Randy William Gay - Arkansas Death Row

[Heidi]

Connie Ann Snow, 49





Jury seated in Garland County capital murder case

A jury has been seated to hear a capital murder case against a Pearcy man accused of killing a woman from Hot Springs.

Opening statements are set Tuesday as prosecutors pursue the death penalty against 54-year-old Randy William Gay, who is accused in the 2011 shooting death of 49-year-old Connie Ann Snow.

Gay is accused of killing Snow and dumping her body in the Ouachita National Forest. He pleaded not guilty.

The Sentinel-Record reports (http://is.gd/W6DTND) the trial is expected to last all week. During jury selection, prosecutors stressed to potential jurors that they wanted them to be able to vote for the death penalty if Gay is convicted and the evidence warrants it.

The sides are to convene Monday to select alternate jurors.

http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/art...se-4434632.php

[Heidi]

Mistrial in capital murder case of Pearcy man

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. (AP) - A judge has declared a mistrial in the capital murder case of a Pearcy man accused of killing a woman and dumping her body in the Ouachita National Forest.

Randy Gay is charged in the May 10, 2011, shooting death of 49-year-old Connie Snow of Hot Springs. A jury had been seated in Gay's trial and opening statements were scheduled for Tuesday until the judge declared the mistrial Monday.

The Sentinel-Record reports (http://bit.ly/1194GDX) that Judge John Homer Wright granted a defense motion for a mistrial based on juror misconduct. The judge says it was apparent that some potential jurors "were not completely forthcoming and honest."

Wright says that the integrity of the jury was "irreparably damaged."

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. A new trial date hasn't been set.

http://www.hotsr.com

[Jeffects]

May 20, 2011

Criminal history of Randy Gay

GARLAND COUNTY, Ark. (KTHV) -- Despite two murder convictions in 13 years, a Garland County man walked free. Out of jail, working as a security guard. That is until last week when police say he killed again.

Who exactly is Randy Gay? What happened to his victims and how did he get out of prison?

We put crime in focus, uncovering new details about the man now charged with his third murder.

It's in the woods of Garland County, where we first learned about Randy William Gay. It's also here where authorities say they found the twice-convicted murderer's third victim believed to be Connie Snow.

Since a crime took place on U.S. Forest Service Land it's almost impossible to get anyone to talk about the case, especially the federal government.

But documents obtained by Today's THV say a lot, delving deeply into Gay's past, a criminal history dating back 33 years. All beginning in 1978 with the murder of James Kelly, Gay's father-in-law.

Old newspaper articles reveal a witness told deputies Gay took "a shotgun from his car and shot Kelly in the chest." According to deputies, "a family dispute" led to shooting. Gay claimed Kelly threatened to kill him and argued self defense.

Prosecutors worried he'd walk free if there was a jury trial so they worked a plea deal. Guilty, in exchange for a 10 year sentence, 5 suspended. He served 9 months and got out early on parole. Read Gay's activities his parole officer recorded here.

But several violations like Battery, DWI and felon in possession of a firearm landed him back in jail. In all, he ended up serving less than two years for killing his father-in-law.

Then in 1991, another murder, another conviction. The victim this time, his own father, Glen Gay. Again there was an argument.

In Gay's confession it was during a camping trip to farm their marijuana crop near Lake Ouachita in Montgomery County.
Gay claimed he believed his dad was going to get a pistol. So he grabbed a shotgun firing three times. A jury convicted him. 20 years. He served eight.

Nearly 11 years later, Gay is once again a prime suspect. A night watchman at a logging company witnesses say he got into an argument with Connie Snow. They heard him ordering her out of his truck then saw Gay pull out a long gun, firing once at Snow. They say he put her body in the back of his pick-up and drove off. Four days later deputies believe they found her a mile from the crime scene.

Randy Gay is now back behind bars. Now charged with his third murder. He has pleaded not guilty in this case and a judge set his bond at $1 million dollars.

