John Fautenberry

[thinkinkmesa]

Ohio prosecutor requests execution date for killer


Associated Press - December 2, 2008 1:25 AM ET

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - An Ohio prosecutor has requested an execution date for a former Portland, Ore., trucker charged with murdering a hitchhiker in 1991 during a multistate killing spree.

John Fautenberry was sentenced to death in 1992 for the shooting death of Joseph Daron at a highway restaurant in Ohio. He had given up his right to a jury trial, pleaded guilty and was sentenced by a three-judge panel.

Prosecutor Joe Deters made the request in a filing with the Ohio Supreme Court. Deters says Fautenberry has exhausted his state and federal appeals.

Fautenberry was also linked to the deaths of an Alaska miner, a New Jersey truck driver and two people in Oregon - Portland bank teller Christine Guthrie and Donald Nutley, whom he met at a Troutdale truck stop in 1990.

www.ktvz.com/Global/story.asp?S=9441351

[thinkinkmesa]

Ohio sets execution date for serial killer convicted in 1991 Hunterdon County slaying
by The Associated Press
Wednesday April 08, 2009, 2:22 PM


The Ohio Supreme Court today set a July 14 execution date for John Fauntenberry who was convicted of a multi-state killing spree in 1991 that included the slaying of a truck driver in Hunterdon County.

John Fautenberry, 45, admitted on the eve of his trial in New Jersey to the February 1991 killing of Gary Farmer, a 26-year-old long-haul truck driver, at a truck stop off Route 78 in Bloomsbury. He was sentenced to life in prison in New Jersey, but by that time had already been sentenced to death in Ohio for another murder.

Fautenberry was also convicted of murder in Alaska and linked to two other slayings in Oregon, authorities said. Oregon authorities did not charge Fautenberry because Ohio investigators had already taken the lead on the case.

Fautenberry's execution date was set by the Ohio Supreme Court after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of lethal injection a year ago. After that decision, the Ohio Attorney General's Office asked prosecutors to coordinate how they filed their requests for fear of swamping the state Supreme Court.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/04/ohio_sets_execution_date_for_s.html

[thinkinkmesa]

1991 Bloomsbury Killer Faces Ohio Execution
by Hunterdon County Democrat
Thursday April 30, 2009, 9:08 AM

A man convicted of multiple murders in different states, including one in Bloomsbury, is scheduled to be executed in Ohio on July 14.

The Ohio Supreme Court recently set that execution date for John Fauntenberry, who was sentenced to death for shooting and killing Joseph Daron at a highway restaurant in Ohio in 1991.

Mr. Fautenberry, now 45, admitted killing Gary Farmer at the truck stop in Bloomsbury that same year. He pleaded guilty just as a trial was about to start. He was sentenced to life in prison here for that murder but an Ohio jury had already handed down the death penalty in the Daron murder, so Mr. Fautenberry was returned to Ohio.


Mr. Fauntenberry was also convicted of stabbing an Alaska miner to death and was linked to, but never prosecuted in, the deaths of two people in Oregon. He recently exhausted his last option to appeal, allowing Ohio to go forward with his execution.
www.nj.com/hunterdon-county-democrat/index.ssf/2009/04/1991_bloomsbury_killer_faces_o.html

[thinkinkmesa]

Killer asks Ohio court for 6-day execution delay
June 12, 2009 16:47 EDT

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- A man sentenced to die next month for the
fatal shooting of an Ohio man during a 1991 multistate killing spree
is seeking a six-day reprieve.

John Fautenberry asked the Ohio Supreme Court Friday to allow his
attorney time to prepare for a clemency hearing.

The U.S. Supreme Court said in April that the government should pay
federally appointed lawyers for work on state clemency requests for
death row inmates.

Fautenberry says the decision affects him because his attorney had
stopped representing him prior to the April ruling but has since
asked a federal judge for funding to prepare for clemency.

Fautenberry, 45, was also convicted of the stabbing death of an
Alaska miner and the slaying of a New Jersey truck driver, and was
linked to the deaths of two people in Oregon.
www.wtte28.com/template/inews_wire/wires.regional.oh/27ba87e7-www.wtte28.com.shtml

[thinkinkmesa]

Ohio: condemned killer not presenting new evidence
The Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio - A prosecutor says the Ohio Supreme Court should
reject a death row inmate's request to delay his execution in the
slaying of a man during a 1991 multistate killing spree.

