John Joubert Executed Nebraska Serial Killer

John Joubert was a serial killer who was executed by the State of Nebraska for three murders

According to court documents John Joubert would murder 11-year-old Richard “Ricky” Stetson in Maine in 1982. In 1983 Joubert would murder Danny Joe Eberle, 13, and later the same year he would murder Christopher Walden, age 12, both in Nebraska

John Joubert would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

John Joubert would be executed by way of the electric chair on July 17 1996

John Joubert Photos

John Joubert - Nebraska

John Joubert Case

A man who said he enjoyed the “power and domination” of killing was executed in the electric chair early today for murdering two boys in 1983.

The prisoner, John J. Joubert, a former airman, repeatedly stabbed and slashed Danny Jo Eberle, 13, and Christopher Walden, 12, in Bellevue near Offutt Air Force Base, where he was stationed. He was also convicted of stabbing and strangling a boy in Maine.

In his final statement, Mr. Joubert apologized for the three murders and added, “I do not know if my death will change anything or if it will bring anyone any peace.”

In trying to explain the crimes, Mr. Joubert, 33, told The Omaha World-Herald last month: “It was the power and the domination and seeing the fear. That was more exciting than actually causing the harm.”

Mr. Joubert was caught after he tried to abduct a preschool teacher, who then noted the license plate number of his car. Mr. Joubert confessed later that day.

Judy Eberle, Danny’s mother, said Mr. Joubert deserved the death penalty not out of vengeance but because “it is the only punishment that can make sure that he will never walk the streets again.”

Robert Williams Executed For 3 Nebraska Murders

Robert Williams was executed by the State of Nebraska for the murders of three women

According to court documents during a three day period Robert Williams would murder three women and attempted to murder a fourth. Williams would murder Catherine Brooks and Patricia McGarry in Nebraska and Virginia Rowe in Iowa. The fourth women was sexually assaulted and shot in Minnesota

Robert Williams would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Robert Williams would be executed by way of the electric chair on December 2 1997

Robert Williams Photos

Robert Williams - Nebraska

Robert Williams Case

In the late afternoon of August 11, 1977, the bodies of Patricia A. McGarry and Catherine M. Brooks were found in the McGarry apartment in Lincoln, Nebraska, after a search was instituted when neighbors found the 5-year-old daughter of Catherine Brooks wandering in the neighborhood looking for her mother.

The naked body of Catherine Brooks was found lying face down in the center of the living room floor. A pool of blood surrounded her head. There was a nonfatal bullet wound in her back and two bullet wounds behind her left ear. Later medical examination revealed spermatozoa in the vagina and in the rectal tract. The pathologist testified that the spermatozoa would have had to be deposited within an hour of her death.

The body of Patricia McGarry was lying in the dining room, face up, clad in a blue housecoat. She had also been shot three times, once under her right ear and twice in the neck. There was a bloody trail on the carpet from the living room into the dining room to the spot where Patricia’s body lay.

The police found an empty beer bottle with latent fingerprints on a chair. Later examination established the fingerprints as those of the defendant. The police also found a full box of .22 caliber long rifle shells on the coffee table in the living room and another unfired .22 caliber shell on the sofa. The casing of a .22 caliber shell was found on the floor of the living room. There was a bullet hole in the wall between the living and dining rooms, and a spent bullet was found in the entryway between the two rooms. Later investigation established that on August 10, 1977, at approximately 7:15 p. m., a model K-22 Smith & Wesson .22 caliber revolver and five boxes of .22 caliber long rifle shells were purchased by the defendant at a store in Lincoln.

Evidence at trial established that on August 11, 1977, at approximately 9:30 a. m., the defendant appeared at the apartment of another young woman in Lincoln, Nebraska. She had been acquainted with the defendant for approximately 6 months and he had been a babysitter for her 2-year-old daughter on occasion. The defendant told the woman that his car was broken down and asked to use her telephone. She admitted him and he then told her he needed to stay in her apartment for a while. She suggested that he stay in the storage room area of the apartment complex instead. The defendant then drew a revolver and demanded that she have sexual relations with him. She tried to lock herself in the bathroom but the defendant forced the door open and broke off the lock. He struck her in the chest and on the side of the head with the gun and threatened to blow her head off, and then raped her. The defendant remained in the apartment for several hours and raped the woman repeatedly.

At approximately 4 p. m., the defendant ordered the woman to bring her 2-year-old child and go to his car with him. As they approached the curb he told her she was free to go. She immediately went to a neighbor’s home and called the police.