Much of this latest case is still a mystery. The Sheriff's Department says they don't yet have a positive I.D. proving the body found is Connie Snow although they do believe it is her. They also don't know the relationship between Snow and Gay.

Gay has pleaded not guilty to the latest charge. A judge set his bond at $1 million.

There is much more to Gay's criminal past including a terroristic threatening charge. His sentence in that case, 12 years suspended. You can see the documents in the links above. They are all public records. Today's THV did black out some of the names and addresses to protect possible victims.

http://www.thv11.com/news/story.aspx?storyid=158016

[Moh]

March 23, 2014

Hearing set for third Hot Springs murder trial

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. (KTHV) – A hearing in a third murder trial for Randy Gay is set to begin Monday.

Gay is accused of killing 49-year-old Connie Snow, of Hot Springs, and allegedly dumped her body in the Ouachita National Forest in May 2011.

This trial had originally been set for August 2013 but was delayed until April. A motion hearing is scheduled for Monday morning in Garland County Court.

http://www.thv11.com/story/news/loca...y-gay/6804497/

[Heidi]

Murder trial delayed due to social media posting

District Judge John Wright has granted a postponement in the murder trail of Randy William Gay, following a social media post on October 10th about plea negotiations.

Gay is charged with capital murder in the 2011 death of Connie Snow, whose body was found in the Ouachita National Forest.

Gay's trail was scheduled to begin Monday, but will now re-scheduled for March 10th, 2015.

Prosecutors have previously called for the death penalty in the case.

Gay has been convicted twice on murder chargers, including for the death of his father in 1992.

http://www.katv.com/story/27025228/m...-media-posting

[Heidi]

Jury selection under way in Garland County murder trial

Jury selection has begun for the capital-murder trial of a Pearcy man charged in the shooting death of a Hot Springs woman.

The Sentinel-Record reported that jury selection began Wednesday in Garland County Circuit Court for the trial of 56-year-old Randy William Gay. The process is expected to take until Friday.

Gay is charged in the May 2011 shooting death of 49-year-old Connie Snow on U.S. Forest Service property in Jessieville, and prosecutors have said they intend to seek the death penalty. Gay has pleaded innocent.

A previous trial ended in mistrial after a jury was seated but before opening statements were made when Judge John Homer Wright found that unspecified juror misconduct had occurred.

http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2...=news-arkansas

[Moh]

Three-time Garland Co. murderer faces death penalty

GARLAND COUNTY (KATV) - Garland County native Randy Gay has been convicted for murder three times, and now this time his life is on the line. Gay appeared Wednesday in Judge John Homer Wright's courtroom for his sentencing hearing.

The hearing lasted about six hours and consisted of 14 testimonies from family members of Gay's previous victims, childhood friends and acquaintances.

Gay was found guilty of capital murder in the death of Connie Snow on Tuesday.

Here is a timeline of Gay's criminal history:

· 1978 Gay was convicted of murder for killing his father-in-law James Kelly; served time in the Arkansas Department of Correction system and was then released.

· 1991 Gay was convicted of killing his own father; served time.

· 2008 Gay was convicted of terroristic threatening

· 2011 Gay was charged for killing Connie Snow and dumping her body in the Ouachita National Forest.

· 2015 Gay was convicted for the death of Connie Snow

Those who testified at Wednesday hearing included:

· Francille Henderson, witnessed Gay shoot his father-in-law

· Steve Nawojczik, Garland County Coroner in 1978, handled Gay's first victim's body

· Sherry Beaufort, Gay's wife and high school classmate

· Beverly Cowert, circuit clerk office supervisor

· Janice Cochran, Gay's second wife, who was with Gay when he killed his father and also served time in prison

· Debbie Baxter, Montgomery County Circuit Clerk

· John Ward, Owner of Ward's Country Store that filed Terroristic Threat complaint

· Beth Snow, daughter of Connie Snow

· Larry Nevilles, childhood acquaintance and owner of the property that Gay lived on while living in his truck

· Vera Nevilles, wife of Larry Nevilles

· Gloria Lindsey, Gay's older sister

· Roger Tolerson, Gay's high school teacher in Mountain Pine

· Shelly Hamilton, works for ADE in Classification and Records Department

Wednesday's sentencing hearing was an overview of more than 30 years of events that led up to Gay's three murders. One testimony that was particularly in-depth was Gay's sister Gloria Lindsey.