John Fautenberry wants his July 14 execution delayed by 60 days to
allow his attorney more time to gather evidence about Fautenberry' s
brain disorder and bad childhood.

But Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters says in a court filing
Tuesday that those issues have been considered and rejected by
previous courts.

The 45-year-old Fautenberry was sentenced to die for the fatal
shooting of a Hamilton County man.

Fautenberry was also convicted of the stabbing death of an Alaska
miner and the slaying of a New Jersey truck driver, and was linked to
the deaths of two people in Oregon.

www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/state/new_jersey/20090616_ap_ohiocondemnedkillernotpresentingnewevidence.html

[thinkinkmesa]

Parole Board: Killer should die

By Jon Craig • jcraig@enquirer. com • June 24, 2009
COLUMBUS – The Ohio Parole Board today recommended John Fautenberry
be executed next month for the 1991 murder of a Milford man.

The unanimous decision, sent to Gov. Ted Strickland, means the serial
killer’s death sentence is likely to be carried out July 14 at the
Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville, barring any last-
minute court appeals.

Fautenberry told police he killed Joseph W Daron, 45, of Milford
while hitchhiking on Interstate 275.

Daron, a father of two, was shot twice in the chest. Fautenberry
stole his car, cash and credit cards and threw the body in the Ohio
River, according to court testimony.

Fauntenberry also admitted to killing four other people. He was
sentenced to life without parole for murders in New Jersey and
Alaska. Prosecution for two murders in Oregon were not pursued
because of the other convictions.

Daron’s Bible was found in Fautenberry’s Alaska hotel room when he
was arrested, according to today’s report, and Daron’s briefcase was
found in Fautenberry’s storage shed.

In testimony to the Parole Board, Assistant Hamilton County
Prosecutor Ron Springman called Fautenberry "a cold, calculated,
narcissistic psychopath."

There have been two executions during Strickland’s tenure as
governor. The Democrat previously granted clemency for two men on
Death Row, commuting their sentences to life in prison.

Defense attorneys said they will file court appeals arguing that
Fautenberry, who turns 46 on July 4, suffered head injuries as a
child and in the Navy. The brain damage may have left him unable to
know right from wrong, they say, so his execution would be "cruel and
unusual punishment."

In today’s report to Strickland, the seven-member Parole Board wrote,
"There was no manifest injustice in this case.’’

Even if Fautenberry were tested and found to suffer "organic brain
syndrome,’’ the board said, it would not outweigh the evidence and
testimony that favors execution. "He befriended each of his victims
in a old and calculated manner and then proceeded to kill each one,’’
the board wrote.

"At no time was guilt contested in any of his crimes. The crime
against Joseph Daron coupled with the additional multiple victims
renders a recommendation of mercy inappropriate. "

Fautenberry declined to be interviewed by the Parole Board and told
his Marietta attorney, Dennis Sipe, not to appear. The Parole Board
turned down Sipe’s request for more time to prepare.

Strickland can recommend execution, or life in prison without parole,
any time before July 14.

news.cincinnati.com/article/20090624/NEWS0107/306240049/Parole

[thinkinkmesa]

Governor's Statement Regarding Clemency Application of John Fautenberry

Columbus, Ohio – Governor Ted Strickland today issued the following statement regarding the pending clemency application of John Fautenberry:



“As a result of his conviction for aggravated murder, the Ohio Supreme Court has scheduled the execution of Mr. John Fautenberry for July 14, 2009 at 10 a.m. I have completed my review of Mr. Fautenberry’s request for executive clemency.



“In making my determination, my staff and I reviewed the record of proceedings and the evidence presented in Mr. Fautenberry’s case, the judicial decisions regarding Mr. Fautenberry’s conviction, Mr. Fautenberry’s request for executive clemency and arguments presented for and against the clemency request by the Hamilton County Prosecutor and Mr. Fautenberry’s attorneys, as well as other materials forwarded by Mr. Fautenberry’s attorneys.