The woman testified that during the time the defendant had been with her, he drank one beer and smoked a joint of marijuana but appeared normal and did not appear to be intoxicated. Other witnesses who had been with the defendant on August 10, and one as late as 1:30 a. m., on August 11, 1977, testified that on those occasions the defendant *22 appeared normal in speech and actions and did not appear to be intoxicated, although he had been drinking.

The evidence at trial established that defendant left the woman’s apartment in Lincoln about 4 p. m., August 11, 1977, and about an hour later was seen at a service station in Fremont, Nebraska, some 50 miles away, where he stopped and purchased gasoline. The station attendant testified that the defendant’s speech and coordination appeared to be normal, although he smelled alcohol on the defendant’s breath.

At approximately 10:15 p. m., on August 11, 1977, a deputy sheriff observed and checked the defendant’s car at a park and rest area in Cherokee County, Iowa, and checked it periodically thereafter through the night. At 6:15 a. m., the deputy had the car towed away. Upon examination of the car, the deputies discovered a packaging box for a Smith & Wesson K-22 revolver; a box of .22 caliber long rifle cartridges from which six cartridges had been removed; a bag of marijuana; and some gas cans with negroid hairs on them.

Shortly after 6 a. m., on August 12, 1977, Mrs. Jack Montgomery, who lived 1½ miles west of the park and rest area in which defendant’s car had been found, discovered that her car was missing from the garage. There was a blanket in the car and another blanket was also missing. She also found a checkbook with the name of the defendant imprinted on the checks lying in the driveway in front of the garage. At approximately 10 o’clock the same morning the Montgomery car was found abandoned in a ditch about 20 miles northeast of the Montgomery farm.

A little after 7 a. m., on the same morning, Elbert Bredvick was standing in his farmyard approximately 5 miles southwest of the point at which the Montgomery car had been abandoned. Bredvick observed the defendant approaching carrying two blankets draped over his shoulder. The defendant asked for directions to the nearest town. Bredvick gave the defendant directions which led defendant past the Wayne Rowe farmhouse one-half mile to the west, and the defendant departed in that direction.

On the morning of August 12, 1977, Mrs. Wayne Rowe left the farm home at 7:45 a. m., for an appointment at her hairdresser. Wayne Rowe left the house about 8:15 a. m., and returned shortly after noon, expecting his wife to be home. He observed that his wife’s car was gone and when he entered the house he saw his wife’s purse on the chair and the morning mail on the table. About that time an Iowa state trooper arrived and Rowe and the trooper went upstairs and found Mrs. Rowe’s naked body on the bed. There was a shotgun wound in her side and another in her back, and there was a wound in her neck from a .22 caliber bullet. Later examination established that she had also been sexually assaulted.

Negroid hairs were found in her hand and on the bedspread which compared favorably in diameter, coloration, pigment distribution, scale patterns, and medullation to samples taken from the defendant and the hairs found on the gas cans in his car. A .22 caliber bullet was found in the fibers of the bedspread which matched the bullets recovered from the bodies of Catherine Brooks and Patricia McGarry. A shotgun which had been kept in the Rowe home was missing and the telephone line had been cut.

In the bushes behind the Rowe garage officers found the blankets which were identified by Bredvick as the blankets that had been draped over the defendant’s shoulder earlier that morning. The Rowe car was found later in St. Paul, Minnesota. Inside the car was a live round of .22 caliber ammunition and a misfired cartridge with a firing pin impression which matched a casing found at the murder scene.

On August 13, 1977, at approximately 1:30 p. m., in a suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota, the defendant confronted Walter Behun at gunpoint in the Behun yard and ordered Behun to drive him to St. Paul. They drove around for some time, ending at a railroad freight yard, where the defendant tied Behun up with belts and a sweat shirt, gagged him, and left him in a caboose. Behun *23 testified that the defendant did not appear to be intoxicated.

About 3 p. m., on August 13, 1977, a young woman was returning to her car in a parking lot in St. Paul, Minnesota. She opened the car door and placed her purchase on the floor. The defendant came up behind her and ordered her to get into the car or he would shoot her. Before she had time to do so, he shot her once in the arm and again later behind her left ear. The defendant pushed her into the car, demanded the keys, and drove to a remote country area where he raped her. After the assault, the defendant tied her hands and legs and drove off in her car. She managed to untie herself, got to a farmhouse and was taken to the hospital, where she ultimately recovered.

