Mark Gardner was executed by the State of Arkansas for a triple murder
According to court documents Mark Gardner would break into the home of Joe and Martha Joyce. The couple would be tied up and murdered. Gardner would sexually assault and murder their adult daughter Sara McCurdy
Mark Gardner would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Mark Gardner would be executed by lethal injection on September 8 1999
Mark Gardner Photos
Mark Gardner Case
Shortly after 2:00 p.m. on December 12, 1985, the bodies of Mr. and Mrs. Joyce and Sara McCurdy were discovered in the Joyce residence in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Mr. Joyce was found in one room tied to a chair with his own neckties. His feet had been bound and he had been gagged. A necktie was wrapped about his neck so tightly that it had to be cut free. Mrs. Joyce was found bound and gagged in one of the bedrooms. At trial, the medical examiner testified that Mr. and Mrs. Joyce died of strangulation. Sara McCurdy was found in another bedroom with a belt wrapped around her neck. She too had been bound and gagged. Additionally, a coat hanger had been twisted about her neck. She was taken to a local hospital with the expectation that she might be revived but was pronounced dead on arrival. The cause of death was strangulation. At trial, the State produced evidence that Sara McCurdy had been raped.
Cindy GriggsSara McCurdy’s sister and co-workertestified that an inventory of the items in her parents’ home revealed that a bag of silver coins, money, knives, a purse, binoculars, and numerous pieces of jewelry were missing. The witness described the knives, purse, binoculars, and jewelry with particularity.
Additional testimony by other witnesses developed the following. Sara McCurdy had left work at 11:15 a.m. on December 12 to drop off her car, a 1977 Buick LaSabre, at her parents’ home. It had been planned that Mr. Joyce would take Sara back to work after lunch, but she never returned. Calls to the Joyce residence between 12:30 and 2:00 went unanswered. Subsequently, the victims’ bodies were discovered by a relative. It was determined at that time that Sara McCurdy’s car was missing.
Earlier on December 12, at approximately 3:30 a.m., Gardner had checked into the Regal 8 Inn in Fort Smith. Shortly before 11:00 a.m. he was seen walking in the direction of May Avenue in Fort Smith. Between 11:00 and 11:30, in a shop on May Avenue, Gardner asked for directions to Linwood Street. The directions given would have taken him within one block of the Joyce residence. The next time Gardner was seen was shortly before 2:00 p.m. near Pocola, Oklahoma. He was driving a 1977 Buick LaSabre later found abandoned near Pocola and identified as belonging to Sara McCurdy.
The abandoned vehicle had been left near a service station where Gardner obtained a *522 ride to the Fort Smith bus station. He was described as carrying a purse matching the description of the one taken from the Joyce residence. From Fort Smith, Gardner took the bus to Little Rock. At the Little Rock bus station, he attempted to sell numerous pieces of jewelry and several silver coins to persons who testified for the State at trial and described the jewelry and coins in detail. After his arrival in Little Rock, Gardner checked into the Downtowner Motor Inn and on December 13 he pawned some of the jewelry at Maxie’s Pawn Shop in Little Rock.
Based upon a description of Mark Gardner and information that he was trying to pawn jewelry in Little Rock and obtain a ride to Fort Smith, undercover Arkansas State Police officers went to the Little Rock bus station in an unmarked vehicle and offered Gardner a ride to Fort Smith if he would pay for the gas. Gardner agreed. He was arrested in route to Fort Smith at a point near Clarksville. On that same day, officers obtained custody of the jewelry that had been pawned at Maxie’s in Little Rock. That jewelry was taken to Clarksville where it was identified by Cindy Griggs as the jewelry missing from her parents’ home.
On December 14, the police searched Mark Gardner’s room at the Downtowner Motor Inn in Little Rock pursuant to a warrant. The search produced several items later identified as having been taken from the Joyce residence. On December 16, one of the officers returned to the Downtowner Inn and took custody of certain items seen but not seized during the original search. These items had been removed and secured by employees of the Inn. Among those items was the purse Gardner had been carrying near Pocola which had belonged to Mrs. Joyce
https://law.justia.com/cases/arkansas/supreme-court/1988/cr-86-163-1.html