Nikko Jenkins was sentenced to death by the State of Nebraska for four murders
According to court documents Nikko Jenkins was just released from prison and soon after his murder spree would begin. With the help from his sister and a cousin Juan Uribe-Pena and Jorge C. Cajiga-Ruiz were lured to a hotel room where they would be fatally shot by Jenkins. A week later Nikko would fatally shoot Curtis Bradford for he believed he had shot at a home. The last murder was Andrea Krueger who was dragged from her car and shot multiple times
Nikko Jenkins would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Nikko Jenkins Photos
Nikko Jenkins Now
Committed Name
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JENKINS
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NIKKO
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A
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Gender:
MALE
Race:
BLACK
Date of Birth:
09/16/1986
Facility:
TECUMSEH STATE COR INSTITUTION
Nikko Jenkins Case
Nikko Jenkins timeline
Aug. 11, 2013: Jenkins kills Juan Uribe-Pena and Jorge Cajiga-Ruiz in Omaha’s Spring Lake Park.
Aug. 19, 2013: Jenkins and his sister, Erica, kill Curtis Bradford near 18th and Clark Streets.
Aug. 21, 2013: Jenkins kills Andrea Kruger near 168th and Fort Streets.
Sept. 5, 2013: Jenkins is charged with four homicides.
Oct. 1, 2013: Jenkins case is assigned to Judge Peter Bataillon.
Jan. 8, 2014: Bataillon orders Jenkins evaluated for competency.
Feb. 12, 2014: Bataillon holds a competency hearing. Dr. Bruce Gutnik, a psychiatrist hired by the defense, says Jenkins is incompetent. A state psychiatrist says Jenkins is competent.
Feb. 20, 2014: Bataillon rules Jenkins competent to stand trial.
March 20, 2014: After Jenkins files several motions, Bataillon rules that Jenkins can represent himself.
April 18, 2014: Jenkins states his desire to plead no contest to all counts against him. In a bizarre hearing, Bataillon first says Jenkins must plead guilty to the murders and describe what he did to the victims. The judge then changes his mind and allows Jenkins to plead no contest. Bataillon indicates that because of the seriousness of the death penalty, he will require Jenkins to stop representing himself. The judge reappoints the Douglas County Public Defender’s Office.
May 6, 2014: Bataillon sets death-penalty hearing for Aug. 11, 2014.
May 7, 2014: Gutnik, the defense psychiatrist, writes report detailing concerns about Jenkins’ competency. Among other things, Jenkins has mutilated himself.
July 10, 2014: Second competency hearing.
July 18, 2014: Bataillon rules that Jenkins is not competent to proceed with death-penalty phase.
Feb. 11, 2015: Jenkins files a motion to dismiss his counsel.
Feb. 17, 2015: Jenkins tells court: “I am competent to proceed. I’m not going to participate in any more evaluations. It would be a waste of time.”
March 2, 2015: Jenkins is declared competent. He tells Bataillon any more evaluations by Gutnik would be a “waste of time.”
March 24, 2015: Judge sets death penalty hearing for July 7, 2015.
April 2015: Jenkins tries to carve 666 into his forehead but does it backward because he is looking in a mirror.
June 10, 2015: Judge delays death-penalty hearing after Legislature rescinds capital punishment. “The court continues this matter until further order of the court.”
June 27, 2015: Jenkins slices his tongue and carves the word “satan” on his face.
Aug. 26, 2015: Petition organizers submit far more than enough signatures to put the death penalty to a vote of the people in November 2016.
Jeffrey Hessler was sentenced to death by the State of Nebraska for the murder of Heather Guerrero
According to court documents Jeffrey Hessler would kidnap fifteen year old Heather Guerrero who would be sexually assaulted and murdered
Jeffrey Hessler would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
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Jeffrey Hessler Now
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HESSLER
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JEFFREY
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MALE
Race:
WHITE
Date of Birth:
10/23/1978
Facility:
TECUMSEH STATE COR INSTITUTION
Jeffrey Hessler Case
On the morning of February 11, 2003, 15-year-old Heather Guerrero left her home in Gering, Nebraska, to make deliveries on her newspaper route. Heather never returned home. A search was conducted, and on the morning of February 12, Heather’s body was found in the basement of an abandoned house near Lake Minatare, Nebraska.
