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Post by Charlene on Jul 1, 2003 9:46:41 GMT -6
After deliberating five hours until nearly midnight, a Callaway County jury decided that Lewis Gilbert should get the death penalty for murdering Bill and Flossie Brewer. For Gilbert, they are the second and third death verdicts linked to a cross-country crime spree with Eric Elliott that began in Newcomerstown, Ohio, and ended outside Santa Fe, N.M. Gilbert and Elliott were arrested a week later in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The crime spree by Lewis Gilbert and Eric Elliott began in August 1994 in Ohio, where they are suspected of killing Ruth Loader, 79, in Port Washington. Ruth disappeared without a trace, and her car was found bogged down in a muddy field near the Brewers’ house. The men had stolen her car and drove southwest across the country to Missouri. They became stuck in the mud in a Callaway County, Missouri, field. They walked to the nearby home of William and Flossie Mae Brewer, intending to steal money and another car. Confessing after his arrest, Gilbert said that he and Elliott were invited inside the house by Mrs. Brewer after they said they needed to use the phone to call a wrecker. Once inside, they realized there was no phone book. After talking with the elderly couple for about 30 minutes, Gilbert confessed, they decided they were going to kill the Brewers. Gilbert used a telephone cord to bind Flossie Brewer's hands, then he and Elliott led the elderly couple down to the basement. According to Gilbert's confession, Elliott shot both of them three times in the head. Bill Brewer was 86; Flossie Brewer was 76. Asked if he was "solely responsible for the murders in Missouri," Gilbert answered that "it was a 50/50 deal." After shooting the couple to death they stole their car, cash and rifles. Gilbert was also sentenced to die in Oklahoma for killing Roxie Ruddell, a security guard in Lake Stanley Draper, Oklahoma. Gilbert and Elliott approached Roxy Lynn Ruddell to steal her truck. Ruddell, 37, was fishing at Lake Stanley Draper. She told the men that they could take the truck if they didn’t hurt her, appeals court documents stated. Despite the offer, prosecutors said the victim was forced to sit under a nearby tree and then shot three times in the head by Gilbert. Gilbert received a death sentence and Elliott life in prison. The Brewers’ car was found near Ruddell’s body in Oklahoma, and Ruddell’s pickup was with Gilbert and Elliott when New Mexico police surrounded them while they slept in a ditch, forcing them to surrender. Public Defenders Bob Wolfrum and Jeff Estes tried to portray Gilbert as the victim of a troubled childhood, including abuse and abandonment by a series of father figures. They also noted Gilbert’s failed marriage. Gilbert went to prison in Ohio for child endangerment after biting and bruising his 3-month-old son in 1992. When he was released from prison, his estranged wife closed the door in his face. Eighteen days later, Gilbert and Elliott set out with a few dollars in their pockets and a .22-caliber revolver that Elliott took from his father’s home. The gun became a murder weapon in Callaway County. Two psychologists and an expert in human development testified for the defense about Gilbert’s psychological makeup, but Assistant Attorney General Bob Ahsens argued it was "psychobabble." Gilbert is simply a serial killer, Ahsens said. A jury convicted Gilbert of first-degree burglary, first-degree tampering, stealing, armed criminal action and two counts of first-degree murder. Gilbert was sentenced to two death sentences, life imprisonment and 29 years in prison. The Brewer family wasn’t impressed by the defense. "He was old enough to have a brain and old enough to know right from wrong," said Gene Brewer of Fulton, one of the victims’ four children. "We’ve run it through our minds - brothers and sisters - and there just wasn’t no reason for it. They could’ve took the car, tied them up in the basement or something." Many members of the Brewer family traveled to Oklahoma for Gilbert’s trial in 1995. They returned to Oklahoma for court proceedings involving Elliott. As the hours passed waiting for the verdicts in Fulton, Gene Brewer said, "it worried me for a while, when they slowed down and wasn’t coming back with nothing." The tragedy fragmented the extended family, but they spent a lot of time together during the trial. They looked over old family photos at Gene Brewer’s house. "I had ’em in my basement, going on seven years now," he said. "Thursday night, everybody went through them and got what they wanted out of them." It was "a good time," he said. The verdicts "kind of lifted a burden," he said. "At least you get a satisfaction. You’re not going to forget, but this here gives us the feeling that he got something out of it. He didn’t walk off scot-free." Under an agreement between Missouri and Oklahoma, Gilbert was sent back to Oklahoma’s death row. Elliott, a juvenile at the time of the murders, pleaded guilty in 1996 to first-degree murder in Ruddell’s death and is serving a life sentence without parole.
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Post by TexasLady on Jul 1, 2003 11:05:14 GMT -6
Why do they always have to pull that "poor me, I had a rough childhood" ploy? Does it ever work?
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Post by Robert G on Jul 1, 2003 18:33:54 GMT -6
I think that the parents should stand trial as well for creating such a monster.  |
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Post by Felix on Jul 2, 2003 1:02:35 GMT -6
If the "parents should stand trial for creating such a monster", does,nt this mean he was created that way and did not exercise free will / choice and should therefore be exonerrated?
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Post by CA Resident on Jul 6, 2003 20:08:05 GMT -6
If the "parents should stand trial for creating such a monster", does,nt this mean he was created that way and did not exercise free will / choice and should therefore be exonerrated? Oh God Felix... I don't think that's even close to what Robert G. meant... Surely you gest.... I think the parents should be charged in addition to the killers..if in fact they want to make [them] responsible in their ever ending defense of "daddy never told me he loved me"... I have no doubt there are those who suffered endless abuse or neglect...I also believe 'some' of these killers were not loved by anyone as kids or adults... Never could that explain or excuse the horrific crimes they commit on others.... They should always be held accountable... It must get exhausting to forever defend the indefensible... |
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Post by Darren on Jul 22, 2003 11:17:16 GMT -6
If the "parents should stand trial for creating such a monster", does,nt this mean he was created that way and did not exercise free will / choice and should therefore be exonerrated? Why sure,exonerrate him right into your house. |
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