Summary of Offense:
During the early morning hours of July 18, 1987, Mark Asay, his brother Robbie, and a friend, Bubba McQuinn headed downtown to look for prostitutes after a night of drinking and shooting pool. Asay rode with McQuinn while his brother drove alone. Once downtown, Asay noticed his brother talking to a black man from the window of his truck.
Asay immediately became confrontational with the man, Robert Lee Booker, despite the fact that his brother told him everything was all right. Asay verbally attacked Booker, spouting racial slurs and escalating the situation. Asay pulled a gun from his back pocket and shot Booker once in the stomach.
Booker fled the scene, but was later found dead in an alley with hole in his intestine and a severed artery. After the shooting, Asay got back into the truck with McQuinn, while his brother drove off. McQuinn asked Asay why he shot Booker and Asay replied, “because you got to show a nigger who is boss.” Asay also said that he did not think he killed Booker, only frightened him.
During the continued search for prostitutes, Asay and McQuinn happened upon an acquaintance named Renee, who they knew would give them oral sex. Apparently, Asay and McQuinn did not know that “Renee” was actually Robert McDowell dressed up as a woman. The men negotiated a deal for oral sex and planned for McQuinn and McDowell to go into the alley while Asay remained on the lookout.
When McDowell refused to get into the truck with McQuinn, Asay grabbed him by the arm and began shooting into his chest. McDowell was shot six times in all, and investigators reported that three of the shots could have proved fatal. As Asay and McQuinn were driving away, Asay said McDowell had cheated him out of ten dollars on a drug deal once, and he always swore that he would get even. Apparently Asay bragged to a friend that when negotiating the deal for oral sex, Asay planned to abduct, sexually assault, and then kill McDowell. When McDowell refused to get into the truck, Asay killed him in the street.
Asay was sentenced to death in Duval County on November 18, 1988.
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