Tommy Jackson was executed by the State of Texas for the murder of Rosalind Robison
According to court documents Tommy Jackson and an accomplice, who met at a halfway house, were looking for a vehicle to steal in order to pull off robberies would head to the University of Texas campus where they would abduct Rosalind Robison. The college student would be sexually assaulted repeatedly by both men before she was fatally shot
Tommy Jackson would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Tommy Jackson would be executed by lethal injection on May 4 2000
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When Was Tommy Jackson Executed
Tommy Jackson was executed on May 4 2000
Tommy Jackson Case
n the late evening hours of November 17, 1983, Tommy Ray Jackson and his accomplice, James Clary, kidnapped University of Texas student Rosalind Robison from the parking lot of the Petroleum Engineering Building on the U.T. campus in Austin. After being kidnapped and sexually assaulted she was driven in her car to Williamson County where she was shot in the head at close range by Jackson. Her body was discovered in a gravel pile one month later.
Tommy Jackson and James Clary met at the Dismas Halfway House in Austin, where they had discussed stealing a car to be used in future robberies. On the morning of November 17, 1983, Jackson and Clary left the Dismas Halfway House. After spending much of the day at various locations in East Austin, the two began searching for a car to steal. Jackson had a weapon, and the two carefully looked at several locations in the vicinity of the University of Texas campus, and ultimately decided to look on the campus itself. Between 11 p.m. and midnight, Clary and Jackson focused their attention on the parking lot next to the Petroleum Engineering Building located on U.T. campus. They spotted Rosalind walking toward her car. Using their weapon, they kidnapped Rosalind and drove away in her white Oldsmobile Delta 88.
After discovering that Rosalind had no money, they went to the nearest ATM, and got some cash with Rosalind’s ATM card. They then proceeded north on IH-35, during which time Tommy Jackson raped Rosalind in the back seat of the car. They exited IH-35 in Williamson County, and stopped in a remote area where Clary had sexual intercourse with the victim. According to Clary, because he used Jackson’s name in the presence of Rosalind, she was executed. Clary and Jackson took Rosalind from the car , with her hands bound, and led her near a gravel pit where she was shot at point blank range in the back of the head by Jackson. After Jackson tried to hide the body by covering it with loose gravel, he and Clary left the scene in Rosalind’s car. Jackson kept the car until he was arrested.
Rickey Johnson, an acquaintance of Jackson and Clary, who lived within blocks of the Dismas Halfway House, testified that sometime prior to Thanksgiving in November of 1983, Jackson was looking for a gun and that he (Rickey Johnson) rented Jackson a gun for twenty dollars. This gun was returned to Rickey Johnson after Thanksgiving by his brother, James Johnson. After Jackson was arrested, Rickey found out that the Austin police were looking for the gun. Initially, when a homicide investigator with the Austin Police Department contacted Rickey, he said he didn’t know anything about the gun and tried to hinder the police probe by hiding the gun in a local storm drain. Ultimately, however, Rickey Johnson led homicide investigators to the weapon where they retrieved it from the sewer. Rickey’s brother, James, testified and admitted that he received the weapon from Clary after Thanksgiving and returned it to Rickey. Ronald D. Richardson, a DPS firearms expert, conducted a ballistic examination on the bullet removed from Rosalind’s body, and testified that it was fired from the handgun Jackson had rented from Rickey Johnson.
Maria Salazar, the roommate of Rosalind, informed the jury that on the evening that Rosalind disappeared she was wearing a gold Seiko watch, with a small white face, and little safety link chain. Additionally, she confirmed that Rosalind kept in the trunk of her automobile a tool kit, blanket and orange towel in case of a road emergency. Pam McKinney, a female acquaintance of both Jackson and Clary, said that she had met Tommy Jackson some six months prior to his arrest. Further, she reported that neither Jackson nor Clary owned a car; however, on the Friday morning prior to Jackson’s arrest, Jackson and Clary showed up at McKinney’s home in a white Oldsmobile. At that time Jackson drove McKinney to various locations in Austin, during which time she noticed a lady’s purse in the front passenger area of the vehicle. She also testified that Jackson was in possession of a lady’s gold Seiko watch and had tried to give it to her sister, Linda Lindly. In addition, she witnessed Jackson the next morning wash his face with an orange towel he had taken from the vehicle. McKinney later turned the towel over to police investigators. Linda Lindly, Pam McKinney’s sister, who also lived with her at the East Austin address, testified that on November 18, 1983, she had Jackson take her to a local clinic, and as transportation Jackson was driving a white Oldsmobile Delta 88. While in the vehicle she spotted a brown purse on the front floor board; Jackson informed her that the purse “belonged to the friend’s wife who had loaned him the car.” Her testimony also revealed that on the weekend following Rosalind Robison’s disappearance, Jackson was freely spending money buying “beer, liquor, food, weed and whatever we asked for.” Ms. Lindly partially confirmed McKinney’s testimony in that she also testified that Jackson had requested that she keep a gold Seiko watch with a safety chain. Lindly, however, refused the request. Moreover, Lindly witnessed Clary in possession of a small caliber handgun identical to the murder weapon. Anita Hall, the passenger in the vehicle at the time of Jackson’s arrest, testified that when she first met Jackson he had no car; but that three days later he was driving the white Oldsmobile.
When Jackson was arrested by officers of the Austin Police Department, a checkbook was found that contained Rosalind’s ATM card. Republic Bank of Austin confirmed that Rosalind held an account with the bank and had been issued an ATM card. The bank also revealed that on November 17, at 11:39 p.m., a $50 withdrawal was transacted with the card on an ATM in Austin. Pubic hairs removed from the back seat of Rosalind Robison’s car, matched Jackson’s pubic hair. Finger prints found on Rosalind’s personal effects, recovered from the trunk of the car, were also identified as Jackson’s.
http://www.oag.state.tx.us/newspubs/releases/2000/20000503jackfcts.htm