During the investigation of Heather’s disappearance, a witness who was walking his dog on the morning of February 11, 2003, reported that he had heard a scream and had seen a silver or tan Nissan Altima drive by at a high rate of speed. A car matching that description belonged to a friend of Hessler’s who had allowed Hessler to drive the car. A search of the car revealed three boxes of live ammunition, some spent casings, and Hessler’s wallet. After police questioned Hessler, Hessler gave police his semiautomatic handgun. In response to interrogation, Hessler admitted to having sex with Heather but asserted that it was consensual. Hessler said that after Heather indicated she would not keep the encounter secret, he “freaked out,” took her to the basement of the abandoned house, and shot her.
On February 26, 2003, the State filed an information charging Hessler with five counts in connection with the death of Heather: count I, premeditated murder; count II, felony murder; count III, kidnapping; count IV, first degree sexual assault; and count V, use of a firearm to commit a felony
Anthony Garcia was sentenced to death by the State of Nebraska for the murders of four people
According to court documents Anthony Garcia was fired from his job at Creighton Medical Center. Years later he would murder 11-year-old Thomas Hunter and 57-year-old Shirlee Sherman. The murders went unsolved until Garcia would return five years later and murder Roger Brumback and his wife Mary. All of the murders were tied together and linked to the Creighton Medical Center
Anthony Garcia would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Anthony Garcia Photos
Anthony Garcia Now
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GARCIA
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ANTHONY
Middle:
J
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Gender:
MALE
Race:
HISPANIC
Date of Birth:
06/07/1973
Facility:
TECUMSEH STATE COR INSTITUTION
Anthony Garcia Case
A former doctor was sentenced to death on Friday for the revenge killings of four people connected to a Nebraska medical school, including the 11-year-old son of a physician who helped fire the man from a residency program nearly two decades ago.
Anthony Garcia, 45, of Indiana entered the courtroom in a wheelchair and appeared to sleep through the hearing as a three-judge panel sentenced him to death. The judges, who heard arguments earlier this year during the sentencing phase of Garcia’s trial, also had the option of life in prison.
Garcia was convicted in 2016 for two attacks — that occurred five years apart — on families connected to Creighton University School of Medicine in Omaha. Prosecutors argued the killings were motivated by Garcia’s long-simmering rage over being fired in 2001 by Dr. William Hunter and another Creighton pathology doctor, Roger Brumback.
Some of the victims’ relatives testified Friday, including Jeff Sherman, whose mother was fatally stabbed alongside Hunter’s young son when she worked at the Hunter family’s home in 2008.
“I’m left with constant images from courtroom pictures of what happened to my mom,” Sherman said. “I can’t ever get those images out of my head.”
Investigators said Garcia fatally stabbed 11-year-old Thomas Hunter and 57-year-old Shirlee Sherman at the family’s home in an upscale Omaha neighborhood. Police collected a slew of evidence but struggled to find a suspect in the killings.
The case went cold in the following years. But that changed with the 2013 Mother’s Day deaths of Brumback and his wife, Mary, in their Omaha home. Police recognized similarities in the 2008 and 2013 killings, and Garcia was quickly eyed as a suspect. He was arrested two months later during a traffic stop in southern Illinois.
On Friday, Thomas Hunter’s mother, Dr. Claire Hunter, spoke of the agony of losing her young son so violently. She said the boy “was a joy in everybody’s life.”
“You can’t begin to enumerate what an event like has had on us, on the entire community,” she said after Garcia was sentenced.
Garcia’s parents and brother, who live in California, also attended the hearing. They were tearful as the verdict was read.
His brother, Fernando Garcia, said it was hard for his family to imagine his brother committing the crimes.
“We just want the victims’ families to know we do pray for them. We feel their pain,” he said. “We’re sorry those things took place. We’re not an evil family. We hope they find peace somehow.”
During the trial, prosecutors presented massive amounts of circumstantial evidence, including credit card and cellphone records placing Garcia in and around Omaha the day the Brumbacks were killed. One receipt showed Garcia eating a meal at a chicken wings restaurant within two hours of when police believe the Brumbacks were attacked.