“We have also reviewed photographs, audio recordings, media reports, letters and emails received in the Governor’s Office regarding this matter, and the unanimous recommendation against clemency forwarded to me by the Ohio Parole Board on June 24, 2009 along with the exhibits presented at the Parole Authority’s hearing and letters received by the Parole Board regarding Mr. Fautenberry’s clemency request.



“Based on this review, I have decided to deny Mr. Fautenberry’s application for executive clemency.”
www.governor.ohio.gov/News/PressReleases/July2009/News7809/tabid/1122/Default.aspx

[thinkinkmesa]

Serial killer John Fautenberry lost another bid to halt his execution next week when an appeals court Friday said he was not entitled to state money for neurological tests.
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Fautenberry, scheduled to die by lethal injection July 14, claims the tests could identify brain damage that would help his efforts to win clemency from Gov. Ted Strickland.

But the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals denied the request, saying a lower court was right to refuse Fautenberry state funding to hire a doctor to conduct the tests. The appeals judges said Fautenberry already underwent testing in the 1990s and additional tests are not needed.

"Fautenberry had provided no reasons to explain why it would be necessary ... nor did he point to any facts suggesting that his brain impairment has worsened," wrote Judge Alice Batchelder, who was joined in the decision by judges Ronald Lee Gilman and Karen Nelson Moore.

Moore, writing separately, said the tests might be necessary, but she agreed with the decision because Fautenberry failed to explain in his appeal how additional tests would help his case.

Fautenberry's lawyers could not be reached for comment, but they have argued that head injuries he suffered as a child made it impossible for him to tell right from wrong. If they could prove that, his lawyers then could argue executing him would be cruel and unusual punishment.

Fautenberry, 46, was sentenced to death for the 1991 murder of Joseph W. Daron Jr. He told police he shot Daron, a father of two, twice in the chest after he hitched a ride in Daron's car on Interstate 275.

He took Daron's car, cash, credit cards and Bible before driving back to Cincinnati and throwing the body in the Ohio River.

Fautenberry later admitted he killed four other people. He was sentenced to life without parole for murders in New Jersey and Alaska, but he was not prosecuted for two slayings in Oregon because of the other convictions.

news.cincinnati.com/article/20090710/NEWS0107/907110319/Court+nixes+killer+s+appeal

[thinkinkmesa]

Oregon trucker faces execution in 1991 Ohio murder
TERRY KINNEY/Associated Press Writer
about 7 hours ago

CINCINNATI (AP) -- A Bible taken from an Ohio victim who was shot and robbed during a multistate killing spree helped tie an Oregon trucker to the crime and send him back to a death penalty state.

Joseph Daron Jr. had the Bible with him when he picked up John Fautenberry, who was hitchhiking east of Cincinnati. Daron offered to drive 10 miles out of his way to leave Fautenberry at a spot on Interstate 71 where he'd be more likely to get a ride to Columbus.

Prosecutors said that fit a pattern in which Fautenberry took advantage of people's kindness to him, killing four men and a woman in four states within five months.

Fautenberry, 45, has said he killed repeatedly because he had a rotten childhood, drank heavily for several years and suffered a brain injury in the Navy. He faces execution Tuesday for murdering Daron, 46, of Milford, on Feb. 17, 1991.

Investigators said Fautenberry shot Daron twice with the same .22-caliber handgun he used to kill a man a few days earlier at a New Jersey truck stop as he traveled from Connecticut to Cincinnati.

Court records show that Daron pleaded for his life before Fautenberry shot him, took Daron's vehicle, cash, credit cards and Bible and threw his body into a wooded area near the Ohio River.

On Friday, a three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to delay Fautenberry's execution, upholding a lower court ruling that says Fautenberry is not entitled to a government-funded neuropsychologist to help prove that he killed because of brain damage.

Fautenberry's court-appointed attorney, Dennis Sipe had asked the appeals court to appoint an expert in brain damage to present Gov. Ted Strickland with evidence that Fautenberry suffered brain damage as a child and in the Navy.

"Clearly, in the Navy, he had his head caught between a ship and a pontoon boat, so this is not like something that doesn't have backup evidentiary support," Sipe said earlier in the week.

