Texas sets first execution of 2004
Man was convicted of raping, killing woman in College Station
12:42 PM CST on Tuesday, January 6, 2004
HUNTSVILLE, Texas – Brazos County District Attorney Bill Turner is surprised convicted killer Ynobe Matthews, a man he worked to send to death row, is following through on his desire to be executed voluntarily.
"He took that position from the time he got the death penalty," Turner said a day before Matthews' scheduled lethal injection Tuesday night. "I believed that would be short-lived."
Cut short, however, at Matthews' request, were any extensive appeals of his conviction and death sentence for the rape-slaying of a 21-year-old woman at her apartment in College Station 3 1/2 years ago.
"It's not a decision for everybody," Matthews said from death row, where he acknowledged his lawyers and fellow inmates urged him to not give up. "I don't recommend it... It's a very personal decision, but we all have to choose ways to fight."
"I wish there was something else going on but there's not," Kevin Dunn, Matthews' attorney, said Monday.
Matthews, now 27, was condemned for strangling Carolyn Casey, then setting fire to her body to try to cover up the crime. It was one of at least two deaths he acknowledged.
"He has wrecked two families' lives and he's taken two innocent young ladies violently for whatever reason and he's wrecked our lives," said Anita Casey, whose daughter was killed. "We have to deal with this for the rest of our lives.
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"He's taken my daughter from me and he's broken the law more than once before ... I believe he's getting what he deserves."
Testimony at his trial also linked Matthews to at least three other rapes and two attempted rapes.
Matthews blamed immaturity, combined with alcohol and drugs, for his violence.
"I grew up too late," he said. "I grew up after I'd been arrested... I regret it ever happened."
Matthews, whose first name is "Ebony" spelled backward, would be the first prisoner executed this year in Texas, where 24 inmates were put to death in 2003. The total was the highest in the nation but about average for Texas over the past decade.
Firefighters responding to a call from Casey's apartment complex May 28, 2000, found a small blaze smoldering around her body. She had been propped up in a seated position against a bed. Paper, pens and makeup brushes had been set on fire near her.
Matthews, who has four children ranging in age from 3 to 10, was living with a friend at the same complex and had attended a party there the previous night. Matthews' DNA was found in scrapings taken from under the woman's fingernails and other forensics evidence tied him to the murder scene.
He acknowledged being at her apartment the day she was killed but contended the sex was consensual. He later told detectives there had been a fight, that he strangled Casey and set fire to her to eliminate evidence and cut a window screen to give the appearance of a burglary.
DNA evidence and fingerprints also connected Matthews to the May 1, 1999, rape and slaying of Jamie Hart, 21, whose death went unsolved for 14 months after her nude body was discovered on a rural Brazos County road, nine miles from where her abandoned car was left running with the lights on.
Matthews confessed to forcing his way into her car and raping her. A month after he was condemned for Casey's slaying, he pleaded guilty to Hart's death in exchange for a life prison term.
Turner recalled testimony of a rape victim at the murder trial telling how her attacker "would strangle her until almost unconscious and then let up. It would happen again and again."
Authorities found marks of repeated choking on his other victims.
"I'm as comfortable as one can be with the decision," Matthews said of his voluntary death. "It's my fault that I'm here. That's that."
Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dallas/tsw/stories/010604dntswtxexecute.113b8f766.html
