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AP
Roger Dale Vaughn Posted on 05/06/2003 6:40:15 AM PDT by MeekOneGOP
Former jail escapee convicted of murder set to die
05/06/2003
HUNTSVILLE, Texas - Convicted killer Roger Dale Vaughn blamed his own stupidity for winding up on death row.
Prosecutors looked at Vaughn's criminal past, his escape from the Lubbock County Jail and the carnage he left behind at the home of a 66-year-old strangled woman in Vernon and convinced a jury that's where he belonged.
"He's just a mean fellow," says Dan Mike Bird, the Wilbarger County district attorney who prosecuted Vaughn for the rape-slaying of Dora Wilkins more than 11 years ago.
AP Roger Dale Vaughn |
Vaughn, 48, would be the 14th Texas inmate executed this year.
"I've never murdered anybody," Vaughn insisted last week in an interview on death row. "I just fit the bill."
Vaughn was being held on forgery and robbery charges in Lubbock when he fled the county jail Oct. 14, 1991. At the time he was a trusty.
"I got stupid and walked off," he said.
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He tracked down a friend, convinced him he had been paroled, then got the friend drunk, knocked him out and stole his truck and money. He drove the 175 miles east to Electra, midway between Wichita Falls and Vernon, and tried to call Watkins' son, an acquaintance, to get some money. Instead, he reached Dora Watkins and made arrangements to stop by the next day.
Vaughn said he visited the victim, then left.
"I didn't know the woman died," he said from prison, contending he later picked up a hitchhiker who left a package in his car. Inside the package, he said, were jewelry, credit cards and a checkbook belonging to Watkins.
"I hocked the rings," he said. "I needed money. I wrote a couple of checks."
Watkins, badly beaten about the head, strangled with a cloth and raped, was found dead in her kitchen by people showing up for a church meeting that had been scheduled for her house. She had worked at a secretary at the Catholic church in Vernon, about 150 miles northwest of Fort Worth and just south of the Oklahoma border.
"Anybody who saw what I saw when I went into that kitchen would have made the same decision I made," Bird said, explaining why he sought the death penalty in the case. "It was a war scene in there in the kitchen."
Evidence showed Vaughn pawned the jewelry, including Watkins' wedding ring, in Wichita Falls and cashed several checks. One pawnbroker who refused to lend him money wrote down his license plate number, which was tracked to the stolen car.
"I was smoking crack, I wasn't in full control," Vaughn said of his arrest Oct. 17, 1991, a day after the slaying. "I was a sitting duck.
"There were some stupid moves I made ... stupid blunders, no reason why. Just stupidity," he said.
Bird disputed Vaughn's contention someone else was responsible for the slaying, saying evidence pointed to Vaughn.
"The most damning evidence is she had a bite on her face and that bite absolutely matched with his teeth impression," the prosecutor said. "I didn't know at the time, but learned through this case that bite marks are a lot like fingerprints."
Vaughn was court martialed from the Army for being AWOL and discharged for character and behavior disorders. In 1977, he received 10 years probation for burglary in Gray County, in the Texas Panhandle. The probation was revoked when he assaulted two people with a knife.
In 1986, he was convicted of receiving stolen property in Wyoming, but got off with probation. The same year, he got up to five years for forgery in that state. He was back in Texas in August 1991 when he was arrested in Lubbock, where he was in jail when he escaped.
The Supreme Court refused in February to review Vaughn's capital murder case. Vaughn said his attorneys quit and he had no legal help as the execution date approached. A pair of attorneys, however, appeared with him in March when the execution was set and indicated they planned no additional appeals.
"I don't want it to happen but it looks like it's going to happen," he said.
| State | ||||
| Victim name | Inmate name | Status | ||
| May 6, 2003 | Texas | Dora Leveille Watkins, 66 | Roger Vaughn | pending |
| Roger Vaughn was sentenced to death in the 1991 strangling of Dora Watkins of Vernon during a robbery. At the time of the attack, Vaughn was an escapee from the Lubbock County Jail. He had been charged with forgery and robbery. Dora was at home when Vaughn broke into her residence. Dora was raped and then strangled with a piece of cloth. Jewelry and bank checks were stolen and Vaughn's fingerprints were later found on Dora's wallet. At the time of the murder, Vaughn was an escapee from the Lubbock County jail. He had escaped after being charged with forgery and robbery in a separate incident. On the same day of Dora's murder, Vaughn had also burglarized the home of his own aunt, who lived just a few blocks away from Dora. Vaughn had previously been convicted of burglary of a habitation for which he served 2 1/2 years of a 10 year sentence before being paroled. | ||||
Excerpt:
HUNTSVILLE, Texas - Convicted killer Roger Dale Vaughn blamed his own stupidity for winding up on death row.
Prosecutors looked at Vaughn's criminal past, his escape from the Lubbock County Jail and the carnage he left behind at the home of a 66-year-old strangled woman in Vernon and convinced a jury that's where he belonged.
"He's just a mean fellow," says Dan Mike Bird, the Wilbarger County district attorney who prosecuted Vaughn for the rape-slaying of Dora Wilkins more than 11 years ago.
AP Roger Dale Vaughn |
Vaughn, 48, would be the 14th Texas inmate executed this year.
"I've never murdered anybody," Vaughn insisted last week in an interview on death row. "I just fit the bill."
Vaughn was being held on forgery and robbery charges in Lubbock when he fled the county jail Oct. 14, 1991. At the time he was a trusty.
Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my Texas Executions ping list!. . .don't be shy.