Prosecutors also presented evidence that Garcia had sought to attack another Creighton medical school faculty member on May 10, 2013 — the same day the Brumbacks were killed. Prosecutors said Garcia pushed in a back door of that woman’s home but fled when the home’s alarm went off. Police believe he then found the Brumbacks’ address on his smartphone and attacked them.
Roger Brumback was shot in the doorway of his home and then stabbed. His wife was stabbed to death, much the same way Thomas Hunter and Shirlee Sherman had been stabbed, according to investigators.
Nebraska had not executed an inmate in more than 20 years until last month, when Carey Dean Moore died by lethal injection for the 1979 shooting deaths of two Omaha cab drivers.
However, the state’s mode of execution remains riddled with controversy and legal challenges in the face of difficulty in obtaining some of the drugs used to carry out lethal injection.
Under Nebraska law, Garcia’s sentence will be automatically appealed.
Friday’s sentencing was briefly interrupted when the lead judge in the case suffered a medical emergency and had to be carried from the courthouse on a stretcher. Gage County District Judge Rick Schreiner took over, explaining that Randall had undergone a medical procedure earlier in the week that caused him extreme back pain.
According to court documents Jose Sandoval, Jorge Galindo and Erick Vela would enter a bank with the intention to rob it and before they were done five people would be shot and killed: Lisa Bryant, 29, Lola Elwood, 43, Samuel Sun, 50, all Norfolk, Jo Mausbach, 42, Humphrey, and Evonne Tuttle, 37
Jose Sandoval, Jorge Galindo and Erick Vela were arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
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Jorge Galindo Now
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GALINDO
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JORGE
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MALE
Race:
HISPANIC
Date of Birth:
05/18/1981
Facility:
TECUMSEH STATE COR INSTITUTION
Jose Sandoval Photos
Jose Sandoval Now
Committed Name
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SANDOVAL
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JOSE
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Gender:
MALE
Race:
HISPANIC
Date of Birth:
05/08/1979
Facility:
TECUMSEH STATE COR INSTITUTION
Erick Vela Photos
Erick Vela Now
Committed Name
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VELA
First:
ERIC
Middle:
FERNANDO
Suffix:
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Last:
First:
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Gender:
MALE
Race:
HISPANIC
Date of Birth:
10/10/1980
Facility:
TECUMSEH STATE COR INSTITUTION
Jorge Galindo Case
Twenty years after five people were slain in a Norfolk bank in one of the deadliest bank killings in U.S. history, the three men who shot them remain on death row with open appeals and no execution date in sight.
In just 40 seconds on the morning of Sept. 26, 2002, Lola Elwood, Lisa Bryant, Jo Mausbach and Samuel Sun, employees at the US Bank branch in the northeast Nebraska town, and a customer at the counter, Evonne Tuttle, had been gunned down, the terrible crime captured on video and in the accounts of two employees who survived the nightmare.
Jose Sandoval walked to the front, quickly shooting Sun, Tuttle and Mausbach.
Erick Vela and Jorge Galindo went to offices on either side, Vela shooting Bryant and Galindo shooting Elwood, then firing at a customer who started to walk in.
The three left empty-handed as the five died.
Police later would describe the acrid smell of spent gunpowder and blood heavy in the air when they arrived.
Within hours, Sandoval, Galindo and Vela would be locked up for it after stopping at a McDonald’s in O’Neill, 75 miles away.
But nothing else in the cases has happened quickly.
The three ultimately landed on death row, Sandoval and Galindo after being found guilty at trial and Vela after pleading guilty.
Separate three-judge panels found their crimes warranted death sentences.
Then came automatic appeals, all rejected.
But in the years since, legal twists complicated matters. First, a U.S. Supreme Court decision over how it’s determined who gets life versus death. Then, Nebraska lawmakers’ repeal of the death penalty in 2015, which voters reinstated the next year.
Attorneys argued the sentences for everyone on the state’s death row had been commuted to life in prison. And they’ve raised dozens of other issues that they say should lead to a new trial or a life sentence rather than death for them.
