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Lewis Eugene GILBERT

 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 
 
 
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics: Crime spree - Robberies
Number of victims: 4
Date of murders: 1994
Date of arrest: September 3, 1994
Date of birth: October 29, 1971
Victims profile: Roxanne Ruddell, 37 / Ruth Lucille Loader, 79 / William Brewer, 86, and Flossie Mae Brewer, 76
Method of murder: Shooting
Location: Ohio/Missouri/Oklahoma, USA
Status: Executed by lethal injection in Oklahoma on July 1, 2003
 
 
 
 
 
 

Summary:

Off-duty security guard Roxanne Ruddell was fishing alone at Point 6 near Norman when she was spotted by Gilbert and his 16 year old accomplice, Eric Elliott.

They forced her to a nearby wooded area where she sat under a tree as they rummaged through her purse, took her keys and stole $2 or $3.

Ruddell told the pair she wouldn’t call police if they didn’t hurt her, but Gilbert reportedly thought she was lying and grew angry.

Elliot tied Ruddell’s hands and Gilbert shot her three times in the head and once in the back of the neck. Her truck was later found in New Mexico where Gilbert and Elliott were discovered sleeping three days after the murder

Although Gilbert’s trial was restricted to evidence surrounding Ruddell’s death, the killing was part of a cross-country crime spree that began in Ohio in August 1994, when an elderly Port Washington, Ohio, woman, Ruth Lucille Loader (79), was discovered missing from her home, along with her car.

In police interviews after his arrest, Gilbert confessed to having killed Loader. Her body has not been found, and Gilbert was never tried for the crime.

Loader’s car was found abandoned in a pasture near the farmhouse of William Brewer (86) and Flossie Mae Brewer (76) near Kingdom City, Mo. Relatives of the Brewers found the couple in a basement wood room. Both had been shot in the head.

Gilbert was convicted of murdering the Brewers and handed another death sentence in Missouri. In a separate Oklahoma trial, Elliott also was convicted of Ruddell’s murder and sentenced to life without parole.

Citations:

Gilbert v. State, 951 P.2d 98, 103 (Okla. Crim. App. 1997).
Gilbert v. State, 955 P.2d 727 (Okla.Crim.App. 1998) (PCR).

Final Meal:

A half-gallon of vanilla ice cream, a box of assorted cones and a box of Whoppers.

Final Words:

Gilbert’s final statement was mostly inaudible, but he thanked God several times. “This is weird, but I’m actually looking forward to seeing God. I’m coming home,” Gilbert said. “Thank you, God.”

 
 

Oklahoma Department of Corrections

Inmate: Lewis Eugene Gilbert, II
ODOC#: 196636
Birthdate: 10/29/1971
Race: White
Sex: Male
Height: 6 ft. 04 in
Weight: 190 pounds
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Blue
Location: Oklahoma State Penitentiary, Mcalester

 
 

Put to death

Man Convicted by Cleveland County Jury Dead at 7:11 p.m.

The Norman Transcript

July 2, 2003.

McALESTER (AP) - An Ohio man was executed Tuesday for killing a security guard during a deadly multistate crime spree. Lewis Eugene Gilbert was pronounced dead at 7:11 p.m. after receiving a lethal mix of drugs at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.

Gilbert, of Newcomerstown, Ohio, had also been sentenced to death in Missouri for killing William and Flossie Brewer, and had confessed to killing Ruth Lucille Loader in Ohio, authorities said.

Fourteen friends and family members of slain security guard Roxanne Ruddell and the Brewers witnessed the execution. After it was over, Ruddell’s husband, Eddie Ruddell, said he finally had closure. The Brewers said they did, too. “It brought some relief to both our families,” Eddie Ruddell said. “Right now he’s up there having to testify to what he did to God. We know where our loved ones are — they’re with God.”

Gilbert’s final statement was mostly inaudible, but he thanked God several times. “This is weird, but I’m actually looking forward to seeing God. I’m coming home,” Gilbert said. “Thank you, God.”

