Ynobe Matthews was executed by the State of Texas for the murder of Carolyn Casey
According to court documents Carolyn Casey would be murdered in her apartment and forensics would reveal she had been sexually assaulted and her neck was broken before her home was set on fire. Ynobe Matthews would be tied to the murder through DNA and forensic evidence. Once confronted with the evidence he made a confession
Once in custody Ynobe Matthews was tied to the murder of 21-year-old Jamie Glenda Hart fourteen months before the murder of Carolyn Casey
Ynobe Matthews would be convicted and sentenced to death
Ynobe Matthews would be executed by lethal injection on January 6, 2004
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When Was Ynobe Matthews Executed
Ynobe Matthews was executed on January 6 2004
Ynobe Matthews Case
A Dallas man described by authorities as a serial rapist was executed Tuesday night for raping and strangling a woman at her College Station apartment 3 1/2 years ago. Ynobe Matthews declined to make a final statement before he was put to death, but mouthed “I love you” several times to a sister and cousin who were watching him through a window. As the drugs began taking effect, he gasped a couple of times, sputtered and let out a long wheeze before becoming unconscious. Eight minutes later, at 6:18 p.m., he was pronounced dead. A half-dozen members of his victims’ families watched through another window, but Matthews ignored them.
Matthews, 27, was condemned for the death of Carolyn Casey, 21, one of two women he was convicted of killing. Testimony at his trial also linked him to at least three other rapes and two other attempted rapes. Matthews waived appeals and asked that his execution, the first of the year in Texas, be carried out. “Plenty of guys say ‘You can beat this,'” he said in a recent death row interview. “I respect their fight. We all have to choose. … We all have whole different paths to take.”
Anita Casey, whose daughter was killed in the 2000 attack, met later with reporters after watching Matthews die and read a poem she said was written by a friend of her daughter’s. In the poem, Carolyn Casey, a day-care center teacher, was described as someone who “embodies love and trust.” “We take solace knowing that Carolyn is watching over all that knew and loved her,” she said. “I ask why? Why was she so violated?” she added. “This was a death she did not deserve.” “We lost somebody that was really special to this world,” said Amanda Casey, the victim’s sister.
Brazos County District Attorney Bill Turner was surprised that Matthews, a man he worked to send to death row, was following through on his desire to be executed. “He took that position from the time he got the death penalty,” Turner said. “I believed that would be short-lived.”
Evidence showed that he set fire to Casey’s body after strangling her to try to cover up the crime. Firefighters responding to a call from Casey’s apartment complex found a small blaze smoldering around her body. She had been propped up in a seated position against a bed. Paper, pens and makeup brushes had been set on fire near her.
Matthews, who grew up in Dallas and dropped out of Lake Highlands High School in the 11th grade, has four children ranging in age from 3 to 10. At the time of the slaying, he was working as a night stocker at a College Station supermarket and living with a friend at the same complex where Casey lived. He and Casey had attended a party at the complex the previous evening.
Matthews’ DNA was found in scrapings taken from under Casey’s fingernails and other forensics evidence tied him to the murder scene. He acknowledged being at her apartment but contended the sex was consensual. He later told detectives there had been a fight, that he strangled Casey and set fire to her to eliminate evidence and cut a window screen to give the appearance of a burglary. “I spent the whole week getting drunk,” he said from death row, adding that he also had been on a drug binge leading up to the woman’s death. “But that’s not an excuse.” DNA evidence and fingerprints connected Matthews to the 1999 rape and slaying of Jamie Hart, 21. Her death went unsolved for 14 months after her nude body was discovered on a rural Brazos County road, nine miles from where her abandoned car was left running with the lights on.
Matthews, whose first name is “Ebony” spelled backward, confessed to forcing his way into her car and raping her. A month after he was condemned for Casey’s slaying, he pleaded guilty to Hart’s death. A rape victim at his murder trial testified how he “would strangle her until almost unconscious and then let up. It would happen again and again,” Turner recalled. Authorities found marks of repeated choking on his other victims.
His execution was the first of four scheduled this month in Texas, where 24 executions were carried out last year. The total was the highest in the nation but average for the state over the last decade.
Goodbye ynobe but no yellow brick road for you to travel on, just a scorched, dusty path to hell. Adios