In March 2019, the state filed a response in Sandoval’s case arguing the district judge should deny his motion for post-conviction relief without a hearing.
“The case files and records affirmatively show that the defendant is entitled to no relief,” Solicitor General James Smith wrote.
But court records indicate in the three and a half years since the filing, District Judge Geoffrey C. Hall of Fremont has yet to rule either way.
In Vela’s case, his attorney, Jerry Hug, told a federal court judge this May that he anticipated progression of the state court proceedings “with the understanding that the state court records of the petitioner’s capital case are voluminous and have necessarily involved considerable time to gather, review and organize. Additional time will be required for briefing, submission, and a state court decision.”
And Hug referenced a number of postconviction cases pending resolution in the Nebraska Supreme Court, including Galindo’s.
At oral arguments Sept. 1, Adam Sipple, Galindo’s attorney, tried to convince the justices that a district court judge was wrong to deny a hearing on a motion for post-conviction relief.
In a 138-page motion filed in 2019, he detailed a laundry list of issues, including the state’s last-minute disclosure it was going to present evidence of Galindo’s alleged involvement in the death of Travis Lundell, a 21-year-old who had gone missing a month before the bank robbery, in pursuit of a death sentence.
“When Mr. Galindo’s sentencing case is assessed and evaluated consistent with the law and consistent with the Constitution, his youth, his confession, his cooperation and his demonstrated remorse provide a strong case to spare him from execution,” Sipple said.
He said there were two huge issues that could have led to a life sentence if the sentencing panel had known. One, his trial counsel’s failure to introduce the evidence of remorse. And two, his failure to argue Galindo’s youth as a mitigating factor.
Sipple said defense counsel at sentencing left sworn deposition testimony in his file from, among others, a captain at the jail who told a defense investigator that Galindo expressed remorse to him and another jail deputy, and testimony from a teacher who said he was immature and easily influenced by others.
He also raised issues over a criminal investigation by the Nebraska State Patrol of the lead prosecutor, Madison County Attorney Joe Smith, “including his associations with drug-dealing suspects he called as jailhouse informants against Galindo.”
But Justice Jonathan Papik said, even if they found that trial counsel had been deficient and that the panel shouldn’t have considered Lundell as an aggravator, “Wouldn’t we then have to ask ‘Well, is there prejudice?'”
Is there a reasonable probability that the outcome would be different, he asked.
Sipple agreed, but said the allegations created legitimate issues warranting an evidentiary hearing, which would lead to findings.
On the other side, James Smith, the solicitor general, said even if the sentencing panel didn’t consider the Lundell evidence and did consider Galindo’s youth and remorse, it wasn’t sufficient to outweigh all the aggravating circumstances.
“In short, if you go in and murder five innocent people saying that ‘Gee, I shouldn’t get the death sentence because I really didn’t kill the sixth,’ that doesn’t really indicate a prejudicial error in the sentencing that would justify having a futile evidentiary hearing,” he argued.
The Supreme Court hasn’t yet ruled.
Norfolk Mayor Josh Moenning wasn’t living there on Sept. 25, 2002.
“But as a native of the area, I precisely recall the shock and bewilderment I experienced upon hearing the news,” he told the Journal Star on Friday.
Moenning called it an unthinkable horror that sent shockwaves throughout the community and entire state.
“Norfolk’s response, though, was telling,” he said. “Immediately the community embraced the victims’ families, supported their needs, and recognized the importance of honoring their loved ones’ legacies.
“Ultimately created in the place of these heinous crimes was a place of solace and peace — a natural landmark that to this day welcomes travelers on U.S. Highway 81 with a profound message: love and community always outlasts hate and violence.”
