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Fred FURNISH
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics:
Robberies
Number of victims: 2
Date of murders: 1997 / June 25, 1998
Date of birth:
December 24,
1967
Victims profile: Doris Bertsch,
70 / Ramona Jean Williamson, 66
Method of murder: Strangulation
Location: Kenton County, Kentucky, USA
Status: Sentenced to death on July 8, 1999.
Re-sentenced
after an appellate reversal
FURNISH, FRED,
DOB 12-24-67, was sentenced to death on July 8, 1999 in Kenton County
for the murder of Ramona Jean Williamson.
On June 25, 1998, Furnish entered
into Mrs. Williamson’s Crestview Hills home, strangled the victim to
death.
This killer murdered a 66-year-old woman in Kenton County in 1998 by
strangling the victim. The victim was found by her housekeeper
immersed in the water in her bathtub.
After killing Mrs. Williamson, Furnish used her debit cards to
withdraw money from her bank accounts. The jury also found Furnish
guilty of robbery, burglary, theft and receiving stolen money by fraud.
Furnish, who had several convictions
for theft and burglary, spent nearly a dozen years behind bars in
Kentucky and Indiana. Each time he was released, he soon returned to
prison for another burglary. By the time he was released in April,
1997, he had hit a prison guard, adding an assault charge to his
record.
Fred Furnish
Strategictrial.com
Fred ruthlessly murdered Ramona Jean Williamson
and Doris Bertsch. "Freddy Boom Boom" as he called himself, was
first sent to Death Row in 1998 for killing Jean Williamson. After
DNA evidence linked Furnish to the brutal murder of Doris Bertch,
Fred plead guilty. Since Furnish was already on Death Row, the
decision was made to allow him a Life sentence, thereby avoiding
another lengthy and costly Capital Murder trial. In 2002, the
Kentucky Supreme Court vacated Furnish's death sentence, remanding
the case back for only a sentencing retrial: a first in Kentucky.
The Kentucky Attorney General's Office turned to veteran trial
attorney Luke Morgan for the task. Together Luke and Wayne
successfully re-tried Fred in 2003, who was again sentenced to death.
Today, Fred sits on Kentucky's Death Row.
Fred Furnish—white, age 29 (re-sentencing
after an appellate reversal)
Sentenced to death in Kenyon County, Kentucky
By: A jury
Date of crime: 1998
Prosecution’s case/defense response: Furnish
committed a home invasion burglary/robbery during which he strangled
66-year-old Ramona Jean Williamson. He also pleaded guilty in
another case to a home invasion burglary/robbery/ strangulation of
70-year-old Doris Bertsch.
Sources: Cincinnati Post 7/20/02, 6/3/03;
Cincinnati Enquirer 3/25/04
Furnish gets death penalty a second time
Home-invasion killer heads back to death row
By Travis Gettys - The Cincinnati Enquirer
Thursday, March 25, 2004
A Kenton County jury sentenced Fred Furnish to
death for a second time Tuesday for the 1998 home-invasion murder of
Ramona Jean Williamson.
Furnish was convicted in 1999 of strangling and
robbing the 66-year-old Crestview Hills widow. But in the time between
her murder and Furnish's conviction, the General Assembly created the
penalty of life in prison without possibility of parole.
A judge did not allow jurors in that trial to
consider the new penalty. The Kentucky Supreme Court overturned
Furnish's sentence in 2002 and granted him a new sentencing hearing,
to include the new penalty.
Jurors were not required to find Furnish guilty
again, because the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the conviction.
After 21/2 hours of deliberation Tuesday, the jury agreed with the
original sentence.
While on death row in 2002, Furnish pleaded guilty
to the 1997 strangling murder of Doris Bertsch, 70, of Kenton Hills.