The evidence indicates that after August 13, 1977, the defendant went to Chicago, Illinois, and then back to Lincoln, Nebraska, where he was arrested in the railroad yards on the early morning of August 18, 1977.

https://law.justia.com/cases/nebraska/supreme-court/1979/42235-1.html

Carey Moore Executed In Nebraska For 2 Murders

Carey Moore was executed by the State of Nebraska for two murders committed during robberies

According to court documents Carey Moore would rob two cab drivers and in the process would shoot and kill both men: Reuel Van Ness and Maynard Helgeland,

Carey Moore would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Carey Moore would be executed by lethal injection on August 13 2018

Carey Moore Photos

Carey Moore nebraska

Carey Moore FAQ

When Was Carey Moore Executed

Carey Moore was executed on August 13 2018

Carey Moore Case

Nebraska has become the first US state to use the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl in a lethal injection after a federal three-judge panel denied a drug company’s request to stop the execution over concerns the state had acquired the drug illegally.

The execution of Carey Dean Moore marks the first execution in the state since 1997, and the use of the prescription drug in the process comes as pharmaceutical companies across the country look to take legal action against states attempting to use their products in executions.

Moore had been serving prison time since 1980, when he was convicted of two first degree murders and given the death penalty. He did not file a legal challenge to the method used for the execution.

In court filings challenging the use of its drugs, German pharmaceutical company Fresenius Kabi said that it does not take a position on capital punishment but that it believes the use of its product in executions could damage its “reputation, goodwill and business relationships”.

Fentanyl has been front and centre for its role in America’s ongoing opioid crisis, which has led to a massive increase in overdose deaths in the past five years. Fentanyl is 50 times stronger than heroin, and has been brought illegally onto US streets as Americans battle with opioid addictions at increased rates due at least in part to the high level of opioid prescriptions. Fatal overdoses killed more than 150 people in Nebraska last year, for instance, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

NPR reports that the state has not disclosed its fentanyl supplier publicly and that the German company has said it has “grounds to believe” its drugs are being used in the process.

The company further argued that it only allows its products to be sold by authorised dealers, and that each dealer they work with has “contractually agreed to particular constraints, such as excluding sale to federal or state incarceration facilities”.

Drugs used for lethal injection are becoming scarce because the pharmaceutical companies that produce them are trying to distance themselves from the practice as support for capital punishment drops throughout the US.

In court filings, the state of Nebraska said that the drugs “were obtained from a licensed pharmacy in the United States and were not obtained by any fraud, deceit or misrepresentation”.

The state was able to obtain the drugs, it said, after a long search in which at least 30 potential suppliers and six other states were contacted to help.

The unnamed supplier, it added, was the only supplier that would sell the drugs to them. The supplier is also unwilling to sell more, the state said, and an upcoming 31 August expiration date meant that any further delays could keep the state from the execution indefinitely.

The Associated Press reports that Nebraska politicians actually voted to abolish the death penalty in 2015, but governor Pete Ricketts then “helped finance a ballot drive initiative to reinstate capital punishment after lawmakers overrode his veto”

That included a donation of $300,000 (£236,000) of his own money to finance the petition drive, which put the issue on the 2016 general election ballot.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/carey-dean-moore-fentanyl-capital-punishment-death-penalty-nebraska-execute-a8491671.html

Harold Lamont Otey Executed For Sexual Assault And Murder

Harold Lamont Otey was executed by the State of Nebraska for the sexual assault and murder of a photography student

According to court documents Harold Lamont Otey would see the victim Jane McManus sleeping on a porch. Otey would go into the home and steal a number of items. Harold would then go back to the porch and sexually assault McManus before killing her

Harold Lamont Otey would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Harold Lamont Otey would be executed by way of the electric chair on September 2 1994

Harold Lamont Otey Photos

Harold Lamont Otey

Harold Lamont Otey FAQ

When was Harold Lamont Otey executed

Harold Lamont Otey was executed on September 2 1994

How was Harold Lamont Otey executed

Harold Lamont Otey was executed via the electric chair

Harold Lamont Otey Case

The murder was committed during the early morning hours of June 11, 1977, in Omaha, Nebraska. Harold Lamont Otey entered the apartment of the victim and took a stereo set which he placed behind a garage nearby. This stereo was later identified and traced back to the defendant.

