Robert Clayton was executed by the State of Oklahoma for the murder of Rhonda Timmons
According to court documents Robert Clayton would come across nineteen year old Rhonda Timmons who was sunbathing. Clayton would attack her, stabbing her multiple times and strangling with her bathing suit
Robert Clayton would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Robert Clayton would be executed by lethal injection on March 1 2001
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When Was Robert Clayton Executed
Robert Clayton was executed on March 1 2001
Robert Clayton Case
A man sent to Oklahoma’s death chamber 2 months later than planned was executed by injection Thursday for the 1985 killing of a Tulsa woman. Robert William Clayton, 40, was pronounced dead at 9:10 p.m. from a lethal dose of drugs. He was the ninth inmate executed in Oklahoma this year.
Clayton was convicted of murdering Rhonda Timmons, 19, in her apartment. Timmons was stabbed 12 times and was beaten and straggled with her bathing suit top. “I want to say I’m glad I’m leaving this place and I’m going to a better place,” Clayton said in his final statement. “I love my family and I’m sorry for this other lady that was killed. “You’re still killing an innocent man,” he said. “May God have mercy on my soul.” The lethal flow of drugs began at 9:07 p.m. Clayton quickly became unconscious and was declared dead 3 minutes later.
He was originally scheduled to be the 1st inmate to be put to death this year, but was granted a stay 1 day before his Jan. 4 execution date. The stay allowed him to pursue DNA tests on lost evidence recovered just days before he was to be strapped to a death row gurney at Oklahoma State Penitentiary. But evidence testing by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation confirmed Clayton as the killer.
Timmons’ stepfather and her mother, Pat Bullard, witnessed the execution. “We did not seek revenge with the death of Robert Clayton,” Bullard said in a statement. “We sought justice and justice was served.” Timmons’ husband, Bill, found her when he came home for lunch. The inside of the couple’s apartment was covered in blood, authorities said. Their infant son, now a teen-ager, was in a nearby crib. Clayton was an apartment complex groundskeeper. Prosecutors said he came upon Timmons sunbathing and was furious when she rejected his advances. He was convicted shortly after the killing, when DNA tests were not widely used. When the federal portion of his appeals began in the mid-1990s, Clayton sought DNA tests on traces of blood on a knife identified as the murder weapon and on a sock and overalls Clayton supposedly wore. Defense attorneys had said prosecutors relied on blood typing to argue for conviction. Timmons’ blood type matched the type from traces of blood on the sock. Attorneys said DNA tests could be more decisive. But the evidence was lost by state officials after his trial. Tulsa County prosecutors located it in early January. Lt. Gov. Mary Fallin, acting in the temporary absence of Gov. Frank Keating, granted the stay. 2 sisters, a cousin, brother-in-law and attorney witnessed the execution on Clayton’s behalf. For his last meal, Clayton requested shrimp, oysters, fish with tartar sauce, a 32-ounce creme soda and one strawberry cheese pie.
Clayton becomes the 9th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Oklahoma and the 39th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1990. Clayton becomes the 16th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 699th overall since America resumed executions on January 17, 1977.
