Michael Nance was sentenced to death by the State of Georgia for the murder of Gabor Balogh
According to court documents Michael Nance would rob a bank and when he was leaving a dye pack would detonate. Nance ran across the road and forced opened a car door shooting the driver Gabor Balogh who would die from his injuries
Michael Nance would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
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MAJOR OFFENSE: MURDER
MOST RECENT INSTITUTION: GA DIAG CLASS PRISON
MAX POSSIBLE RELEASE DATE: DEATH
Michael Nance Case
The evidence adduced at trial shows that Michael Nance stole a 1980 Oldsmobile Omega and drove to the Tucker Federal Savings & Loan on December 18, 1993. He entered the bank wearing a ski mask and gloves and carrying a .22 caliber revolver. While ordering the tellers to put money into two pillowcases he had brought with him, he said “no dye money or I’ll kill you” and “I’m going to come back and kill you all if the dye thing goes off.” Despite Nance’s threats, the tellers managed to slip two dye packets in with the money. Michael Nance exited the bank and got into the Oldsmobile where the dye packets activated, emitting red dye and tear gas. Nance abandoned the Oldsmobile holding the gun in his right hand covered by a plastic trash bag. His ski mask and the dye-stained bags of money were left in the car.
Michael Nance ran to a liquor store parking lot. Dan McNeal had just made a purchase at the liquor store and was standing in the parking lot. Gabor Balogh had just left the liquor store and was backing his car out of a parking space. Balogh was only halfway out of the parking space when Nance ran around the front of Balogh’s car, yanked open the front driver’s-side door, and thrust his right arm into the car. McNeal saw Balogh leaning away from Nance with his hands on the steering wheel. He heard Balogh screaming and saying “No, no.” Nance shot Balogh in the left elbow and the bullet entered his chest. The medical examiner testified that the bullet moved downward through Balogh’s body, passing between the upper and lower lobes of his left lung and lacerating his heart before stopping in his liver.
Nance then pointed the gun at McNeal and said, “Give me your keys.” McNeal ran around the side of the liquor store and Nance fired another shot. McNeal was not hit. Nance apparently ran around the other side of the store because the two men encountered each other behind the store. McNeal turned and ran back around the store to the parking lot. He went to Balogh’s car and saw Balogh slumped over and gasping for breath. Balogh died before the ambulance arrived.
Michael Nance ran to a nearby gas station where he held the gun to his head during a one-hour standoff with police. He told the police, “If anyone rushes me, there’s going to be war.” The police convinced him to surrender. Nance’s gloves and shirt were stained with the same red dye used in the dye packets. A firearms expert testified that Nance’s gun, which contained two spent shells, was probably the same gun used to kill Balogh. Nance confessed to the bank robbery, but said that he had only fired once up in the air to scare Balogh because Balogh was trying to run him over with his car. To show Nance’s intent and bent of mind, the State presented evidence that Nance robbed another bank in the same county in September 1993 and issued a similar threat to the teller. In the penalty phase, the State presented evidence that Nance committed an armed robbery in Kansas in 1984.
The evidence was sufficient to enable a rational trier of fact to find beyond a reasonable doubt proof of Nance’s guilt of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, theft by taking, criminal attempt to commit armed robbery, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). The evidence was also sufficient to authorize the jury to find beyond a reasonable doubt the two statutory aggravating circumstances which support his death sentence for the murder. Id.; OCGA § 17-10-35(c)(2).