Sipe said Friday he planned to refile his request with the U.S. District in Columbus for money to hire a neuropsychologist to bolster another clemency petition.

As a truck driver, Fautenberry traveled widely and left victims on both coasts, as well as in the Heartland. He confessed to slayings in Alaska, Oregon, Ohio and New Jersey.

In New Jersey, Fautenberry was convicted of manslaughter for killing fellow trucker Gary Farmer and received a life sentence.

In Alaska, Fautenberry pleaded guilty in the March 1991 fatal stabbing of Jefferson Diffee of Juneau and received a 99-year sentence.

Investigators said they found Fautenberry's fingerprints in Diffee's apartment, and when they searched Fautenberry's storage locker and hotel room they found Daron's wrist watch, brief case and Bible.

When questioned by an FBI agent, Fautenberry confessed to shooting two people in the head in Oregon. Donald Nutley, whom Fautenberry he met at a truck stop, was shot dead after the two went target shooting in November 1990. Christine Guthrie, a Portland bank teller, was killed in February 1991 after Fautenberry returned to the state from Ohio.

Oregon prosecutors did not pursue charges in either death, deferring to Ohio, where Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters insisted that Fautenberry be tried in the death penalty state.

Fautenberry gave up his right to a trial by jury in Cincinnati and pleaded no contest July 23, 1992, to two counts each of aggravated murder and grand theft and one count of aggravated robbery. A three-judge panel called his actions "plotted, vicious, persistent and utterly callous" and found him guilty. He was sentenced to death on Sept. 16, 1992.

During a hearing to determine the sentence, Fautenberry made an unsworn statement in which he described physical and emotional abuse he and his mother suffered at the hands of his father and stepfathers.

He said he began abusing alcohol and drugs in high school, and that longtime abuse led to his discharge from the military and contributed to everything "falling apart" in November 1990, just before his killing spree. He said he was sorry for the person he had become, and he later asked the Ohio Supreme Court to spare his life so he could work with children who were abused.

In April, the Ohio Supreme Court set an execution date of July 14 for Fautenberry to die by lethal injection at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville.

Fautenberry asked the Supreme Court in June to delay a clemency hearing for six days to allow his lawyer more time to prepare. The Ohio Board of Parole met anyway and voted unanimously to recommend that Strickland deny clemency, which he did on Wednesday. Fautenberry declined to be interviewed by the board.

Sipe, described Fautenberry's demeanor Wednesday as subdued.

Family members of four of Fautenberry's victims attended his clemency hearing. They declined to talk to reporters and there are no listed phone numbers for Daron's relatives in the Cincinnati area.

Daron's daughter, Rachel Daron, now 22, was 4 years old when he was murdered. She told the board she was denied every girl's dream of having her father walk her down the aisle when she married, and that Fautenberry did not deserve to live.

www.daily-jeff.com/news/article/4626665

[thinkinkmesa]

Court won't delay execution in Ohio
Multistate killer alleges brain damage
Saturday, July 11, 2009 3:11 AM

CINCINNATI -- A federal appeals court refused yesterday to delay Ohio's execution of a man convicted in a multistate killing rampage in the early 1990s.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also upheld a district court ruling that John Fautenberry, who is scheduled to die Tuesday, is not entitled to a government-appointed brain specialist to help prove that he killed because of brain damage.

Fautenberry faces execution for the murder of Joseph Daron Jr., 46, of Milford, who picked up the hitchhiking Fautenberry in southwestern Ohio in February 1991.

The 45-year-old former trucker also was convicted of a murder in Alaska and of manslaughter in New Jersey. In addition, he confessed to two killings in Oregon. All the slayings occurred over five months in late 1990 and early 1991.

Fautenberry's attorney, Dennis Sipe, said yesterday that he planned to refile his request with the U.S. District Court in Columbus for money to hire a neuropsychologist to bolster another clemency petition.

The appeals court said yesterday that while it could not find that the district court reached the wrong conclusion based on the information it had at the time, Fautenberry did not argue or provide evidence to the district court that the 1996 evaluation might be outdated 13 years later because of medical advances or changes in his condition.