Cleveland County District Judge Tom Lucas sentenced Gilbert to death by lethal injection for the Sept. 3, 1994, slaying of off-duty security guard Roxanne “Roxy” Ruddell at Lake Stanley Draper in Oklahoma City.

In addition to a death penalty recommendation, jurors recommended convictions on kidnapping and robbery. On those charges, Lucas handed down two consecutive life sentences and fines totaling $20,000, the maximum punishment in both cases. The State Court of Criminal Appeals later upheld the convictions.

Gilbert and then-16-year-old Eric Elliott, were arrested near Santa Fe, N.M., about three days after Ruddell’s body was found at the lake. According to testimony in the trial in Norman, Ruddell was fishing alone near Point 6 when the two men spotted her.

They took her to a nearby wooded area and forced her to sit under a tree as they rummaged through her purse, took her keys and stole $2 or $3. Ruddell told the pair she wouldn’t call police if they didn’t hurt her, but Gilbert reportedly thought she was lying and grew angry, authorities said. Elliot tied Ruddell’s hands and Gilbert shot her three times in the head and once in the back of the neck. The truck was found near a culvert in New Mexico where Gilbert and Elliott were discovered sleeping.

Although Gilbert’s trial was restricted to evidence surrounding Ruddell’s death, the killing was part of a cross-country crime spree that began in Ohio in August 1994. An elderly Port Washington, Ohio, woman, Ruth Lucille Loader, was discovered to be gone from her home, and her departure didn’t look planned.

A side door had been open, a purse that had been rifled lay on the kitchen table, a dusty shoeprint was visible on the doorstep, and the phone cord dangled where it had been jerked from the wall. Her car also was missing. In police interviews after his arrest, Gilbert confessed to having killed Loader. Her body has not been found, and Gilbert was never tried for the crime.

Loader’s car was found abandoned in a pasture near William and Flossie Brewer’s farmhouse near Kingdom City, Mo. Relatives of the Brewers found the couple in a basement wood room. Both had been shot in the head. Gilbert was convicted of murdering the Brewers and handed another death sentence in Missouri. In a separate Cleveland County trial, Elliott also was convicted of Ruddell’s murder and sentenced to life without parole.

Gilbert’s attorneys in Missouri worked until the last minute Tuesday trying to get the execution stayed. The U.S. Supreme Court returned a request for a stay of execution to a lower court for consideration. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals denied the request and it returned to the U.S. Supreme Court, which then rejected it. The execution was delayed for about an hour.

Gilbert is the 148th inmate executed in Oklahoma, and the 10th this year. For his last meal, Gilbert dined on a half-gallon of vanilla ice cream, a box of assorted cones and a box of Whoppers.

 
 

Oklahoma Executes Man for Killing Spree

Kansas City Star

AP July 1, 2003

MCALESTER, Okla. - An Ohio man was executed Tuesday for killing a woman during a deadly multistate crime spree nine years ago. Lewis Eugene Gilbert, 31, was pronounced dead at 7:11 p.m. after receiving a lethal mix of drugs at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. His final statement was mostly inaudible, but he thanked God several times. "This is weird, but I'm actually looking forward to seeing God. I'm coming home," Gilbert said.

Gilbert was executed for killing Roxanne Ruddell, and had been sentenced to death for murdering a Missouri couple. Authorities said he also confessed to an Ohio killing for which he was indicted but never tried.

Eddie Ruddell, who said he is still too upset to visit his wife's grave, said execution was the only appropriate punishment. "She was a warm, caring person, loved everybody, did anything for anyone that asked," he said.

Prosecutors in Gilbert's Oklahoma trial said he and Eric Elliot started the 1994 spree by breaking into Ruth Lucille Loader's home in Ohio, tying her up, driving to the woods and shooting her in the head. Her body has never been found. Gilbert and Elliot then drove Loader's car to Missouri, where they shot William and Flossie Brewer to death after knocking on their door and asking to use the telephone.

In Oklahoma, they ended up at a lake where Ruddell had gone fishing after her shift as a security guard ended. Elliot tied Ruddell's hands and Gilbert shot her four times. They got away with her pickup truck and $2 or $3 before being arrested in New Mexico, authorities said. Elliot is serving a life sentence without parole.