Lindsey testified that she and Gay had a challenging childhood. She also went in-depth of Gay's relationship with his father, calling it volatile.

At one point she said to a friend, "One of these days I am going to get a phone call and one of them is going to be dead."

Snow's family and his previous wives were all emotional in the courtroom during the hearing. The sentencing hearing will continue Thursday morning at 9:00 a.m.

http://www.katv.com/story/28556425/t...-death-penalty

[Moh]

Jury sentences man to death for 2011 killing

HOT SPRINGS -- A Garland County Circuit Court jury deliberated for just under three hours Thursday before sentencing a Pearcy man to death by lethal injection for the 2011 shooting death of a Hot Springs woman, his third murder conviction since 1978.

Randy William Gay, 56, was convicted Tuesday of capital murder in the May 10, 2011, death of Connie Ann Snow, 49, after the nine-woman, three-man jury had deliberated for about 30 minutes.

After testimony Wednesday and closing arguments Thursday, the jury recommended a sentence of death, which was accepted by Judge John Homer Wright.

Wright denied a last-minute motion by Gay's attorney, Mark Fraiser, to set the recommendation aside in favor of a sentence of life in prison without parole. After Wright formally sentenced Gay -- who showed no reaction when the verdict was read -- Gay said, "Take care, judge," and Wright replied, "You, too."

"We've been waiting for this for 1,437 days," Snow's daughter, Mary Beth Snow Lansdell, said moments after the verdict was announced. "My family can finally move on now, and my mother finally has justice."

Lansdell said she was happy not only for her mother but also for "the rest of his victims. He'll never be able to hurt anyone else ever again, not even in prison."

Gay had two previous convictions for second-degree murder: one in the 1978 shooting death of his father-in-law, James Kelly, and another in the 1991 shooting death of his own father, Glen Harold Gay.

Even though Gay's sentence sets off an automatic appeals process that could take many years, Lansdell said, "We've waited a long time to get to where we're at today. This has been a long time coming."

Prosecuting Attorney Terri Harris thanked the jurors, who sat through seven days of "graphic testimony" and had to consider more than 70 mitigating circumstances presented by Gay's attorneys, along with the three aggravating circumstances presented by the prosecution -- his two prior murder convictions and a felony terroristic threatening conviction in 2008.

"This is not something that anyone takes great relish in, but based on the verdict I think justice has been served," Harris said. "The family can finally have some closure now. We've been working on this case for three and a half years."

In her closing remarks to the jury, Harris went back over Wednesday's testimony about Kelly, "a father, grandfather and musician who died a violent death at the age of 41" at the hands of Gay.

She also noted the defense presented testimony about the abusive nature of Glen Gay toward his son. "The disconcerting part of the case was the attempt to minimize that murder and Randy Gay's reasoning behind why he killed his own father.

"[Glen Gay] got beaten up in court and was not here to defend himself," she said. "Are we supposed to turn a blind eye to a second murder?"

In his closing, Fraiser said there was evidence presented to support every one of the mitigating circumstances involved in the cases, especially concerning Gay's relationship with his father.

He noted testimony that Gay's mother had tried to abort him and then abandoned Gay and his sisters at a young age, before their father grew abusive to them. Even when his father later tried to be his friend, he did so by encouraging him to drink alcohol and ignore his responsibilities.

"I can't conceive what that must have done to a young mind," he said, noting that Gay's father was a big influence on him, which led to them being "too much alike. He didn't start out that way. He was made that way by how he was raised and treated."