From your link:
The Aldays, a family of farmers in rural southwest Georgia, were shot to death as they arrived home for lunch at their trailer. Ned Alday was gunned down along with three sons, a brother and a daughter-in-law, who was also raped before being killed. Prosecutors called the slayings the most gruesome murders in the state's history.He killed SIX folks THIRTY years ago and he's still breathing? Sheesh ! Pull the plug, TODAY !!"He's not even a human being," said Paige Seagraves, another of Ned Alday's granddaughters. "If I had something to say to him, it would be 'May God have mercy on your soul because you had no mercy on my family."'
Three other men also were convicted in the murders. Two are serving life sentences; the third was released from prison in 1993.
Like a migraine . . .
Yeah, I thought that was strange and couldn't figure if it was his story or the media reporter messing it up. Pretty dumb story alright.
05/06/2003
HUNTSVILLE, Texas – A former electrician with an extensive criminal past was executed Tuesday for killing a 66-year-old woman after he had escaped from the Lubbock County Jail.
Roger Dale Vaughn smiled, laughed and mouthed to relatives that he loved them, but he had no final statement.
Instead Vaughn asked a prison chaplain to read Psalm 103, which talks about God's compassion and repeatedly uses and ends with the phrase, "Praise the Lord, oh my soul."
AP Roger Dale Vaughn |
Among the witnesses were the victim's two sons and a daughter.
Vaughn, 48, was a trusty at the jail more than 11 years ago when he fled, stole a car and three days later was arrested for strangling and raping Dora Watkins during a burglary of her home in Vernon, about 150 miles west of Lubbock.
The U.S. Supreme Court refused in February to review Vaughn's capital murder case and no late appeals were filed to try to block the execution, the 14th in Texas this year.
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"He's just a mean fellow," said Dan Mike Bird, the Wilbarger County district attorney who convinced a jury Vaughn should be put to death.
"I've never murdered anybody," Vaughn insisted last week in an interview on death row. "I just fit the bill."
Vaughn was being held on forgery and robbery charges in Lubbock when he fled the county jail Oct. 14, 1991.
"I got stupid and walked off," he said.
He tracked down a friend, convinced him he had been paroled, then got the friend drunk, knocked him out and stole his truck and money. He drove east to Electra, midway between Wichita Falls and Vernon, and tried to call Watkins' son, an acquaintance, to get some money. Instead, he reached Dora Watkins and made arrangements to stop by the next day.
Vaughn said he visited the victim, then left.
"I didn't know the woman died," he said from prison, contending he later picked up a hitchhiker who left a package in his car. Inside the package, he said, were jewelry, credit cards and a checkbook belonging to Watkins.
"I hocked the rings," he said. "I needed money. I wrote a couple of checks."
Watkins, badly beaten about the head, strangled with a cloth and raped, was found dead in her kitchen by people showing up for a church meeting at her house.
"Anybody who saw what I saw when I went into that kitchen would have made the same decision I made," Bird said, explaining why he sought the death penalty in the case. "It was a war scene in there in the kitchen."
Evidence showed Vaughn pawned the jewelry, including Watkins' wedding ring, in Wichita Falls and cashed several checks. One pawnbroker who refused to lend him money wrote down his license plate number, which was tracked to the stolen car.
"I was smoking crack, I wasn't in full control," Vaughn said of his arrest Oct. 17, 1991, a day after the slaying. "I was a sitting duck.
"There were some stupid moves I made ... stupid blunders, no reason why. Just stupidity," he said.
Bird disputed Vaughn's contention someone else was responsible for the slaying, saying evidence pointed to Vaughn.
"The most damning evidence is she had a bite on her face and that bite absolutely matched with his teeth impression," the prosecutor said. "I didn't know at the time, but learned through this case that bite marks are a lot like fingerprints."
Vaughn was court martialed from the Army for being AWOL and discharged for character and behavior disorders. In 1977 he received 10 years probation for burglary in Gray County, in the Texas Panhandle. The probation was revoked when he assaulted two people with a knife.
In 1986, he was convicted of receiving stolen property in Wyoming, but got off with probation. The same year, he got up to five years for forgery in that state. He was back in Texas in August 1991 when he was arrested in Lubbock, where he was in jail when he escaped.
05/06/2003
HUNTSVILLE, Texas – A former electrician with an extensive criminal past was executed Tuesday for killing a 66-year-old woman after he had escaped from the Lubbock County Jail.
Roger Dale Vaughn smiled, laughed and mouthed to relatives that he loved them, but he had no final statement.
Instead Vaughn asked a prison chaplain to read Psalm 103, which talks about God's compassion and repeatedly uses and ends with the phrase, "Praise the Lord, oh my soul."
AP Roger Dale Vaughn |
Looks like this one is next:
http://www.prodeathpenalty.com/Pending/03/may03.htm
| Date of scheduled execution | State | Victim name | Inmate name | Status |
| May 15, 2003 | Texas | Conrad Harris, 16 | Bruce Jacobs | pending |
| Bruce Jacobs was convicted of stabbing to death 16-year-old Conrad Harris in July of 1986. Jacobs broke into the teenager's home in Dallas during the early morning hours and stabbed Conrad repeatedly. Conrad's parents heard his screams and ran into his room where they found Jacobs standing over the boy with a knife in his hand. Jacobs pointed the knife at the couple, then fled the house. Jacobs fingerprints were found on a butter knife in the home and police found a pair of blood-stained blue jeans at his residence following his arrest. The family reported that $100 was missing from the home. Mrs. Harris told police that Jacobs has tried to break into the home on the day before the murder. He ran off after she managed to close the door and lock it. Jacobs had previously served time for an assault conviction in the state of Oregon. | ||||
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Texas Dept. of Criminal Justice
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