Gilbert's execution was delayed about an hour while an Oklahoma appeals court and the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a request for a stay.

 
 

Oklahoma Attorney General News Release

News Release - W.A. Drew Edmondson, Attorney General

Court Sets Execution Date for Cleveland County Inmate

(5/8/03)

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals today set July 1 as the execution date for death row inmate Lewis Eugene Gilbert, II. Attorney General Drew Edmondson asked the court to set the execution date after the United States Supreme Court denied Gilbert's final appeal April 28.

Gilbert, 31, was sentenced to death in Cleveland County District Court for the Sept. 3, 1994, murder of Roxy Lynn Ruddell, 37. In an attempt to steal her pickup, Gilbert and co-defendant Eric Elliott approached Ruddell as she fished at Lake Stanley Draper. Elliott and Gilbert tied Ruddell's hands and forced her to sit under a nearby tree where they shot her in the head three times.

Gilbert and Elliott were arrested in New Mexico where they admitted killing Ruddell and confessed to the murders of two people in Missouri and a woman in Ohio. Elliott is currently serving a sentence of life without parole for his role in the crime.

 
 

ProDeathPenalty.com

After deliberating five hours until nearly midnight, a Callaway County jury decided that Lewis Gilbert should get the death penalty for murdering Bill and Flossie Brewer. For Gilbert, they are the second and third death verdicts linked to a cross-country crime spree with Eric Elliott.

Gilbert and Elliott were arrested a week later in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The crime spree by Lewis Gilbert and Eric Elliott began in August 1994 in Ohio, where they are suspected of killing Ruth Loader, 79, in Port Washington.

The pair broke into Ruth's home, tied her up and drove her into the woods where they shot her in the head. Ruth disappeared without a trace, and her car was found bogged down in a muddy field near the Brewers’ house. The men had stolen her car and drove southwest across the country to Missouri. They became stuck in the mud in a Callaway County, Missouri, field.

They walked to the nearby home of William and Flossie Mae Brewer, intending to steal money and another car. Confessing after his arrest, Gilbert said that he and Elliott were invited inside the house by Mrs. Brewer after they said they needed to use the phone to call a wrecker.

Once inside, they realized there was no phone book. After talking with the elderly couple for about 30 minutes, Gilbert confessed, they decided they were going to kill the Brewers. Gilbert used a telephone cord to bind Flossie Brewer's hands, then he and Elliott led the elderly couple down to the basement.

According to Gilbert's confession, Elliott shot both of them three times in the head. Bill Brewer was 86; Flossie Brewer was 76. Asked if he was "solely responsible for the murders in Missouri," Gilbert answered that "it was a 50/50 deal." After shooting the couple to death they stole their car, cash and rifles.

Gilbert was also sentenced to die in Oklahoma for killing Roxie Ruddell, a security guard in Lake Stanley Draper, Oklahoma. Gilbert and Elliott approached Roxy Lynn Ruddell to steal her truck. Ruddell, 37, was fishing at Lake Stanley Draper after she got off work. She told the men that they could take the truck if they didn’t hurt her, appeals court documents stated. Despite the offer, prosecutors said the victim was forced to sit under a nearby tree and then shot three times in the head by Gilbert. Gilbert received a death sentence and Elliott life in prison.

Eddie Ruddell, who said he is still too upset to visit his wife's grave, said execution was the only appropriate punishment. "She was a warm, caring person, loved everybody, did anything for anyone that asked," he said. The Brewers’ car was found near Ruddell’s body in Oklahoma, and Ruddell’s pickup was with Gilbert and Elliott when New Mexico police surrounded them while they slept in a ditch, forcing them to surrender.

Public Defenders Bob Wolfrum and Jeff Estes tried to portray Gilbert as the victim of a troubled childhood, including abuse and abandonment by a series of father figures.

They also noted Gilbert’s failed marriage. Gilbert went to prison in Ohio for child endangerment after biting and bruising his 3-month-old son in 1992. When he was released from prison, his estranged wife closed the door in his face. Eighteen days later, Gilbert and Elliott set out with a few dollars in their pockets and a .22-caliber revolver that Elliott took from his father’s home. The gun became a murder weapon in Callaway County.