Fraiser noted that Gay was always a model prisoner during his previous prison terms and had qualified for parole each time. "This indicates that [Gay] functions best in a controlled environment where he is not allowed to be around alcohol because alcohol is the thread that goes through this whole case."

He noted before the jury's deliberation that Gay "will never leave the Department of Correction alive. He is there now and will remain there until he is pronounced dead. It's up to you to decide if that day will be decided by God or by the state of Arkansas."

In her rebuttal, Harris noted that "a lot of kids have been treated worse than [Gay] growing up. His father was strict. There's nothing exotic or unusual about being raised in that environment. There was no evidence of him showing up at school with black eyes or bruises."

She said his abuse of alcohol was "a life choice" he made to avoid reality and facing "the day to day problems we all have to live with. That's a choice we all make."

She said prison was "a substitute parent" for Gay, and if he had obeyed all the rules growing up like he did while in prison "he wouldn't be sitting here today."

She noted prison would not be a punishment for Gay because "that's his home. All you're doing is sending him home."

Harris said Gay "caused the violent deaths of three people for no particular reason." In asking for the death penalty, she told the jury, "The time for leniency for this defendant has come to an end, and it needs to end today."

http://www.nwaonline.com/news/2015/m...?news-arkansas

[Heidi]

RANDY WILLIAM GAY v STATE OF ARKANSAS

In an opinion dated December 8, 2016, the Arkansas Supreme Court AFFIRMED Gay's conviction and death sentence on direct appeal.

[Helen]

Arkansas death-penalty case sent back to judge Response missing, justices determine

The Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday kicked a death penalty appeal back to a lower court, citing a procedural hang up.

The state's highest court previously upheld the conviction and sentencing of Randy William Gay, who was sentenced to death by lethal injection in 2015 for the murder of Connie Ann Snow, but the state Supreme Court remanded the case, which has been working through post-conviction proceedings, on a technical point.

But after reviewing the latest appeal, the Arkansas Supreme Court determined a Garland County judge did not respond to one key part of Gay's petition, remanding it back down to the trial court level.

"From our review of the circuit court's order denying the postconviction petition, there are no findings of fact or conclusions of law addressing this claim," Chief Justice John Dan Kemp wrote in the court's majority opinion.

The 2015 murder of Snow of Pine Bluff was the 3rd time Gay had been convicted of murder. In 1978 Gay was convicted of 2nd-degree murder for shooting his father-in-law, Jim Kelly. In 1991, Gay was again convicted of 2nd-degree murder for the killing of his father, Glen Harold Gay.

In his post-conviction petition, Gay listed eight allegations of "ineffective" legal representation. The Supreme Court remanded the case on one of the eight points -- that a Garland County judge failed to address the issue as to whether his previous legal representation didn't properly "investigate and challenge the aggravating factors of the second-degree murders of Glen Gay and Jim Kelly."

The order from the Arkansas Supreme Court returns the case to a Garland County Circuit Court, but only on the one procedural point. A Garland County Circuit Court judge has 60 days to complete the order.

"Our remand is confined to the single ineffective-assistance claim discussed herein," Kemp wrote in the opinion. "No new claims may be raised on remand, and all other claims raised below but not argued on appeal are considered abandoned."

Death penalty cases often go through a lengthy appeals process where judges review numerous appeals from defendants, often on procedural issues from the case.

Attempts to reach Gay's attorney weren't successful on Thursday.

In 2011, Gay shot and killed Connie Ann Snow on U.S. Forest Service property in Garland County. According to witnesses, Gay ordered Snow out of his truck during an argument, grabbed a bolt-action long gun and shot her. Gay then dragged Snow's body to the back of his truck and later dumped her body in a creek bed in the Ouachita National Forrest, according to witnesses.

Police arrested Gay the next day at a friend's house in Mountain Pine.

(source: nwaonline.com)