Sipe said he plans to argue that in his latest filing. He pointed to the concurring opinion yesterday by Circuit Judge Karen Nelson Moore. She wrote that while the majority decision was correct, "a current picture of Fautenberry's mental state clearly is important to determining whether he should be executed" and an updated neuropsychological evaluation is "reasonably necessary for his representation."

The Ohio Board of Parole recommended against clemency late last month, and Gov. Ted Strickland issued his formal denial Wednesday.

Sipe had argued that Fautenberry suffered head injuries as a child, and again as an adult while serving in the U.S. Navy.

www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/07/11/z-apoh_deathpenalty2_0711.ART_ART_07-11-09_B5_3BEENQ9.html?type=rss&cat=&sid=101

[thinkinkmesa]

Fautenberry saga about to end

Serial killer set to be executed in Ohio this week

By Jon Craig and Sharon Coolidge
[e-mail] | [e-mail]

COLUMBUS - Relatives of three murder victims, including those of Joseph W. Daron of Milford, planned to watch Tuesday's execution of serial killer John Fautenberry.

But as the Death Row inmate's final days approached, Daron's daughter, Rachel, and ex-wife, Sandy Bronner of Amelia, gave up their seats in the Death House at Southern Ohio Correctional Facility.

Bronner's husband, Terry, and family attorney, Kyle C. Brooks, will be witnesses instead. "It's a life experience I really wasn't planning on having," the Cincinnati attorney said Friday.

Five families from four states have waited a generation for justice in the killings of their loved ones.

Fautenberry, 46, is set to die by lethal injection at the state prison near Lucasville at about 10 a.m. for Daron's 1991 murder.

Fautenberry was hitchhiking near Interstate 275 and I-71 when Daron picked him up on his way to work. Daron was shot twice in the chest. Fautenberry stole his car, cash and credit cards and dumped the body in the Ohio River.

• news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Avis=AB&Dato=20090709&Kategori=NEWS01&Lopenr=907090805&Ref=PH" target="popup"onClick="window.open('','popup','width=775,height=695,status=no,toolbar=no,location=no,scrollbars=no,resizable=no')">Photos: Daron family

"I think Mr. Fautenberry's time is up,'' said Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters.

Deters has prosecuted four serial killers; Fautenberry's conviction was his first death penalty case as a prosecutor.

"What strikes you about Fautenberry is total lack of remorse,'' Deters said Thursday. "He's just a vicious person. . . .That case is the case I cite to my kids why you don't pick up hitchhikers. He'd hitchhike. Someone would be kind enough to pick him up and he'd shoot them.''

In June, Daron's daughter, Rachel, 22, asked the Ohio Parole Board not to spare Fautenberry's life. Her father won't be there to walk her down the aisle when she gets married, she said. "It's not fair. It's what every girl dreams of."

Fautenberry's attorney, Dennis Sipe of Marietta, did not return calls last week. Last month, Sipe said he was arranging last-minute court appeals from a medical expert on suspected brain injuries that Fautenberry suffered as a child and in the Navy.

After being arrested in Alaska, Fautenberry confessed to five murders. His public defenders were unsuccessful in getting a life sentence arguing insanity and brain injury issues.

Fautenberry was convicted of the stabbing death of an Alaska miner and the slaying of a New Jersey truck driver, and confessed to the deaths of two people in Oregon. He received a 99-year-sentence in the Alaska case and a life sentence in the New Jersey murder. Oregon did not charge him in the Portland-area killings because authorities there decided to let Ohio prosecutors take the lead.

He fatally shot a retired truck driver who went target shooting with him in Oregon. He shot a former girlfriend in the head in Portland, Ore., after luring her into the woods.

TV interviewer remembers

After Fautenberry was arrested in Alaska, Channel 12 TV reporter Chris Yaw did what a good reporter does: He wrote to Fautenberry in jail and asked Fautenberry to call him.

One Saturday night, Yaw came home to find several messages from Fautenberry on his answering machine.

So Yaw hooked up what he called a "cheap-o little cassette recorder" to his phone and called Fautenberry back.

Fautenberry gave Yaw a full confession.

