David Hocker was executed by the State of Alabama for the murder of Jerry Robinson
According to court documents David Hocker asked his boss Jerry Robinson for a ride. When Robinson showed up he would be brutally attacked and stabbed to death. Hocker then stole his vehicle and credit cards which he used to buy drugs
David Hocker would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
David Hocker would be executed by lethal injection on September 30 2004
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When Was David Hocker Executed
David Hocker was executed on September 30 2004
David Hocker Case
David Kevin Hocker said a final prayer and was put to death Thursday for the 1998 stabbing death of his boss. Hocker, 33, refused to file appeals of his conviction, saying he was guilty and wanted to die for his crime.
“I swear by you, Lord Jesus Christ my savior that my time should be no longer. The mystery of life shall be finished. Amen,” Hocker said when Holman prison warden Grantt Culliver asked if he had any final words. Hocker, strapped to a hospital gurney, then said a few quiet words to officers standing beside him in the execution chamber at Holman Prison and stared at the ceiling as he was injected with the combination of drugs that ended his life. Hocker did not look at the witness room, about 15 feet away, where his mother sobbed quietly as she watched her son die. Looking pale with his hands balled into fists, Hocker straightened his body several times. After a few moments he closed his eyes and appeared to lose consciousness.
Hocker’s mother, Patricia Yeomans, did not talk to reporters after the execution, but released a statement saying her son had found peace on death row after a troubled life of mental problems and drug abuse. “Once Kevin started reading the Bible his anger just disappeared. He became positive about his life,” Yeomans said.
Yeomans had made arrangements for a Daphne funeral home to pick up her son’s body after forensic examinations are completed. Hocker did not attempt to file any appeals in the final days leading up to Thursday night’s execution and did not ask Gov. Bob Riley for clemency. No members of Robinson’s family attended the execution. Hocker’s stepfather, George Larry Yeomans, sat beside Patricia Yeomans and put his arm on her shoulder and comforted her during the execution.
Hocker spent two and a half hours Thursday visiting with his mother and stepfather. Department of Corrections spokesman Brian Corbett said Hocker was mostly upbeat during the day and asked corrections officers questions about how the execution would be carried out. Hocker refused to eat anything during the day Thursday. He had requested a last meal of frankfurters, french fries, American cheese, mustard and chocolate cake with chocolate icing, but he refused to eat when the meal was presented to him at about 2:30 Thursday afternoon, Corbett said. He left his mother and stepfather assorted food items and a check for 87 cents, the amount of money he had left in an account prisoners use to buy snacks and other items, Corbett said. Hocker also gave a radio and headset and food items to death row inmate Rayford Hagood.
Hocker was convicted and sentenced to death for the March 21, 1998, stabbing death and robbery of Jerry Wayne Robinson, 47, of Columbia in Houston County. Hocker, who had been living in a Dothan motel, was accused of shooting Robinson as he sat in a truck in Headland and dumping Robinson’s body in neighboring Henry County. Hocker had been working for Robinson’s structural steel detailing company. He used the victim’s bank card to get cash to purchase $400 worth of crack cocaine and later turned himself in at the Mobile County Sheriff’s Department.
During his trial four years ago, Hocker admitted killing Robinson. “I’m guilty,” he told the judge. Hocker’s initial appeal was rejected by the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals. He then filed court documents waiving his right to further appeals.
Hocker’s mother told The Birmingham News earlier this week that her son had a long history of mental health problems, drug use and crime before he killed Robinson. She said Hocker’s father committed suicide when her son was 8 years old. Hocker’s sister, Kim Osborn, a speech pathologist, told The News that her brother was looking forward to dying. She said he had adopted a form of Christianity that’s led him to believe he’ll be a leader in the afterlife. Osborn told The News this belief led her brother to castrate himself in his death-row cell to control sexual urges. Corbett said Hocker received outside medical treatments twice in 2003, but because of privacy laws he said he could not say why he was treated.
Hocker was the second death row inmate executed in Alabama this year and the 30th since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1977. Hocker was the sixth Alabama inmate executed since the state switched its primary method of execution from the electric chair to lethal injection in 2002.
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040930/APN/409300706
