Execution Watch: John David Battaglia, Texas

by Mark R: Execution Watch Editor

(The definitions below are taken from dictionary.reference.com)

Faith: a noun meaning (among others, the most common involving a belief in a deity or a religious teaching) “confidence or trust in a person or thing”.

Liberty: a noun meaning (among others, the most common involving a government) “freedom from captivity, confinement, or physical restraint”.

Faith and Liberty were also the names of two young girls (ages 9 and 6, respectively), taken from this world way too soon, thanks to Huntsville’s March 30th guest of (dis)honor, John David Battaglia.

Family members have killed other family members since Cain murdered Abel.  And children have been the center of parental disputes since parents have had disputes.  Sometimes, tragically, the two meet.

But you will be hard-pressed to find a more cold-hearted family murder than that of the Battaglia children.

Battaglia had Faith and Liberty for a scheduled custody visit.  But on May 2, 2001, Battaglia would place a call to his ex-wife (the girls’ mother).  Battaglia would then proceed to destroy Faith’s faith and restrain Liberty’s liberty by murdering the girls while their mother overheard the murders on the phone.

In Texas, killing children (especially your own) will usually get you a death sentence, and less than one year later (April 2002) that would be the punishment handed down by the jury.

All of Battaglia’s appeals have been DENIED.  However, he has persistently claimed that he was suffering from bipolar disorder, and shouldn’t be executed for what he did (he also claims that he can’t remember a thing about what happened).  I have a close friend with bipolar who had issues with her ex-spouse over their daughter—but she NEVER considered killing her in revenge.

In addition to the tragic story, the bipolar angle, and that it was one of the more notorious murders to come out of Dallas, I’ve followed this case for another reason:  while prisons tend to be overpopulated with school dropouts and menial laborers, Battaglia had enough education to obtain a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) license from the Texas State Board of Public Accountancy.  As a Texas CPA licensee myself, Battaglia is a stain on our honorable profession.  The wheels of justice may move slowly but the TSBPA doesn’t—roughly one year after his conviction his CPA license was REVOKED.

https://www.tsbpa.state.tx.us/php/fpl/indlookup.php?x=5Rp8bo1dZ%2BE%3D

Sometime after 6PM Huntsville time, Wednesday evening, Battaglia will pay for his crimes.  AND—he won’t be able to have his CPA license reinstated.

Photo credit http://www.cncpunishment.com

 

Foreign Policy: Trump vs Obama

Yesterday, in the close aftermath of the Isis bombing in Pakistan, Donald Trump made one of the more incredibly grandiose claims of this incredibly bizarre campaign season:  that only he could solve the war with Isis.

“I alone,” he boasted.

In this regard, he is so much like the Obama of 2008 that it is downright scary.

Almost eight years ago to the date, at a San Francisco fundraiser, Obama said, “…foreign policy is the area where I am probably most confident that I know more and understand the world better than Senator Clinton or Senator McCain.”

After belittling Mrs. Clinton’s experience as First Lady as being ceremonial fluff, Obama went on to say that among the three candidates for President, only he could pass the 3 a.m. Leadership Test. Indeed, he alone possessed “the judgment, the temperament to ask the right questions, to weigh the costs and benefits of military action, who insists on good intelligence, who is not going to be swayed by the short-term politics.”  source

What a piece of work.

And as for the ultimate foreign policy test, the one John Kerry called, “passing the Global Test,” Obama proposed a diplomatic Manhattan Project of sorts, with Iran’s Mahmoud Amadinejad. The same Ahmadinejad who said his country’s objective was to destroy what he called corrupt western powers:  source

“Our objective is to annihilate all corrupt powers that dominate our planet today,”

We  all know how that turned out.  Let me ask you, does anyone, other than the Obama administration, believe that the world is now safer place with the infamous “Iran Deal” in place?

Somehow, taking a college trip to Pakistan, living in Indonesia for four years as a child, and having poor relatives in Africa convinced Obama that he had the necessary gravitas to engage in foreign policy on behalf of the world’s only superpower.

Obama’s grandiosity surpasses mere cockiness and is unseemly, if not dangerous. That same grandiosity is exactly what I saw in Trump’s tweet about the Isis attacks on Christians in Pakistan.  Their rhetoric is different, but their over-confidence in their own unproven abilities is strikingly similar.