"What you know about serial killers is that they are psychotic," Yaw said, "It was not,' Boy, I am not really sorry'. His line of thinking was 'Now look at the trouble I am in.'

"As a cub reporter, his total lack of remorse stuck with me," Yaw said. "He gave me a matter-of-fact account of the murders."

Yaw left the news business in 1993 and is now a rector at Southfield, Mich., church. But he never forgot Fautenberry.

Over the years, Yaw wrote to Fautenberry, always sending the killer a card on his July 4 birthday. It's been many years since Fautenberry returned correspondence, Yaw said.

"You kind of dream of 'Dead Man Walking,' where all of sudden he would see the error of his ways, but I never quite got that from him," Yaw said. "A lack of remorse, I never really felt that in the correspondence, remorse for the depth of trauma he inflicted."

Yaw said he didn't send a birthday card to Fautenberry this Independence Day, though he has been thinking about him.

"I pray for him every day."
Additional Facts
On the internet

Twenty-nine killers have been executed in Ohio since 1999 when capital punishment resumed for the first time in 36 years. A summary of the modern-era executions can be found at:
www.drc.state.oh.us/web/Executed/executed25.htm

news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/AB/20090712/NEWS0107/907130319/

[thinkinkmesa]

John Fautenberry, Trucker Who Went On Killing Spree, Executed In Ohio

LUCASVILLE, Ohio — A former truck driver from Oregon who went on a multistate killing spree was executed Tuesday for murdering an Ohio man who gave him a ride in February 1991.

John Fautenberry, 45, was pronounced dead at 10:37 a.m. at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, about two hours after the U.S. Supreme Court denied a request to delay his execution on a claim that he had brain damage.

He was sentenced to death for killing Joseph Daron Jr., 46, who picked up the hitchhiking Fautenberry east of Cincinnati. Court records show Daron pleaded for his life before Fautenberry shot him and threw his body into a wooded area near the Ohio River.

Fautenberry gave up his right to a trial by jury in Cincinnati and pleaded no contest in July 1992 to two counts each of aggravated murder and grand theft and one count of aggravated robbery in Daron's death.

Fautenberry also confessed to killing four people in Alaska, Oregon and New Jersey over five months in late 1990 and early 1991.

In New Jersey, Fautenberry was convicted of manslaughter for killing fellow trucker Gary Farmer and received a life sentence.

In Alaska, Fautenberry pleaded guilty in the March 1991 fatal stabbing of Jefferson Diffee of Juneau and received a 99-year sentence.

Fautenberry confessed to shooting two people in the head in Oregon. Donald Nutley, whom Fautenberry met at a truck stop, was shot dead after the two went target shooting in November 1990. Christine Guthrie, a Portland bank teller, was killed in February 1991 after Fautenberry returned to the state from Ohio.

His Ohio defense attorney, Dennis Sipe, had argued that the state should pay a neuropsychologist to examine Fautenberry, whose last mental exam was 13 years ago. Sipe contended that Fautenberry should not be executed because he has brain damage from a childhood accident and from an injury while serving in the U.S. Navy.

Ohio has put 30 men to death since it reinstated the death penalty in 1999. Wilson is the first inmate executed in Ohio since June 3.

www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/14/john-fautenberry-trucker-_n_231449.html

[thinkinkmesa]

Thes are blog articles;

Ohio; John Fautenberry Executed
deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/

Death with Indignity
a4arl.blogspot.com/2009/07/death-with-indignity.html

The Death Penalty
epfyoungadults.wordpress.com/2009/07/14/the-death-penalty/

[thinkinkmesa]

LUCASVILLE, Ohio (AP) - Nearly 19 years after he embarked on a bloody multistate killing spree that left five people dead, Oregon truck driver John Fautenberry had no final statement for the families of his victims who watched Tuesday as Ohio put him to death.

He had no words for Charlene Farmer, who clutched several photographs of her son, Gary, and held them to her lips while lethal drugs began flowing into Fautenberry's veins. She had traveled all the way from Tennessee with the hope that, years later, she might finally hear an apology from the man who killed her son.

"He saw me. I know he did," she said, recounting Fautenberry's behavior during the execution. "He turned and looked at me."

