Grand Bay woman 'did not deserve her fate,' judge says in sentencing killer to death
Ruling that a Grand Bay woman who died from gunshots from her own weapon “did not deserve her fate,” a judge this morning affirmed the jury’s recommendation and sentenced convicted killer Derek Tyler Horton to death.
Reading from his written order, Mobile County Presiding Circuit Judge Charles Graddick recited a series of factors weighing for and against the death penalty and found that aggravating factors outweighed mitigating ones.
“In fact, the court finds the aggravating circumstances far outweigh the mitigating circumstances,” he said.
Graddick’s ruling sets off multiple rounds of automatic appeals. If Horton is unable to persuade state appellate courts to overturn his conviction or sentence, he will have the ability to raise constitutional objections in the federal courts.
Defense attorney Greg Hughes said he was disappointed by the judge’s decision.
“You never like these things,” he said. “We gave it our best shot, and the judge did what he thought was right.”
Samantha Alspaugh, the daughter of victim Jeannette Romprey, expressed conflicted feelings after today’s hearing.
“I really don’t know what to feel,” she said. “I don’t want to say I’m happy with the decision, but I’m very pleased with the way things turned out.”
Newcomer to death row
The same day that Graddick sentenced Horton, a judge in another Mobile County courtroom was changing the death sentence of another defendant to life in prison without parole, so the number of Mobile County defendants on death row remains at 14
A jury in August convicted Horton of capital murder during the course of an arson, burglary and robbery. According to testimony, Horton had exhibited odd signs of obsession with religion in the weeks leading up to the murder. On the night before April 10, 2010, slaying, he was at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church about three miles from Romprey’s Grand Bay home.
After asking to see a priest and finding out one was not available, according to testimony, Horton went to a Chevron station less than a mile and a half from the victim’s trailer home.
Later, Horton came across Romprey’s trailer. The 59-year-old woman recently had returned home, where she lived alone, after visiting friends.
By all accounts, Horton had never met the victim. According to trial testimony, he used Romprey’s gun to shoot her twice in the head and then, in the judge’s words, set a fire to the home that “burned her beyond all recognition.”
Someone saw flames shooting from the structure at about 1:30 a.m. on April 10.
Police later found Romprey’s television, jewelry, computers and other items hidden behind an embankment. Horton also drove off in her Chrysler PT Cruiser.
A Capitol police officer later found Horton wandering on Interstate 65 near Brewton. Police found his palm print on Romprey’s abandoned car, which contained her gun. His DNA was in a white knit cap found off of the highway. Surveillance footage from the previous night showed him wearing the cap.
Horton turned directly to Romprey’s family this morning and apologized.
“I know there’s probably nothing I can say to make you feel any different,” he said. “I just want you to know that my family and I are praying for you.”
Horton also apologized to his own family and thanked them for their support.
Alspaugh said afterward that she was not moved by Horton’s apology because he did not admit to his actions. “He still did not accept responsibility,” she said. “It didn’t mean anything to me.”
'Callous and cold-blooded act'
Graddick said that he considered a number of factors offered by the defense, including his age -- he was only 18 at the time, barely old enough be executed -- his lack of previous significant criminal conduct and extreme mental or emotional disturbance.
The judge noted that Horton left his grandmother’s home when he was 14 and went to live with his mother, a longtime drug addict. In that environment, according to testimony, he began using drugs, himself, and got into trouble with the law.
Graddick said that he found Horton’s upbringing to be a mitigating factor but added that it was “not a license to commit and act of senseless rage or murder directed at an innocent person.”
And Romprey, the judge said, did nothing to invite the “callous and cold-blooded act” against her.
“She was in her own home when the defendant shot her in the head and burned her beyond all recognition,” he said. “Jeannette Romprey did not deserve her fate.”
http://blog.al.com/live/2012/12/gran...ot_deserv.html
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