Two psychologists and an expert in human development testified for the defense about Gilbert’s psychological makeup, but Assistant Attorney General Bob Ahsens argued it was "psychobabble." Gilbert is simply a serial killer, Ahsens said.

A jury convicted Gilbert of first-degree burglary, first-degree tampering, stealing, armed criminal action and two counts of first-degree murder. Gilbert was sentenced to two death sentences, life imprisonment and 29 years in prison.

The Brewer family wasn’t impressed by the defense. "He was old enough to have a brain and old enough to know right from wrong," said Gene Brewer of Fulton, one of the victims’ four children. "We’ve run it through our minds - brothers and sisters - and there just wasn’t no reason for it. They could’ve took the car, tied them up in the basement or something."

Many members of the Brewer family traveled to Oklahoma for Gilbert’s trial in 1995. They returned to Oklahoma for court proceedings involving Elliott. As the hours passed waiting for the verdicts in Fulton, Gene Brewer said, "it worried me for a while, when they slowed down and wasn’t coming back with nothing."

The tragedy fragmented the extended family, but they spent a lot of time together during the trial. They looked over old family photos at Gene Brewer’s house. "I had ’em in my basement, going on seven years now," he said. "Thursday night, everybody went through them and got what they wanted out of them." It was "a good time," he said. The verdicts "kind of lifted a burden," he said. "At least you get a satisfaction. You’re not going to forget, but this here gives us the feeling that he got something out of it. He didn’t walk off scot-free."

Under an agreement between Missouri and Oklahoma, Gilbert was sent back to Oklahoma’s death row. Elliott, a juvenile at the time of the murders, pleaded guilty in 1996 to first-degree murder in Ruddell’s death and is serving a life sentence without parole.

 
 

Lewis Eugene Gilbert

TheDeathHouse.com

July 1, 2003

McAlester, Okla. - Gilbert is scheduled for execution July 1 for the kidnapping and murder of a woman at Lake Stanley Draper in Cleveland County in 1994. At the time, Gilbert, 31, and another man, Eric Elliott, 16, were involved in bloody crime spree through Ohio, Missouri and Oklahoma, leaving four people dead. Gilbert is also under a double death sentence in Missouri for the murders of an elderly couple.

Gilbert confessed to the murders. In the Oklahoma case, Gilbert and Elliott approached Roxy Lynn Ruddell to steal her truck. Ruddell, 37, was fishing at Lake Stanley Draper. She told the men that they could take the truck if they didn’t hurt her, appeals court documents stated. Despite the offer, prosecutors said the victim was forced to sit under a nearby tree and then shot three times in the head by Gilbert. Gilbert received a death sentence and Elliott life in prison.

The crime spree by Gilbert and Elliott began in Ohio, where they are suspected of killing Ruth Loader in Port Washington. The men then stole her car and drove to Missouri. On Aug. 30, 1994, their car became stuck in the mud in Callaway County. The killers walked to the home of William Brewer, 86, and Flossie Mae Brewer, 76. They later shot and killed the Brewers and stole their car, cash and rifles. Each was shot three times in the head. Gilbert and Elliott were arrested a week later while sleeping in a ditch in New Mexico

While being questioned by a New Mexico lawman, prosecutors said Gilbert admitted to kidnapping and murdering Ruddell. At Gilbert’s trials, defense lawyers tried to show that Gilbert was not competent, suffering from deficit disorder, post traumatic stress disorder and borderline personality disorder.

They also argued that Gilbert has a low IQ and suffered a brain injury at some time during his life. Gilbert’s appeals lawyers have also claimed ineffective assistance of counsel.

There were reports that Gilbert had started his crime spree after "mistakenly" being released from an Ohio prison. A spokesman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction stated that Gilbert had served a short prison term for breaking and entering and theft just prior to the murder in Oklahoma. However, she had no information as to any mistake made in releasing him in 1994. She stated that according to the records she viewed, Gilbert was released after serving his prison time.