He Is Risen

Vietnam Reflections: Patrick Lynn Blair

 

The nation which forgets its defenders will be itself forgotten.
Calvin Coolidge

Patrick Lynn Blair: Not Just A Name On The Wall (originally published 5/28/2007)

I just re-read N2L’s tribute to his old friend Pat Blair, and I invite you to do the same.  I remember N2L telling me that his tribute was read aloud at his 45th high school reunion.  It was a touching, poignant moment.  Not a dry eye in the house.

Yesterday, I received a note from one of the administrators of the Facebook site “Vietnam Reflections – Fallen Heroes.”  He told me that they had recently published a tribute to Pat, and he invited our readers to visit.  Here is the link, and an excerpt:

SERGEANT PATRICK LYNN BLAIR WAS BORN ON 26 MAY 1949. HE GREW UP IN THE SMALL TOWN OF MARSHALL, TEXAS. HE WORKED IN HIS SPARE TIME AND HE LOVED BASEBALL AND WAS VERY COMPETITIVE IN LITTLE LEAGUE AND THEN THE BABE RUTH LEAGUE..HE GRADUATED FROM HIGH SCHOOL A SEMESTER EARLY AND ENLISTED IN THE ARMY IN EARLY 1968.HE CAME BACK FOR HIS GRADUATION 1 JUNE 1968. HE HAD MISSED THE SIMPLE LIFE OF A SMALL TOWN AND HIS MOTHER’S HOME COOKING.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the fine folks at Vietnam Reflections for remembering our fallen heroes in such a noble fashion.  I invite all of our readers to drop by and show your support of their efforts by joining this group.

Execution Watch: Adam Kelly Ward, Texas

by Mark R. Execution Watch Editor

March 22 brings us our second execution of the month, this time that of Adam Ward (no, not either of the actors in the old Batman series; that was Adam West and Burt Ward).  Commerce isn’t the place you would expect a capital murder to occur; usually the police only have to deal with out of control frat parties at Texas A&M—Commerce. Unfortunately, underneath the general calmness of daily life in a college town, the simmering of a pot about to blow was taking place.

The City of Commerce and the Ward family (Adam and his father Ralph) had been in a long-standing dispute over numerous code violations on the Ward property. The Wards claimed that the City was engaged in a conspiracy against them; the City countered that the property resembled something you would see on the TV series Hoarders.

But the feud between the parties would turn tragic shortly after 10 AM local time on June 13, 2005, when Code Enforcement Officer Michael “Pee Wee” Walker would go to the Ward property to take pictures of still more code violations. Walker would be met with multiple rounds of gunfire from Adam (before Ralph managed to get the gun away from Adam). In another tragic twist, the first responder at the scene was none other than Walker’s father Dick, who would watch his son die in his arms.

As Walker was a member of the Commerce Police Department, Ward would be charged with capital murder (murder of a peace officer and known to be such by the defendant). In Texas, that’s usually the fastest way to get a death sentence, and in June 2007 that would be the punishment handed down by the jury.

Ralph Ward would later enter into a settlement with Walker’s family, agreeing (without admitting fault) to pay the children $26,000 each plus the costs of Walker’s funeral and attorney’s fees. The City would later provide police protection to any city employee (even meter readers) going to the Ward property. (Walker’s father would later sue the City, on behalf of himself and the children, claiming that the City knew of the dangers but did nothing to protect Walker; I have no information on the outcome of that suit.)

All of Ward’s appeals have been DENIED; however, numerous appeals have been filed claiming he is mentally ill (bi-polar disorder) and therefore should not be executed. I know someone with bi-polar and she absolutely rejects any and all conspiracy theories. There are many sad stories in this case. Ralph Ward’s conspiracy-fueled rants led to him having to pay thousands of dollars to Officer Walker’s family—and he will have to see his son die before him. Dick Walker (who has managed to forgive Adam) had to see his own son die in his arms. Officer Walker’s children have grown up without their father. The City had to spend more taxpayer money to provide police protection for city employees who had to visit the Ward property—police who could have been working to prevent or solve other crimes.

And Adam Ward—only 22 when he fired the fatal shots—will die at 33, way before his time. But he could have chosen to reject the rantings of an unstable parent—he didn’t, though, and sometime after 6PM Huntsville time he will have to pay for his failure to choose wisely.