Fautenberry, 45, walked calmly and unassisted into the death chamber and lay down on a stretcher as the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility execution team prepared to put him to death for murdering a Cincinnati-area Ohio man who gave him a ride in February 1991.

Joseph Daron Jr., 46, had picked up the hitchhiking Fautenberry east of Cincinnati. Court records show Daron pleaded for his life before Fautenberry shot him and threw his body into a wooded area near the Ohio River.

Fautenberry also had confessed to killing four people in three other states - Alaska, Oregon and New Jersey - during a five-month period in late 1990 and early 1991.

Fautenberry was pronounced dead at 10:37 a.m., about two hours after the U.S. Supreme Court denied a request to delay his execution on a claim that he had brain damage.

Fautenberry shook his head and said no when technicians asked him whether he wanted to make a final statement. He had no family members or friends present.

Fautenberry wore black-rimmed glasses and remained passive during the execution process.

Technicians had some difficulty inserting the shunts into Fautenberry's right arm, and blood pooled on the bandages. His arms and chest convulsed slightly and his Adam's apple jerked for about five minutes after the lethal drugs began to flow about 10:25 a.m.

His defense attorney, Dennis Sipe, said he was concerned about the lengthy shunt insertion process.

"It was obvious there was a heavy flow of blood," Sipe said. "It seemed like it took a while to get those things installed."

Fautenberry kept rubbing the fingers of his left hand together for about a minute after the process began, then his fingers grew still. At 10:28 a.m., the warden shook him on the shoulder and called his name. Fautenberry did not respond, and an available second dose of the injection was not used.

Fautenberry gave up his right to a trial by jury in Cincinnati and pleaded no contest July 23, 1992, to two counts each of aggravated murder and grand theft and one count of aggravated robbery in Daron's death.

Daron's daughter, Rachel, who was 4 when her father was murdered, attended the execution with her mother, but they remained in a waiting room and did not watch the procedure.

"I just saw him go in the hearse, and that was good enough for me," Rachel Daron said afterward.

The 22-year-old said she wished the execution had come sooner, but she did not expect to hear any last words from Fautenberry.

"I knew he's not sorry," she said. "He didn't care. And even if he did, it's not going to bring my dad back or any of the other victims back."

Six people watched the execution on behalf of the victims.

Farmer, of Springfield, Tenn., said she believed Fautenberry died an easy death.

"My son laid in the truck for they don't know how long with a bullet in his brain," she said.

In New Jersey, Fautenberry was convicted of manslaughter for killing Farmer, a fellow trucker, and received a life sentence.

In Alaska, Fautenberry pleaded guilty in the March 1991 fatal stabbing of Jefferson Diffee of Juneau and received a 99-year sentence.

Fautenberry confessed to shooting two people in the head in Oregon. Donald Nutley, whom Fautenberry he met at a truck stop, was shot dead after the two went target shooting in November 1990. Christine Guthrie, a Portland bank teller, was killed in February 1991 after Fautenberry returned to the state from Ohio.

Sipe had argued that the state should pay a neuropsychologist to examine Fautenberry, whose last mental exam was 13 years ago. Sipe contended that Fautenberry should not be executed because he has brain damage from a childhood accident and from an injury while serving in the U.S. Navy.

Ohio has put 30 men to death since it reinstated the death penalty in 1999. Fautenberry is the first inmate executed in Ohio since June 3.

Charlene Farmer said her family was destroyed by the death of her son, who was 26 when he died. She said he was an active Boy Scout and described him as a "big Momma baby."

Her three other children, now grown, used to come home every weekend, she said. But since her son died, it's too painful for them. During family holidays, they still often leave the dinner table to go cry in the bathroom, she said.

"His pain has ended," she said of Fautenberry. "Mine hasn't. Mine will only end when I'm gone."

www.newsrunner.com/display-article/?eUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wytv.com%2Fcontent%2Fnews%2Fohstate%2Fstory%2FTenn-woman-witnesses-execution-of-sons-killer%2FVPhQIVVPnU2kGRTbB1DGHw.cspx&eSrc=ABC+-+WYTV+33+-+Youngstown+OH&eTitle=Tenn.+woman+witnesses+execution+of+son%27s+killer