 
 

Oklahoma Executes an Ohio Man

Dayton Daily News

AP July 1, 2003

McALESTER, Okla. | A Newcomerstown, Ohio, man who committed crimes in several states nearly 10 years ago was executed Tuesday after an appeals court denied a stay of execution. Lewis Eugene Gilbert, 31, was pronounced dead at 8:11 p.m. EDT after receiving a lethal mix of drugs at the Oklahoma State Prison for the Sept. 3, 1994, killing of Roxanne Lynn Ruddell at Lake Stanley Draper.

Gilbert also was sentenced to death in Missouri for killing William and Flossie Brewer. Authorities said he confessed to killing Ruth Lucille Loader in eastern Ohio, where the crime wave began. He was captured about a week later near Santa Fe, N.M.

Prosecutors in Oklahoma said Gilbert and Eric Elliot kicked in the door of Loader’s home near Port Washington, Ohio, about 80 miles northeast of Columbus, tied her up, stole $40 and her car and put her in the trunk. Prosecutors said she was taken to the woods and shot in the head. She disappeared Aug. 29, 1994. Her remains have not been found.

Gilbert and Elliot, also of Newcomerstown, drove Loader’s car to Missouri. Authorities said they went to the Brewers’ home and asked to use the phone. They held the Brewers at gunpoint, marched them into the cellar and shot each of them in the head three times, authorities said.

 
 

Gilbert v. Mullin (Habeas - 10th Circuit Court of Appeals)

302 F.3d 1166

Lewis Eugene Gilbert, Petitioner-appellant,
v.
Mike Mullin, Warden, Oklahoma State Penitentiary, Respondent-appellee

United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit.

September 3, 2002

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma (No. CIV-99-74-T)

Before BRISCOE, LUCERO, and MURPHY, Circuit Judges.

Lewis Eugene Gilbert, an Oklahoma state prisoner sentenced to death, appeals the district court's denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. This court has granted Gilbert a certificate of appealability ("COA") pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c) with respect to three of his claims of legal error: (1) that his right to a fair trial was violated by a coerced verdict at the sentencing stage of the trial; (2) that he was improperly denied his request for a competency evaluation in state court; and (3) that there was insufficient factual support for the jury's finding of the existence of the "avoid arrest" and "continuing threat" aggravating circumstances. We have independently reviewed the record and conclude that Gilbert is not entitled to habeas relief on any of these claims. Exercising jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1291 and 2253, we affirm.

Gilbert and a co-defendant were convicted of the 1994 murder of Roxanne Ruddell, a security guard at Lake Stanley Draper in Oklahoma.(1) Prior to this murder, Gilbert and his co-defendant had killed an elderly woman in Ohio, stolen her car, and driven it to Missouri. In Missouri they had killed an elderly couple, stolen their car, and driven it to Oklahoma. The two took the second stolen car to Lake Stanley Draper, where they saw Ruddell fishing alone.

Intending to steal her pickup, they tied Ruddell's hands and made her walk a short distance to sit in the "vee" at the base of a tree. Gilbert then shot her three times in the head. Approximately three days later, Gilbert and his co-defendant were apprehended in New Mexico sleeping in a ditch. Ruddell's pickup was found nearly a mile away.

During the sentencing stage of the trial the prosecutor argued, and the jury found the existence of, two aggravating circumstances: that there was a probability that Gilbert would commit criminal acts of violence such that he constituted a "continuing threat to society," and that the murder was committed for the purpose of "avoiding or preventing a lawful arrest or prosecution." Gilbert v. State, 951 P.2d 98, 103, 122 (Okla. Crim. App. 1997). The jury recommended that Gilbert be sentenced to death for Ruddell's murder, and the trial court sentenced him in accordance with this recommendation.

Gilbert appealed, raising thirteen propositions of error, but his convictions and death sentence were affirmed by the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals ("OCCA"). He subsequently filed an application for post-conviction relief before the OCCA, urging eight grounds and requesting an evidentiary hearing, but this application was denied. In September 1999, Gilbert filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in federal district court, seeking relief on seven grounds. The petition was denied and this appeal followed.

