Supreme Court rejects appeal

 

 

The family of a Mount Pleasant woman who was brutally raped and murdered 18 years ago can finally look forward to her killer receiving the death penalty.

Vicki Ann Garner, a member of the Mount Pleasant High School class of 1977, was killed on Sept. 25, 1996 in Tyler. The convicted killer, Robert Charles Ladd, was sentenced to death less than a year later, on Aug. 27, 1997.

On Monday, her family received word that the U.S. Supreme Court has denied Ladd’s appeal. Members of Garner’s family now hope a date can be set for Ladd’s long-awaited visit to the death chamber in Huntsville.

Her younger sister, Teresa Wooten, said she got a call from a member of the state Attorney General’s staff Monday morning.

“I cried. It was very emotional. It’s been a long time coming, and it was like reliving the whole thing,” Wooten said.

As a result over the years of being driven by the need to find justice for Vicki, today she serves as the sexual assault director at the SAFE-T center here in Mount Pleasant. 

Wooten said the state AG’s office will now contact the district attorney in Tyler to set a date for Ladd’s execution.

On September 25, 1996, Vicki Ann Garner was found dead in her home. She had been raped and strangled to death. In addition, her home was robbed and then set on fire.

A police investigation quickly connected Ladd to Garner’s murder. Ladd’s DNA was found on Garner, his hand print was found in Garner’s kitchen, and Ladd had sold a TV set that had been taken from Garner’s residence in exchange for crack cocaine.

Soon after, Ladd was indicted for capital murder, because the murder occurred during the commission of burglary, robbery, sexual assault, and arson. 

On August 23, 1997, a Texas state jury convicted Ladd of capital murder, and, on August 27, 1997, the jury imposed the death penalty.  

“It took them 20 minutes to reach a verdict,” Wooten said. “They said it was the fastest verdict in a death penalty case they had ever seen.”

Vicki’s mother died in 2011 and her father in 2013. In addition to Wooten, she is survived by an older sister, Kathy Pirtle, who lives in Upshur County.

Wooten said Monday she hopes a date with the execution chamber can be set before the end of the year, but practically speaking, the state does not schedule executions between Thanksgiving and New Years.

The law also requires the subject of an execution have at least 30 days to prepare, she said.

If the execution is not scheduled before the end of the year, she anticipates it will be sometime in January or February.

 

Lou Antonelli is managing editor of the Daily Tribune.

Email: lou@dailytribune.net