Arthur Boyd was executed by the State of North Carolina for the murder of Wanda Hartman
According to court documents Arthur Boyd and Wanda Hartman had ended their relationship several months before the murder. Boyd would attempt to reconcile with Wanda Hartman however when she refused to restart their relationship Arthur would stab her multiple times causing her death
Arthur Boyd would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Arthur Boyd would be executed by lethal injection on October 21 1999
Arthur Boyd Photos
Arthur Boyd Case
The defendant had known the victim for approximately three years during which time they had lived together. They had separated *412 several months prior to the murder when the victim and her daughter moved into the home of the victim’s parents. The defendant returned to his wife and children while at the same time attempting a reconciliation with the victim.
On the morning of Saturday, 7 August 1982, defendant was seen drinking at a local tavern. He then took a taxi to the Mayberry Shopping Mall in Mount Airy where he bought a lock-blade knife, the murder weapon. He met the victim coming out of a store accompanied by her mother and daughter. He followed the victim to a nearby bank where a local church group was conducting a car wash. The victim’s father was the pastor of the church. Witnesses, including the man who sold defendant the knife, described the defendant as calm, polite and not intoxicated. He told one witness that he had “never felt better in his life” and shook hands with the victim’s father, stating that he had no hard feelings. This latter remark was apparently in reference to the fact that the victim’s father had earlier in the week ordered defendant from his property after which a trespassing warrant had been issued.
Defendant **194 and the victim then sat on the curb in front of the bank and talked quietly for some period of time until the victim’s mother stated that they had to leave. As the victim stood up, the defendant stood in front of her and asked that she talk to him a little longer. The victim stated that they had nothing further to discuss and that if the defendant was going to kill her, “he should hurry up and get it over with.”
Of significance was the fact that approximately one week prior to the murder, during a confrontation with the victim’s father, defendant turned to the victim and stated “I’ll see you like a German submarine, when you are not expecting it.” Defendant reached into his pocket, pulled out the knife and assured the victim that he wasn’t going to hurt her. He immediately drew back the knife and stabbed her. The victim fell to the ground and the defendant continued to stab her as rapidly as he could. At one point the victim’s mother managed to pull the defendant away from her daughter. Defendant, however, pushed the 76 year old woman aside, held the victim by her hair, and continued to stab.
One of the eyewitnesses, a member of a Virginia County Sheriff’s Department who was visiting Mount Airy with his son, followed the defendant on foot after the murder. He watched as the defendant walked slowly and inconspicuously from the crime *413 scene toward the back of the shopping mall. Defendant removed his bloodstained shirt, wiped the blood from his hands, and put the shirt into his back pocket. Defendant eventually reached an embankment, turned, and headed for the mall parking lot as a Mount Airy police car reached the scene. Defendant tossed the knife under a parked car and attempted to conceal himself between other cars. He was apprehended and arrested.
The testimony indicated that the victim suffered considerably prior to her death. When the emergency medical unit arrived at the scene at 2:25 p.m., she was “raking [her hands] back and forth in the dirt,” and repeatedly complained of an inability to breathe. She was taken to a local hospital for emergency treatment and then sent by ambulance to Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem. She died en route at 3:45 p.m. The examining pathologist testified that he identified thirty-seven stab wounds to the neck, chest, left arm, left thigh, back, and each hand, that included two penetrating wounds to the right lung, three to the left lung, one to the stomach and one to the sternum. The wounds to the hands and arm were classified as defensive wounds—“incision wounds which are produced when the victim extends its arms in an effort to defend himself.” The victim died of exsanguination caused by multiple stab wounds, leading to hypovolemic shock.
Defendant did not testify at the guilt phase of his trial. He presented three witnesses in an effort to prove he was intoxicated at the time of the murder. Two friends testified that defendant spent the morning at Martin’s Place, during which time he allegedly consumed much beer, some whiskey and took some undisclosed type of pill, variously described as “heartshaped” or a large “black capsule” which the defendant removed from his hat. The bartender, however, did not recall seeing the defendant wearing any hat, and testified that defendant left the tavern at 9:30 a.m., soon after he had arrived. The bartender did testify that when defendant returned shortly after noon, she refused to serve him because he appeared to be intoxicated.
At the sentencing phase of the trial, the defendant testified on his own behalf and offered the testimony of a number of preachers who had witnessed defendant’s religious rebirth, and his mother who testified concerning defendant’s distressing childhood. The thrust of this testimony was that defendant’s *414 father abandoned the family when defendant was a child. Then, defendant’s grandfather, to whom he looked as a father figure, died. This event was likened to a dog losing its master. Defendant had a history of alcohol abuse. From the age of 14 the defendant had either been in prison, on parole, or on probation for crimes including injury to property, nonsupport, 7 convictions for larceny, **195 assault with intent to commit rape on a fourteen year old girl, driving under the influence, assault on an officer, and resisting arrest. Prior to the murder he was on an antiabuse program which required him to take a pill before a magistrate each day. He voluntarily stopped the program the day before the murder.