Roy Ellis was sentenced to death by the State of Nebraska for the murder of twelve year old Amber Harris
According to court documents Roy Ellis would kidnap, sexually assault and murder twelve year old Amber Harris. The young girl was struck twice in the head with a hammer
Roy Ellis would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
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Roy Ellis FAQ
Where Is Roy Ellis Now
Roy Ellis is incarcerated at Tecumseh State Correctional Institution
Roy Ellis Case
Amber disappeared on November 29, 2005, after she was dropped off by her school bus about five blocks from her North Omaha, Nebraska, home. A few weeks later, Roy Ellis was arrested and incarcerated in the Douglas County Correctional Center on unrelated charges. Several witnesses reported that while in jail, before Amber’s body was found or Ellis was a suspect in her killing, he made a number of remarks suggesting that he was involved in Amber’s disappearance.To begin with, Ellis made telephone calls from jail suggest-ing that he needed to get out of jail to take care of some things and “find some stuff.” Ellis had lived in a boarding house on Lake Street, although he moved to another residence nearby before Amber disappeared. While in jail, Ellis called his former neighbors, asking repeatedly about any activity at the boarding house. but no more of those calls were made after February 14, 2006, when Amber’s bookbag was found in a large trash storage container behind the boarding house. Although Ellis continued to call his former neighbor after the bag was found, he no longer asked about the boarding house.While he was incarcerated during early 2006, Ellis also repeatedly asked Terrelle Smith, a Douglas County corrections officer, for information regarding Amber’s case. because Smith was studying criminal justice, Ellis also asked him questions about criminal investigation, regarding subjects such as finger-print identification and the decomposition of buried bodies. Ellis asked Smith whether blood or semen left outside would be contaminated by the elements and how long it would take before contaminated semen would no longer be considered rele-vant evidence. And Ellis asked Smith for books on forensics and DNA examination. Ellis also asked brandon Clark, another corrections officer, about how long semen would last inside a dead body and in a forested, rural area and asked Clark to per-form Internet research for him on the subject.Ellis also asked Darryl Chambers, a fellow inmate, if he knew how long semen would last inside a decomposed body. And another inmate, Clarence Dennis, heard Ellis asking other inmates questions about how long blood and semen would last when exposed to the elements and what was neces-sary to keep dirt from subsiding above a buried body.
Clenix Martin, another inmate, said Ellis had asked him about the persistence of DNA left outside, whether DNA could be traced after a body had decomposed, and how long it took a body to decompose.Ellis also made more particular statements that foreshad-owed what would be discovered about the circumstances of Amber’s disappearance after her body was found. Dennis heard Ellis say that he had previously taken women to Hummel park, in a rural area north of Omaha, and forced them to have sex with him by threatening to leave them in the park alone at night. Smith overheard Ellis saying that if a woman did not do what he wanted, “[h]e would just hit them upside their heads.” Ellis told Chambers that he liked underage girls. Ellis told his cellmate, David Shaffer, that he had sexually molested under-age girls, some of them at Hummel park.Shaffer said that Ellis expressed an unusual interest in Amber’s disappearance and cut out newspaper articles about the case. Ellis told Martin that he had sexually assaulted a young girl and strangled her. When Shaffer mentioned to Ellis that it was “crazy what happened to that Amber Harris girl,” Ellis replied, “that’s why I got to get out and cover my tracks.” And both Dennis and Chambers said Ellis had admit-ted to sexually assaulting Amber and striking her in the head According to Dennis, Ellis said he hit Amber in the head with a hammer.
Finally, on May 11, 2006, Amber’s decomposed body was discovered by passers-by, covered with a mound of soil, in a secluded, wooded area of Hummel park. Amber had been killed by blunt force trauma to the skull, resulting from at least two blows to the head with a blunt object. because of decom-position, it was impossible to tell whether Amber had also been choked or strangled. Although Amber’s sweater was still on, her jeans and underwear had been removed. Amber’s jacket, jeans, and bra had been found in her bookbag. Amber’s blood was on the jacket and jeans, and DNA was found on the jeans, in a shape resembling a handprint, in a mixture from which Ellis could not be excluded as a contributor.Ellis was charged with first degree murder on theories of both premeditated murder and felony murder, for which the predicate felony was sexual assault. Over Ellis’ objection, in addition to the evidence described above, the State adduced evidence that Ellis had sexually assaulted his former step-daughters when they were between 12 and 15 years old. The jury found Ellis guilty of first degree murder, and an aggrava-tion hearing was held at which the jury found two aggravating circumstances to exist. A three-judge sentencing panel sen-tenced Ellis to death