* * * *

Gilbert's final claim is that the evidence was insufficient to support a finding by the jury of the two aggravating circumstances in this case--that the murder was committed to avoid arrest and that Gilbert was a continuing threat to society.

* * * *

Under Oklahoma law, the focus of the aggravating circumstance that the murder was committed to avoid lawful arrest or prosecution is on the state of mind of the murderer; it is he who must have the purpose of avoiding or preventing lawful arrest or prosecution. See Carter v. State, 879 P.2d 1234, 1250 (Okla. Crim. App. 1994).

This aggravator also requires a predicate crime, separate from the murder, for which the appellant seeks to avoid arrest or prosecution. Id. The OCCA, in concluding that there was sufficient evidence to support the jury's finding of the "avoid arrest" aggravator, stated that Gilbert admitted to killing one woman in Ohio and stealing her car, driving it to Missouri where an elderly couple was killed for their car, driving that car to Oklahoma where Mrs. Ruddell was killed and her pickup taken by [Gilbert] and his co-defendant to New Mexico. This is ample evidence to support the jury's finding the murder was committed for the purpose of avoiding or preventing lawful arrest or prosecution.

Gilbert, 951 P.2d at 122. Further evidence in the record in support of the "avoid arrest" aggravating circumstance includes testimony that Gilbert admitted that the victim pleaded with him to take her car and swore she would not notify police, but that Gilbert disbelieved her and killed her. (June 11, 1995 Tr. at 371.)

The jury could easily have concluded from this evidence that there was no reasonable doubt that Gilbert's intent in killing Ruddell was to take her truck in order to avoid arrest for the previous murders and to eliminate a potential witness to his stealing of Ruddell's truck.

Testimony as to the conversation between Gilbert and Ruddell specifically supports such an inference as to Gilbert's intent. We therefore conclude that a rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of this aggravating circumstance beyond a reasonable doubt and that the OCCA's determination in this regard was not unreasonable.

In order to support the "continuing threat" aggravating circumstance, the State must demonstrate a defendant will continue to present a threat to society after sentencing. Cudjo v. State, 925 P.2d 895, 902 (Okla. Crim. App. 1996). "A defendant's criminal history, the callousness of the crime, threats against others, lack of remorse, and attempts to prevent calls to the police are all factors this Court has previously considered when addressing this issue." Id.

The following evidence was in the record in support of the "continuing threat" aggravating circumstance: the unadjudicated murders committed in Ohio and Missouri; prior convictions for child endangerment, theft, and breaking and entering in Ohio; and prior convictions for the unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and for embezzlement by bailee in Oklahoma. Gilbert, 951 P.2d at 122. We conclude that this evidence was likewise sufficient for a rational trier of fact to have found the essential elements of this aggravating circumstance beyond a reasonable doubt, and that the OCCA's determination in this regard was not unreasonable.

The district court's dismissal of Gilbert's petition for a writ of habeas corpus is AFFIRMED.

 
 

Gilbert v. State, 951 P.2d 98, 103 (Okla. Crim. App. 1997).

Defendant was convicted in the District Court, Cleveland County, Tom A. Lucas, J., of first-degree malice aforethought murder, kidnapping, and robbery with firearms, and sentenced to death. Defendant appealed. The Court of Criminal Appeals, Lumpkin, J., held that: (1) district court's failure to order pretrial competency evaluation was not error; (2) defendant's confession to murder was voluntary; (3) defendant was not entitled to aiding and abetting instruction; (4) any error resulting from causation instruction focusing on whether defendant's conduct was substantial factor in bringing about victim's death was harmless error; (5) evidence was sufficient to support murder conviction; (6) Allen instruction given to deadlocked jury during sentencing deliberations was not per se coercive; and (7) sentence of death was appropriate. Affirmed. Chapel, P.J., and Strubhar, V.P.J., concurred in result.

LUMPKIN, Judge.

