Thomas Beavers was executed by the State of Virginia for the murder of Marguerite Lowery
According to court documents Thomas Beavers would break into the home of his neighbor Marguerite Lowery who would be sexually assaulted before Beavers proceed to smother her to death with a pillow before robbing the home
Thomas Beavers would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Thomas Beavers would be executed by lethal injection on December 11 1997
Thomas Beavers Photos
Thomas Beavers Case
“God forgive me!”
With that wail, Thomas Beavers Jr. slumped down onto his execution gurney as a lethal cocktail of chemicals coursed through his body.
By 9:07 p.m. Thursday, Beavers, 26, was declared dead.
State officials executed him for the rape and murder of Marguerite E. Lowery, 61, a retired school cafeteria manager, on May 1, 1990, in Hampton.
Beavers chatted briefly with a prison clergyman after he was strapped onto the gurney in the execution room at the Greensville Correctional Center. He then lifted his head, staring for several moments at the witnesses.
In another room were four members of Lowery’s family. They declined to speak to reporters after the execution. Prison officials would not identify them, but Lowery’s daughter, Velma Britt, and Lowery’s brother, Kenneth Barbour, had indicated earlier they would see Beavers die.
The heavily muscled Beavers declined to see visitors from his family on his final day. He declined a special final meal, so he was offered fried fish, baked tomatoes, sliced bread, fried rice, sliced pineapple and a beverage.
As he walked into the execution room, Beavers’ hair tumbled well below his shoulders.
Beavers then made a brief statement:
“To my family and friends, I love them. God bless them,” he said, according to David Botkins, state Department of Corrections spokesman. “I’m sorry for what I did.
“God bless them all.”
He then clenched his eyes together, shed a few tears, and, wailed, “God forgive me!” as the first chemical dripping in his IV entered his body. That chemical knocked him unconscious.
The second chemical stopped his breathing, and the third chemical stopped his heart.
Earlier Thursday, Gov. George Allen denied a request for clemency, and the U.S. Supreme Court turned down two appeals, corrections officials said.
Lowery was a widow who lived alone on Teach Street in Hampton. Beavers lived in the same neighborhood.
After Lowery’s husband, Pompey, died in 1978, she liked to travel frequently, family members said.
“She was on the go,” said Louella Johnson, 89, Lowery’s mother.
Beavers, a shipyard worker, was the ninth person executed in Virginia this year.
The state executed Michael Charles Satcher, who raped and murdered a Washington paralegal in 1990, the night before.
Thursday’s execution ended Beavers’ troubled life. When he was a baby, his mother tried to kill him. At age 5, he started sniffing gasoline. In elementary school, he twice had to repeat a grade because of learning disabilities. In the ninth grade, he dropped out. He abused alcohol and drugs. Twice, he tried to kill himself.
Prosecutors said Lowery was asleep when Beavers, then 18, broke into her home. When she woke up to find out about the noise, Beavers grabbed her and forced her back into the bedroom. She fought and screamed.
Beavers tore her clothing off, raped her and smothered her to death with a pillow from the bed. He took jewelry from her dresser, vandalized the house, stole her car and set fire to it.
It was two years before law enforcement officials caught him. By then, he had raped two other neighbors, who weren’t killed. But when he was arrested for the last rape, police found Lowery’s jewelry in his bedroom.
When he was caught, Thomas Beavers told authorities that he’d probably rape again if set free.
The jury that sentenced him to death based its decision on his “demonstrated dangerousness,” according to the state attorney general’s office