The victim awakened when the defendant reentered the apartment. Harold Lamont Otey told the victim that he was going to rob her and that he would rape her. When she resisted he inflicted a knife wound across the top of her forehead. The defendant then sexually assaulted the victim. After the sexual assault the defendant and the *39 victim went to the second floor of the apartment to get her money. There the defendant stabbed the victim a number of times inflicting deep wounds, struck her about the head with a hammer, and strangled her with a belt. The evidence shows that the victim died from the multiple wounds and strangulation inflicted upon her by the defendant.

Harold Lamont Otey was apprehended in Florida in January 1978. On January 28, 1978, he was interviewed there by two Omaha police officers and after proper warnings gave a voluntary statement which was a full confession. The statement was received in evidence and there is no contention here that the statement was not voluntary or should not have been received in evidence.

The information which was filed on February 1, 1978, listed only the name of a police officer at the time it was filed. The case was set for trial on April 5, 1978. On March 23, 1978, the county attorney notified Harold Lamont Otey that the State would ask leave to endorse the names of 44 additional witnesses upon the information. On March 31, 1978, the defendant moved for a continuance which was denied on April 5, 1978. The motion alleged that additional time was required to prepare for trial because the defendant was undergoing psychiatric evaluation and defense counsel had been unable to locate certain possible defense witnesses. There was no showing made as to names of any witnesses, other than a Donald Lawrence, or as to what their testimony would be. The trial court offered to allow defense counsel to disclose in camera what the nature of the testimony might be, but the offer was not accepted.

