Life and Crimes: Fugitives and Facebook don’t mix

Being a fugitive 101, don’t post info about your location on Facebook

Fugitive Tindell posted information about his location on Facebook - not surprising that authorities were able to track him down.

The criminal imbecile of the week award goes to Alabama fugitive James Tindell.

James Tindell had been convicted in 2009 for stealing a backpack from a 17 year old boy in Multnomah County , Oregon. (For those of you television crime show trivia experts who wonder why that county name sounds familiar, it was where Richard Kimble stopped briefly in episode 87 of The Fugitive)

Tindell could have received 70 months in jail for robbery, but he plea bargained down to 5 years of probation and mandatory drug treatment. He complied with the conditions of the sentence for a while and then skipped town, winding up in Alabama.

But merely skipping town wasn’t enough for Tindell, he decided to taunt , on Facebook, his probation officer, Todd Roberts, as well as Eric Bloch, the county judge who had sentenced him.

He posted on his own Facebook page and those of his friends, many of whom he met through court appearances.

“Fresh out of another state,” he wrote in April, “catch me if you can.”

A short time later, he signed an expletive-filled rant about the criminal justice system: “the 1 who got away.”

However, he did not count on Roberts reading the other messages that he left , such as “I’m in Alabama.”

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Next execution scheduled for July 18 in Texas

Hearn is the next US inmate to be executed.

There is almost a month between United States executions. Last week Samuel Lopez was executed in Arizona and it will be another three weeks until the next inmate faces the death chamber when Texas will execute it’s 6th inmate of the year, Yokamon Hearn.

Hearn was sentenced to death for the shooting death of  26-year-old Frank Meziere on March 26th, 1998 in Dallas, Texas. Hearn and Delvin Dites, Teresa Shirley and Dwight Burley approached Meziere and forced him into his own car. They then drove out into a deserted area and shot him repeatedly, 12 times, in the head and upper body. They then took his wallet and his car and fled the scene.

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Arizona inmate executed this morning

Lopez was pronounced dead at 11:37am EST.

Samuel Villegas Lopez was executed this morning in Eyman state prison this morning in Florence, Arizona. He was sentenced to death for the rape and murder of Estafana Holmes in Phoenix, Arizona.

When asked if he had any final words, he simply said, “No, I do not.”

Nine members of the victim’s family were there to watch his execution. Lopez’s last meal was two chili burritos con carne, Spanish rice, a jalepeño, an avocado, cottage cheese and french fries a 20-ounce Coke, vanilla ice cream and a chopped pineapple.

Lopez was pronounced dead at 11:37am EST – 40 minutes after the execution process began.

Clemency denied for Samuel Lopez, scheduled to die on Wednesday

Lopez's last chance for clemency is with the U.S. Supreme Court

Samuel Lopez’s last chance for another reprieve from the death chamber is the Supreme Court. The Arizona Board of Executive Clemency denied Lopez’s request for a reprieve by a vote of 4-0. The Arizona Supreme Court also denied his request last week.

Lopez was convicted of murdering Estefana Holmes in Phoenix, Arizona in 1986. Lopez raped and sodomized Holmes, and then stabbed her 23 times and slashing her throat.

Lopez’s original execution date was scheduled for May 15th, but he received a stay when the Arizona Supreme Court issued a judgement that recently added members to the clemency board had not received adequate training and therefore he did not get a proper hearing.

Lopez is being held in Eyman state prison.

Life and Crimes: A week in the life of Mississippi

Welcome to a new feature on Crime Ticker: Life and Crimes – a periodic look at some of the more absurd and unusual facets of criminals, crimes, executions and the events and people surrounding them. Marg and Izzy are eager to get your feedback, so please post your comments or send us an e-mail at info@crimeticker.com.

Gary “Supersize Me” Simmons’ Execution

No need to count calories when it's your last meal.

We had another execution in Mississippi this week, this time it was local boy, Gary Carl Simmons, (all killers have middle names) for his part in the 1996 murder and dismembering of Jeffrey Wolfe, to whom Simmons allegedly owed a drug debt, and the abduction and rape of Wolfe’s girlfriend , Charlene Leaser.

The execution was originally supposed to have been the middle one of a three day execution weekend, but those attorneys have a way of spoiling things, messing up the schedule with appeals.  So we had to settle for three consecutive Wednesdays. Prior to this trio, there were  53 on death row,and with some pending cases, there may be some replacements. As former governor Kirk Fordice said, there is a need to “work down the inventory.”

Simmons’ last meal request: one Pizza Hut medium Super Supreme Deep Dish pizza, double portion, with mushrooms, onions, jalapeno peppers, and pepperoni; pizza, regular portion, with three cheeses, olives, bell pepper, tomato, garlic and Italian sausage; 10 8-oz. packs of Parmesan cheese; 10 8-oz. packs of ranch dressing; one family size back of Doritos nacho cheese flavor; 8 oz. jalapeno nacho cheese; 4 oz. sliced jalapenos; 2 large strawberry shakes; two 20-oz. cherry Cokes; one super-size order of McDonald’s fries with extra ketchup and mayonnaise; and two pints of strawberry ice cream. That’s enough to give one indigestion. I know if I ate all that, I would have to take something to keep me from waking up, fortunately for Simmons, they had just the thing.

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