head. Hearn was set to die Thursday evening for the slaying. 

In an appeal filed this week, lawyers for Hearn said the inmate may be mentally retarded and asked the courts to halt the punishment so they can pursue their claim. The U.S. Supreme Court has barred execution of the mentally retarded. Prosecutors said questions about Hearn's mental competence never surfaced previously. Hearn, 25, refused to speak with reporters as his execution date neared. The U.S. Supreme Court in November denied his request seeking a review of his case. "It's hard sometimes to know what a death penalty case is, but after a while you know one when you see it," said January, the lead prosecutor at Hearn's trial. "And this just screamed out for the death penalty." Dallas jurors agreed, deliberating less than an hour to convict Hearn and about an hour before deciding on punishment. Hearn was 19 at the time of the crime and had a lengthy record that included burglary, robbery, assault, a sexual assault and weapons possession. "I remember having a big map of the city showing places he had hit and pulled guns on people," January recalled this week. "He was an equal opportunity carjacker -- women, black, white, everybody." 

Hearn, along with 2 other Dallas men and one woman from Oklahoma City, were seen on a security camera video at a convenience store adjacent to the car wash. They had been out looking for someone to carjack, authorities said. According to testimony at his trial, Hearn drove Meziere's car after he and companion Delvin Diles forced the victim into the car. The two others, Dwight Burley and Teresa Shirley, were in a second car in a convoy that took them to an area near Dallas' wastewater treatment plant. Meziere was shot there with a Tec-9 automatic, then with a .22-caliber pistol. Hearn drove off with his car. Shirley, driver of the 2nd car, testified Meziere had his arms raised near his head and appeared to beg for his life as Hearn swung the Tec-9, a 9 mm assault-style rifle stolen from an apartment the previous day, back and forth before opening fire. After the victim hit the ground, Hearn shot him several more times, she said. Diles added some shots from his revolver. Hearn drove off with Meziere's car and kept the victim's license. A witness testified at his trial that Hearn later bragged at a party about the shooting. 

Physical evidence linked both Hearn and Diles to the car. Diles, 19 at the time, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to consecutive life terms for Meziere's death and an unrelated aggravated robbery. He and Hearn were arrested within days of the slaying. Shirley, then 19, and Burley, then 20, were arrested more than 8 months later. Each pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery and received 10-year prison sentences. 

UPDATE: A condemned inmate described by a prosecutor as an "equal opportunity carjacker" was spared Thursday evening less than an hour before he could have been taken to the Texas death chamber for killing a Dallas-area man who was shot 10 times in the head. Yokamon Hearn, 25, was facing lethal injection for the 1998 fatal shooting of Frank Meziere, a 23-year-old Plano stockbroker abducted at gunpoint from a self-service car wash in Dallas six years ago. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with defense attorneys who sought a delay in their late appeals and stopped the punishment, but the court also set an accelerated briefing schedule to ensure the appeals would not be prolonged, Lori Ordiway, an assistant district attorney in Dallas County, said. The death warrant allowed the execution to be carried out after 6 p.m. although state officials normally wait until all appeals are resolved before moving ahead with the lethal injection. In the appeal before the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit, lawyers contended Hearn may be mentally retarded and wanted time to pursue the claim. The U.S. Supreme Court has barred the execution of the mentally retarded.