Lyndon Pace is a serial killer who would be sentenced to death by the State of Georgia for a series of murders
According to court documents Lyndon Pace would target elderly females who he would sexually assault, rob and murder. Authorities believe he is responsible for at least eight murders and a series of sexual assaults
Lyndon Pace 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
Lyndon Pace Case
A jury convicted Lyndon Fitzgerald Pace of four counts of malice murder, four counts of felony murder, four counts of rape, and two counts of aggravated sodomy. The jury recommended a death sentence for each malice murder conviction after finding beyond a reasonable doubt the existence of 19 statutory aggravating circumstances. OCGA 17-10-30 (b) (2), (7). Pace appeals and we affirm. 1
- The evidence adduced at trial shows that four women were murdered in their Atlanta homes in 1988 and 1989.
On August 28, 1988, a roommate found the nude body of 86-year-old Lula Bell McAfee lying face-down on her bed. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled to death with a strip of cloth.
On September 10, 1988, Mattie Mae McLendon, 78 years old, was found lying dead on her bed covered by a sheet. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled to death. No ligature was found.
On February 4, 1989, the police discovered the body of 79-year-old Johnnie Mae Martin lying on her bed nude from the waist down. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled to death with a shoelace.
On March 4, 1989, the brother-in-law of 42-year-old Annie Kate Britt found her body lying on her bed. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled to death with a sock that was still knotted around her neck.
The police determined that the killer entered each victim’s home by climbing through a window. Each attack occurred in the early morning hours. Vaginal lacerations and the presence of semen indicated that the victims had been raped and two of the women had been anally sodomized. The medical examiner removed spermatozoa from each victim and sent the samples to the FBI lab. DNA testing revealed the same DNA profile for each sperm sample, indicating a common perpetrator.
At 3:00 a.m. on September 24, 1992, 69-year-old Sarah Grogan confronted an intruder in her kitchen. She managed to obtain her gun and fire a shot which forced him to flee. The police discovered that the intruder entered Ms. Grogan’s house by climbing through a window. A crime scene technician lifted fingerprints from Ms. Grogan’s kitchen.
At 2:00 a.m. on September 30, 1992, Susie Sublett, an elderly woman who lived alone, awoke to discover an intruder taking money from her purse in her bedroom. Although the intruder was armed and threatened to “blow [her] brains out,” she fought with him and managed to flee to a neighbor’s house. The neighbor called the police. The police determined that the intruder entered Ms. Sublett’s house by climbing through a window. A crime scene technician lifted fingerprints from Ms. Sublett’s window screen.
The fingerprints from the Sublett and Grogan crime scenes matched Pace’s fingerprints, which were already on file with the police. Lyndon Pace was arrested and agreed to give hair and blood samples to the police. Pace’s pubic hair was consistent with a pubic hair found on the sweat pants Annie Kate Britt wore on the night she was murdered, and with a pubic hair found on a sheet near Johnnie Mae Martin’s body. A DNA expert also determined that Pace’s DNA profile matched the DNA profile taken from the sperm in the McAfee, Martin, McLendon, and Britt murders. The expert testified that the probability of a coincidental match of this DNA profile is one in 500 million in the McAfee, Martin, and Britt cases, and one in 150 million in the McLendon case. 2
The evidence was sufficient to enable a rational trier of fact to find beyond a reasonable doubt proof of Pace’s guilt of four counts of malice murder, four counts of felony murder, four counts of rape, and two counts of aggravated sodomy. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U. S. 307 (99 SC 2781, 61 LE2d 560) (1979). The evidence was also sufficient to authorize the jury to find beyond a reasonable doubt the 19 statutory aggravating circumstances which support his death sentences for the murders. Jackson v. Virginia, supra; OCGA 17-10-35 (c) (2).