Man set for execution today in 1989 slaying of neighbor
Posted on 09/17/2002 3:45:19 AM PDT by MeekOneGOP
Man set for execution today in 1989 slaying of neighbor
Relatives remember kindness of Pleasant Grove woman, 80, attacked in her home
09/17/2002
Nina Rutherford Redd couldn't imagine the danger that lived two doors away from her.
In 1989, after a man moved into her neighborhood with his teenage girlfriend and infant son, Ms. Redd tried to help the struggling couple, giving them milk for their baby and access to her phone.
Several weeks later, the man broke into the 80-year-old woman's Pleasant Grove home and beat her and raped her and slashed her throat.
KIM RITZENTHALER / DMN "She was about the closest thing to a mother that I would ever have," said Marcie Bowling (left) of her slain aunt Nina Rutherford Redd, whose throat was slashed. |
That man, Jesse Joe Patrick, 44, is scheduled to be executed Tuesday evening for Ms. Redd's murder.
"I used to think that if they had found out who did it, I would feel better," said Marcie Bowling, 51, a niece who was raised by Ms. Redd. "And then I thought if they convicted him, I would feel better. Then I thought if they put him to death, I would feel better. But nothing is ever going to make me feel better. He took something that shouldn't have been taken from us."
Mr. Patrick, who declined to be interviewed, confessed to the murder but has since said he can't remember what happened.
Last week, he lost his battle for a DNA test of semen found at the crime scene. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that a state district judge did not have the authority to order the testing, although Mr. Patrick's wife had agreed to pay for the test.
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The court found that Mr. Patrick did not meet the law's requirement that there be a "reasonable probability" that the test might exonerate him.
Keith Hampton, Mr. Patrick's attorney, said Monday that all of the motions that he had filed with the Court of Criminal Appeals had been denied. The latest argument was a dispute about whether Mr. Patrick is mentally retarded.
Mr. Hampton said he planned to file a motion Tuesday with the U.S. Supreme Court asking for a stay of execution and a review of Mr. Patrick's possible mental retardation.
If Mr. Patrick is executed Tuesday, he will be the 25th Texas inmate put to death this year.
Ms. Redd was an active woman who still worked occasionally as a seamstress and was involved in a businesswomen's association.
"Like anybody else, she just went to work and worked hard," said her sister, Helen McCrory.
Ms. Redd had worked at a Dallas cotton mill for 14 cents an hour during the Depression, Ms. McCrory said.
"She was about 30 or 31 before she got married," Ms. McCrory recalled. "She just loved to dance."
Ms. Redd stepped in to help care for her twin 11-month-old niece and nephew when her 26-year-old sister died in the early 1950s.
"She was about the closest thing to a mother that I would ever have," Mrs. Bowling, the victim's niece, said.
Mrs. Bowling said she tried to persuade Ms. Redd, who was widowed in the 1960s, to move from her longtime home.
Mr. Patrick and his girlfriend and child lived in a house near Ms. Redd's that they had rented from his aunt.
Mrs. Bowling said her husband had warned Ms. Redd to be careful about letting strangers into her house, but her response was, "Well, they need help."
She knew nothing of Mr. Patrick's violent past.
According to court records, Mr. Patrick had been sentenced to four years in prison for aggravated assault in the mid-1980s. He also had been accused of rape but had not been indicted by a grand jury.
In the hours before Ms. Redd's murder, Mr. Patrick had been drinking and had tried to rape his girlfriend, according to court records.
Mr. Patrick left his home, and when he returned he found his girlfriend and son gone, records show. He walked to Ms. Redd's home, crawled through the bathroom window and attacked the sleeping woman.
In his 1989 confession, Mr. Patrick wrote that he tried to have sex with Ms. Redd before he slashed her throat. He said he looked for money but didn't find any.
"I am sorry that this happened," he wrote in his confession. "I think that I need some serious help."
Ms. Redd's sister - and next-door neighbor - found her body July 8, 1989. The sister never returned to her own home, and relatives say she rarely talks about the murder.
Mr. Patrick fled the state, but he was captured about two weeks later in Jackson, Miss.
Investigators found the victim's blood on a sock and toilet paper in Mr. Patrick's home, and his palm print was found on her bathroom window.
A knife found at the scene of the crime was identified as his.
A Dallas County jury convicted Mr. Patrick in April 1990 of capital murder and sentenced him to death.
"I want to see him executed," Ms. McCrory said. "He's going to die a less-painful death than she did."
But Mrs. Bowling said she had decided not to attend the execution.
"I don't think it's going to bring any particular closure to see him die," she said. "Just knowing that he won't be able to do this to anyone else is enough."
E-mail teiserer@dallasnews.com
Ping a few Texans. The victim lived in Pleasant Grove, a Dallas suburb.
Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my Texas ping list!. . .don't be shy.
No, you don't HAVE to be a Texan to get on this list!
They recently ruled that Daryl Renard Atkins was worth keeping around.
Here's an excerpt from a story..Daryl Atkins was convicted and sentenced to death for the robbery and capital murder of Eric Nesbitt. On the afternoon of Auguest 16, 1996, Atkins and his friend, William Jones, were drinking and smoking marijuana at Atkin's home. Later that evening Atkins and Jones walked to a nearby store to buy more beer. In the parking lot of the store, Atkins told Jones that he did not have enough money and would panhandle to get the money for the beer. Afterwards, Atkins and Jones abducted Eric Nesbitt (An Airman stationed at nearby Langley Air Force Base), and drove him to a field, where Atkins allegedly shot and killed him.
What this excerpt didn't mention is that the duo forced Nesbitt to withdraw money from an ATM. The film footage clearly shows the look of terror in his eyes.
A pox on the USSC.
Here's CourtTV's take on this case.
Supreme Court rules execution of the mentally retarded is unconstitutional
Mental retardation is not an indicator of morality. Kill him.
If he gets off, you can kiss justice GOOD-BYE!!!
"Retarded," my ***. He's a doper. It's difficult to distinguish between a "doper" and a retard.
The court found that Mr. Patrick did not meet the law's requirement that there be a "reasonable probability" that the test might exonerate him.
Okay, call me a bleeding heart, but this I don't care for, particularly when the spouse agreed to pay for the test.
The statement by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals makes it appear the intent of the court is not to determine quilt but rather to prevent the loss of a capital case. I say give him the test. If it exonorates him great, but if it doesn't, fry his ass.
Given the preponderance of evidence, testing him would be about validating DNA testing rather than freeing him.
For him, the DNA test is about a few more weeks of life.
Yeah dude, were gonna help you, with some serious drugs.
I'm quite sure you wouldn't make that argument if the DNA test was being used to convict someone. There is no reason a DNA test shouldn't happen if he (or his wife) are willing to pay for it.
-bc
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