Appellant Lewis Eugene Gilbert was tried by jury and convicted of First Degree Malice Aforethought Murder (Count I) (21 O.S.1991, § 701.7), Kidnapping (Count II) (21 O.S.1991, § 741), Robbery with Firearms (Count III) (21 O.S.1991, § 801), Case No. CF-94-1125, in the District Court of Cleveland County. In Count I the jury found the existence of two (2) aggravating circumstances and recommended the punishment of death. In each of Counts II and III, the jury recommended as punishment life imprisonment and fines of ten thousand dollars ($10,000.). The trial court sentenced accordingly. From this judgment and sentence Appellant has perfected this appeal.

Appellant and co-defendant Eric Elliott (Co-defendant Elliott appeals separately) were convicted of the premeditated murder of Roxanne Ruddell, a security guard at Lake Stanley Draper.

Appellant and Elliott were in the midst of a multi-state crime spree when they arrived in Oklahoma. They had killed an elderly lady in Ohio and stolen her car which they drove to Missouri. There, they killed an elderly couple and stole their car which they drove to Oklahoma.

Driving that car to the area near Lake Stanley Draper, Appellant and Elliott saw the victim fishing alone near Point 6. Intending to steal her pickup, the defendants tied the victim's hands, made her walk a short distance and sit in the "v" at the base of a tree. Appellant then shot her three times in the head.

Approximately three days later, Appellant and Elliott were apprehended in New Mexico sleeping in a ditch. The victim's pickup was found approximately one mile away.

* * * *

Accordingly, finding no error warranting reversal or modification, the judgment and sentences for First Degree Murder, Kidnapping and Robbery with Firearms are AFFIRMED.

 
 

Gilbert v. State, 955 P.2d 727 (Okla.Crim.App. 1998) (PCR).

Following affirmance of conviction for murder and other offenses, 951 P.2d 98, defendant filed original action for postconviction relief. The Court of Criminal Appeals, Lumpkin, J., held that: (1) Simmons was not an intervening change in law so as to warrant postconviction review of counsel's alleged failure to challenge constitutionality of jury instruction on sentencing option of life without parole; (2) appellate counsel's omission of claim did not constitute ineffective assistance; (3) issues which were raised or could have been raised on direct appeal were barred; (4) proposition that Court adopt recommendation of American Bar Association and impose moratorium on executions was not properly raised under postconviction statute; (5) there was not cumulative error; (6) defendant was not entitled to evidentiary hearing; (7) proposition that state's clemency scheme, as currently applied, denies death sentenced petitioners due process was not properly raised under postconviction statute; (7) response to application for postconviction relief was not necessary; and (8) defendant was not entitled to additional discovery. Applications denied. Chapel, P.J., and Lane, J., concurred in result.

OPINION DENYING APPLICATION FOR POST-CONVICTION RELIEF, EVIDENTIARY HEARING AND DISCOVERY

LUMPKIN, Judge:

Petitioner Lewis Eugene Gilbert was convicted of First Degree Malice Aforethought Murder (Count I) (21 O.S.1991, § 701.7) , and Robbery with Firearms (Count III) (21 O.S.1991, § 801) , Case No. CF-94-1125, in the District Court of Cleveland County. In Count I, the jury found the existence of two (2) aggravating circumstances and recommended the punishment of death. In each of Counts II and III, the jury recommended as punishment life imprisonment and fines of ten thousand dollars ($10,000). This court affirmed the convictions and sentences in Gilbert v. State, 951 P.2d 98 (Okl.Cr.1997). Petitioner filed his Original Application for Post-Conviction Relief in this Court on October 27, 1997, in accordance with 22 O.S.Supp.1995, § 1089.

* * * *

After carefully reviewing Petitioner's Application for post-conviction relief and his requests for discovery, evidentiary hearing and other requests, we conclude (1) there exists no controverted, previously unresolved factual issues material to the legality of Petitioner's confinement; (2) Petitioner could have previously raised collaterally asserted grounds for review; (3) grounds for review which are properly presented have no merit; and (4) the current post-conviction statutes warrant no relief. 22 O.S.Supp.1995, § 1089(D)(4)(a)(1), (2) & (3). Accordingly, Petitioner's Application for Post- Conviction Relief and Application for an Evidentiary Hearing and Discovery are DENIED.

 

 

 
 
 
 
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