Athens Review, Athens, Texas

Breaking News

Local News

Discussion

May 14, 2008

Man first to be sentenced to death in county since 1985

By Jayson Larson

Randall Wayne Mays, meet Betty Lou Beets.

On Tuesday, the histories of Mays and Beets became intertwined when Mays was handed a sentence of death by 392nd District Court Judge Carter Tarrance. Mays became the first Henderson County resident to be given a death sentence since Beets, who was convicted and sentenced to death in 1985.

Before Mays — who was convicted of fatally shooting Henderson County Sheriff’s Deputy Tony Ogburn on May 17, 2007 — it had been nearly a decade since Henderson County saw its last capital murder case.

In February 1999, David Wayne Green of Athens was convicted of capital murder in the deaths of Paul David Jacobs Jr. and Phyllis Lynn Webb. Jacobs and Webb were shot execution style on Oct. 11, 1997, near Mill Pond following what testimony revealed was some kind of argument. After the jury returned and the court imposed a sentence of life in prison, rather than death, weeping family members of the victims expressed anger that Green would be allowed to live.

A month later, the county saw another capital murder go to trial when Robert Clinton Hinkle was tried for the Dec. 21, 1997, shooting deaths of 39-year-old Gary Junell of Eustace and 48-year-old Henry Adams of Log Cabin. A third man was also shot during the incident at Hinkle’s Eustace residence. Hinkle — who testified on his own behalf — said he believed the three men were about to try to kill him before he opened fire. The Henderson County District Attorney’s Office did not seek the death penalty in the Hinkle case. Instead, he got life.

A death sentence handed down to James Walter Moreland in 1983 marked the first time in half a century such a fate was imposed in a Henderson County courtroom. Moreland, a Kentucky native with nothing more than an eighth-grade education, was executed on Jan. 27, 2000, for the stabbing deaths of two Eustace men: Clinton C. Abbott, 53, and John Royce Cravey, 41. Moreland was 22 at the time of the killings, which happened on Oct. 9, 1982.

“My life is all I can give,” Moreland said moments before being executed, uttering his final statement while strapped to a gurney. After addressing his father, he turned to the family of his victims and said, “I stole two lives and I know it was precious to y’all.”

Beets offered no final statement, but the proceedings were anything but quiet outside the TDCJ building in Huntsville where she was executed. Several groups of protesters — some in support of the death penalty, some against it — were scattered around the area when Beets was executed on Feb. 24, 2000.

The infamous “Henderson County Black Widow” was convicted in 1985 for the death of her fifth husband, firefighter Jimmy Don Beets. Mr. Beets’ body was found buried under a wishing well being used as a garden on Mrs. Beets’ property in the Cherokee Shores subdivision in Payne Springs. Investigators later ruled he had been shot to death. Police also found the body of Mrs. Beets’ fourth husband, Doyle Wayne Barker, buried in the yard. Barker had gone missing in 1981.

Mrs. Beets was said to have murdered her fifth husband to collect on a $100,000 life insurance policy.

Her execution gained international attention not only because of the circumstances surrounding the case, but because she was only the second woman to be executed by the state of Texas since the Civil War. One protester said he traveled to Huntsville from France to protest Beets’ execution.

Moreland and Beets were among 40 Texans executed by the state that year.

Before Moreland, the last county resident to be executed was Clyde Moore in 1950. One other Henderson County resident, Elmer Pruitt, is listed as having been executed between 1923 and 1973, according to Texas Department of Criminal Justice records.

Henderson County could see two more capital murder trials hit the courtroom this year. Kemp resident Michael Lyndon Whitman faces a capital murder charge in connection to the Oct. 25, 2007, death of two-year-old Makaki Overturf of Tool. A third man, Edward Ray Smalley, is also scheduled to stand trial in a capital murder case in connection to the September 2007 murder of Athens resident Tony Moore.

Text Only
Local News
  • Parking lot altercation leads to arrest

    Athens police, acting on a 911 call, drove up on a an altercation at 505 S. Palestine St. at the Save-a-Dollar parking lot just after 7:30 p.m. Thursday.

    May 25, 2012

  • One arrested, two released after cocaine discovery

    It probably wasn't the best place to hang out — the Henderson County Judicial Center parking lot on West Corsicana Street — not with a quanity of cocaine inside the console of the car.

    May 25, 2012

  • Primary voting Tuesday

    Ready, set, vote.
    The polls open Tuesday at 7 a.m. in the Democratic and Republican Primaries. Henderson County candidates run the gamut from first-timers to long-time incumbents.
    Some county voters will be traveling to new polling places for this round of balloting, after the much-debated redistricting process.

    May 25, 2012

  • Henderson County communities participate in Click It or Ticket

    It's not a good weekend to get out on the state highways without buckling up.
    In fact, that's probably true every weekend.
    But the 11th annual Click It or Ticket Seat Belt Mobilization Campaign is under way, now through June 3, 2012.

    May 25, 2012

  • martha & mary pic.jpg ‘Martha and Mary’

    The Henderson County Performing Arts Center, in conjunction with Elite Barrel Racing, announces the World Premiere of local Playwright R.G. Haynie’s newest play, “Martha and Mary,” on May 31  at 7:30 p.m., with additional shows on June 2, June 7, June 8 and June 9  at 7:30 p.m., with matinees at 2 p.m. on Sunday, June 3 and Sunday, June 10  at the theatre complex, located at 400 Gibson Road in Athens.

    May 25, 2012 1 Photo

  • DSC_0043.JPG Slide Show- Old Fiddlers Reunion The Fiddlers Reunion is in full swing around the Athens Courthouse. Final winners and street dance Friday night. Photos by Kathi Nailling

    May 25, 2012

  • Fiddler's1.JPG Fiddlers firing up

    You can get on out of that bed now, and get yourselves down to the courthouse square.
    The fiddlers are firing up, and they'll be going until the clock strikes 12 with the street dance, as the 81st Annual Old Fiddlers Reunion gets into high gear.

    May 24, 2012 2 Photos

  • Rachaelle Browning.jpg Valedictorian & Salutatorian

    The Athens High School Valedictorian of 2012 is Rachaelle Browning. She is the daughter of Wes and Jan Browning. Rachaelle will be attending the University of Texas at Austin in the fall of 2012 and plans to major in Aerospace Engineering.
    Rachaelle has participated in various extracurricular activities throughout high school in preparation for a career in engineering.

    May 24, 2012 2 Photos

  • At the start.JPG 3rd annual Hornet Fun Run continues through today

    Fourth graders participated Thursday in the 3rd Annual Hornet Fun Run at the Cain Center.  Above is the beginning, when the children would run one mile.  At left, Isaac Garcia is shown taking overall first place.  Second place honors for boys went to Armondo Garcia, and Third place Case Friedrich.  Girls first place was Taylor Stiles, second place Veronica Campa and third place honors went to Semia Brazier. See those that placed, both boys and girls, on Page 14. The fifth grade will run today.

    May 24, 2012 4 Photos

  • Witnesses aid in suspects’ capture

    Timing is everything, and one would-be burglar apparently didn't have it during a burglary at a home on North Murchison Street near Athens.
    Witnesses saw the burglary as it was happening, and one homeowner, Billy Stewart, fired three rounds at the burglar, as he was driving off his property with a stolen yellow 4-wheeler.

    May 24, 2012