Larry Robison was executed by the State of Texas for five murders
According to court documents Larry Robison would murder his roommate Ricky Lee Bryant and then would go next door and murder Georgia Ann Reed, 34; her mother, Earline Barker, 55; and Georgia’s 11-year-old son, Scott before fatally shooting Bruce Gardner and stealing his vehicle
Larry Robison would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Larry Robison would be executed by lethal injection on January 21 2000
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Larry Robison was executed on January 21 2000
Larry Robison Case
At 4:30 p.m. on August 10, 1982, Junett Bryant arrived at the home of her adult son, Ricky Lee Bryant, in Fort Worth, Texas. When he did not answer the door, Ms. Bryant entered the house and discovered her son lying on the floor — his head severed from his body. Ms. Bryant summoned the police. The chief medical examiner testified that Ricky Lee Bryant had also been sexually mutilated and had suffered two gunshot wounds to the head, eight cut wounds, and forty-nine stab wounds.
Four more homicide victims were located in the house next door to Bryant’s. The fully-clothed bodies of Earline Barker and Bruce Gardner were lying in the living room. Barker had multiple gunshot and stab wounds, including one very deep cut wound to the neck. Gardner had several gunshot wounds and a cut wound to his neck. In a bedroom was the body of a child, Scott Willard Reed, lying on his stomach. He had been shot once, suffered a contusion of the head due to blunt trauma, and had been cut and stabbed multiple times. Finally, the nude body of Georgia Reed was located in another bedroom. She had been shot twice, stabbed multiple times, and had a deep cut wound to the neck severing the jugular veins and carotid arteries.
Shortly after 4:00 a.m. on August 11, 1982, a police officer in Wichita, Kansas, noticed a suspicious looking vehicle backed up to a local church. The officer approached the vehicle and asked Larry Robison, the sole occupant of the vehicle, to get out of the car and for identification. Robison claimed not to have any identification and told the officer that his name was Jeffrey K. Kennedy and that the car belonged to his brother, George. Further investigation revealed that the car’s registration had expired in 1980, although the license plate bore a 1983 sticker. Thereafter, Robison volunteered that he had a checkbook in the car that would serve as identification. The checkbook was in Robison’s given name. A search of Robison’s pockets revealed a woman’s wedding ring, some bullets, and three wallets containing the driver licenses of Robison, Bruce Gardner, and Ricky Lee Bryant. Robison was handcuffed and placed in the police car.
The vehicle identification number on Robison’s car revealed that the car was registered to Bruce Gardner. In the car, officers found a loaded .22 caliber handgun under the driver’s seat. Additionally, four rings, more bullets, and two watches were found in a suitcase in the car. A pawn shop manager sold Robison a .22 caliber handgun one week before the murders, and identified the handgun found in Robison’s possession in Kansas as the one he had sold Robison. An assistant hardware manager at a Winn Dixie store sold Robison three boxes of .22 caliber ammunition on the day of the murders. All of the shell casings recovered from the murder scene were fired from Robison’s handgun. Three knives recovered at the crime scene tested positive for blood, and the blood type on two of the knives matched three of the victims. A pair of shorts and a matchbook recovered from the suitcase in Kansas tested positive for blood. The rings and two of the watches recovered from Robison were identified as belonging to Ms. Reed and Ms. Barker. Another watch taken from Robison at the time of his arrest was identified as belonged to Gardner.
Thomas Ozmer, a close friend of Ricky Bryant’s testified that he had known both Robison and Bryant since 1976, and had introduced Bryant to Robison in June 1982. About a month before the murders, Robison moved in with Bryant. Ozmer stated that he had stored an old, inoperable 1966 Chevy Belaire at Bryant’s home. The license plate found on Gardner’s car in Kansas was from Ozmer’s car.
The primary defense at trial was that Robison was insane at the time of the murders. The defense presented testimony that several members of Robison’s father’s family had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and that Robison had exhibited behavior consistent with schizophrenia. Robison had also been diagnosed and treated for schizophrenia. A defense expert stated that Robison is a chronic paranoid schizophrenic, and was delusional and legally insane at the time of the offense.
The State presented competing evidence that Robison was faking a mental disorder, and had a long history of drug abuse, including marijuana, methamphetamines, amphetamines, tranquilizers, LSD, and PCP. The State’s expert stated that Robison’s past behavior was attributable to a drug psychosis, which has similar symptoms to schizophrenia. There was no evidence that Robison was under the influence of drugs at the time he committed the murders.
http://www.oag.state.tx.us/newspubs/releases/2000/20000120robisonadvsy.htm