https://law.justia.com/cases/nebraska/supreme-court/1979/42204-1.html

Harold Lamont Otey Execution

Harold Lamont Otey was electrocuted early this morning when Nebraska carried
out its first execution in 35 years.
His last hope for a reprieve vanished at 7:55 p.m. Thursday when the U.S. Supreme
Court, for the eighth time in 16 years of appeals, declined to take up his case.
Harold Lamont Otey, 43, who raped and killed Jane McManus, 26, of Omaha in 1977, was the first
person executed in Nebraska since serial killer Charles Starkweather in 1959.
Shortly after midnight at the Nebraska State Penitentiary, Otey was strapped into the
same electric chair used to kill Starkweather.
After the Supreme Court rejected the last appeal, Vince Powers, one of five attorneys
who have represented Otey, said he knew of no further action that could be taken in
Otey’s behalf.
“I think it’s over,” Powers said.
“It’s a disappointment.
I don’t like a human being being killed with my tax dollars.
“When I wake up tomorrow morning, Nebraska will not only have drive-by
shootings, but sit-down killings.
We’ve made the big time.” J. Kirk Brown, assistant Nebraska attorney general, told
reporters about 8:30 p.m. that the Attorney General’s Office remained ready in case
Otey’s lawyers filed a last-minute appeal.
“Our obligation is to stay with this case until the execution is completed,” he said.
Brown said a Supreme Court clerk called him at 8:05 p.m. with the news that Otey’s
appeal had been denied.
Brown said he immediately notified Attorney General Don Stenberg, who notified the
McManus family.
1Jean Eden, a longtime member of Nebraskans Against the Death Penalty, said she
was with Otey when he received word about 8 p.m. that the Supreme Court had
declined to hear his case.
“He was called out of the room for a phone call from his attorney,” Shawn Renner,
said Ms. Eden, who recently moved to Madison, Wis., after living 35 years in Lincoln.
“He came back, stuck his thumb down and said ‘6 to 2.’ Everybody was pretty quiet.
I hugged him.” She said Harold Lamont Otey was calm and quiet despite the news.
The only notation on the order was that Justices John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader
Ginsburg would have granted Otey’s request to delay the execution.
Newly appointed Justice Stephen Breyer did not participate in the ruling.
Brown said the Attorney General’s Office would contact the U.S. Supreme Court and
8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals shortly before the execution to ensure that the courts
had not issued any last-minute stays.
Once the courts gave clearance, Brown said, his office would tell prison officials to
proceed with the execution.
“We’re just moving toward 12:01,” he said.
“It’ll be good to have an end to it.” Harold Lamont Otey gave his final statement to official witnesses at
about 11 p.m. A four-man escort team accompanied Otey from his “death watch” cell in
the prison hospital to the electric chair.
Deputy Lancaster County Attorney David Stempson, one of two independent
observers appointed to monitor the execution, said he spoke with Otey for 25 minutes
Thursday.
“I think personally, and it’s only my gut feeling, that he was holding out high hopes
for his appeals,” Stempson said.
But “As I looked in his eyes and saw his body posture, I had the distinct impression that
he felt the appeals weren’t going to work.” State Auditor John Breslow, the other
independent observer, said a visitor to Otey had brought a prepared will.
Harold Lamont Otey signed the three-part document, and Breslow notarized it.
“When he signed the first signature, he said jokingly, ‘Well, I don’t have to write my
number on this, do I?
‘ ” Breslow said.
Harold Lamont Otey smiled when making the reference to his inmate number, Breslow said, but
otherwise was “as serious as serious can be.” Otey declined his final meal, which would
have been a spaghetti dinner.
Thursday afternoon Gov. Nelson reiterated his resolve to see the execution through.
“While I derive no pleasure in the taking of any human life, the death penalty is the
law in Nebraska, and I support it,” he said.
“We’re all today feeling the pain of carrying out this sentence.” Meanwhile, prison
officials said execution preparations were going according to schedule.
That schedule included tests of the electric chair and support equipment and special
visits for Harold Lamont Otey from his family, friends and supporters.
Warden Frank Hopkins said Otey had a stream of visitors.
2One visitor said there was a line of people waiting to see Otey.
Hopkins would not identify the visitors, other than to say they included Otey’s
attorneys.
He said he did not think members of Otey’s family were present.
Four Witnesses Otey designated four witnesses to the execution: Paula Hutchinson,
an attorney in Lincoln; Alim Abdullah of Lincoln, a Muslim clergyman; Joseph
Munshaw; and Jessica French.
Hopkins did not have a hometown or occupation for the latter two.
“He feels a lot of pain for the visitors, who come to him and say goodbye, maybe for
the last time,” Breslow said.
“You can see it on his face.
He kind of shakes his head.” Among Otey’s visitors was Lincoln radio talk show host
Bonnie Coffey, who aired a half-hour recorded interview with Otey Thursday morning
on Lincoln’s KLIN radio station.
Ms. Coffey said Otey called her Wednesday night and asked her to come because he
was interested in what people had to say about the interview.
She said he laughed at a couple of the more outrageous comments by callers.
Ms. Coffey described Otey as “cool, calm and collected.” Prison officials began
restricting other inmates to their cells beginning late Wednesday morning because of
concerns that inmates might demonstrate.
Otey’s case became a test of Nebraska’s will to carry out the death penalty.
In June 1991, Otey came within six hours of the electric chair before winning a stay
from the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
After the court granted the stay Stenberg said, “I hear laughter across the state of
Nebraska.
It is the laughter of murderers who know they are safe.
It is the laughter of gang members and drug dealers who know they are safe because
they can see there is always some technicality, some loophole that will keep them safe.”
Otey was not the first man given a death sentence after the Nebraska Legislature
reinstituted the death penalty in 1973.
He moved to the front of the line through a mixture of fate and misfortune.
At least two men sentenced before him succeeded in overturning their death sentences.
A third died of a heart attack on death row.
Brown gave two other factors.
“For one thing, his case went to (federal judge) Warren Urbom, and Warren Urbom
gives you decisions,” Brown said.
Other judges seem to take longer than Urbom to rule, he said.
“For another, Otey never won anything,” he said.
“You begin to develop a certain momentum.”
Many Appeals Otey’s legal battle included three state court appeals of his 1978
conviction and sentence, three federal court appeals of the conviction and sentence, a
3state court action challenging his 1991 clemency hearing and a federal civil rights action
over the clemency hearing.
His only success was in 1991, when Lancaster County District Judge Bernard
McGinn granted a stay of execution on the Pardons Board issue.
That stay was dissolved when the Nebraska Supreme Court rejected Otey’s
arguments in May 1992.
The rejection of Otey’s final appeal was the last decision in a 17-year story that
began June 11, 1977.
That day, Jane McManus’ brother, John, found her battered body lying in her rented
house near Ak-Sar-Ben racetrack.
She had been raped, stabbed, strangled with her belt and bludgeoned with a hammer.
After getting leads that pointed to Otey, Omaha police tracked him down in January
1978 at the Florida Downs track near Tampa, Fla.
Over the course of two days, Otey talked with police for more than eight hours.
He gave a tape-recorded, detailed account of the McManus murder and told police he’d
committed at least 10 rapes in six years.
On April 13, 1978, a Douglas County District Court jury found Otey guilty of first-
degree murder in the commission of a sexual assault.
In the KLIN interview, which was taped Monday afternoon, Otey himself offered no
predictions whether he would still be alive today.
“I’m not commenting,” he said when Ms. Coffey asked him whether he still would
be alive Saturday

https://www.laguardia.edu/lesson/files/otey/lexis%20nexis%20otey/otey%2012.pdf