If we yield, we lose

I am very disappointed in my chosen candidate, Ted Cruz, for his opportunism in blaming Donald Trump for the violence in Chicago last night.  I present, for your consideration, these words which sum up my feelings perfectly:

A guest post by a friend of the blog

“To those that blame Trump, understand that the left has been ginning up anger like this for years. You can start with The Haymarket Affair in Chicago in 1886 and go straight thru to today. Each decade has something. In the old days it was labor strikes and destroying factories. Then in the 60s it was antiwar protests. Rodney King riots left 50+ dead. Occupy had over 7000 arrests. Wisconsin Statehouse. Ferguson and Baltimore led to BLM.

In all cases the Agitprop tactic is the same. Complain, play victim, stir up physical violence as justified by “intolerable conditions”. “No Justice no Peace”, etc. Push until the right reacts, then play martyr. If you look at Kent State, for example, those protestor were out there for days throwing rocks before a cop lost it and shot back.

So here we are. After thousands of tea party rallies, without any violence or threats of violence from the right, and with dozens of Trump rallies invaded by increasingly threatening protestors, the left finally got what they want. Video of a few Trump supporters hurling insults, throwing exactly one punch, and a grainy shot where a Trump staffer “grabbed the arm” of a reporter for 2 video frames.

Oh, the horror.

And now the left wing Agitprop machine will go into higher gear. To say that this is the Right’s fault or Trump’s fault is to say that Agitprop terrorism works and we can never fight back and must always yield. And we have yielded and grown smaller and smaller. Crybullies regularly shut down speech on campus and conservatives need guards to speak.
Note that Agitprop is what the Palestinians do with “Pallywood” and when they hurl rocks or rockets until they one gets shot and then complain they are oppressed. “Liberation from Oppression”. When you see that on signs, know that’s Marxist Speak 101. …

This is left wing Agitprop. Terrorism and propaganda combined. It’s as old as the hills. It’s how they get what they want. What this all signals – from the way the tea party was portrayed as violent in the media even when it wasn’t, to today – is that any pushback from us on the right WILL be met with this Agitprop technique:  Cries of oppression, amped up agitation and fake martyrs.

If we yield we lose, period.”

 

I hung my head

Early one morning /With time to kill /I borrowed Jebb’s rifle /And sat on the hill
I saw a lone rider /Crossing the plain /I drew a bead on him /To practise my aim
My brother’s rifle /Went off in my hand /A shot rang out /Across the land
The horse, he kept running /The rider was dead /I hung my head /I hung my head

Just sitting here on a Friday night, missing my bud N2L.

Execution Watch: Coy Wayne Wesbrook, Texas

by Mark R. Execution Watch Editor

It is said that March comes in like a lion.  This Wednesday it may be roaring in Huntsville with the execution of Coy Wesbrook (subject to a stay which may come, as explained below).

From Channelview (the place that gave us the sordid tale of the Pom Pom Mom) comes another tale right out of a novel from a sleazy bookstore.  The anti’s are arguing that Wesbrook isn’t all right in the head, and after reading this story it’s clear his elevator shaft may not have made it to the top floor, but there are other things to consider.

On November 13, 1997, Wesbrook goes over to the residence of Gloria Jean coons, his (second, as further discussed below) ex-wife, after she contacts him for an attempt at “marital reconciliation”.  When he gets over there, he finds three other men (Antonio Cruz, Anthony Ray Rogers, and Kelly Halzip) and either one (Diana Ruth Money) or two other females (depending on the source) at the house.  As none of the other parties identified themselves as clergy or otherwise there to assist in the
reconciliation, instead of figuring out that something is amiss and quickly departing, he hangs around and begins drinking with them.

Sometime during his visit Wesbrook discovers that his wife and two of the men weren’t around; he goes into a bedroom and finds them engaged in a threesome.  Wesbrook proceeds to do what any heartbroken man would do—he goes out to his truck, gets his hunting rifle, and kills her and the three other men (again, depending on the source, either Money was killed and the other not present when Wesbrook killed the others, Money was killed and the other survived, or the only woman present was Money).

There was plenty of evidence of future dangerousness:  in addition to the multiple murders Wesbrook 1) cut the phone lines of Coons, 2) attempted to burn down his residence after being evicted by his landlord (I own rental properties but never had any tenant this bad), 3) sought to have his FIRST ex-wife and her husband killed, and 4) sought to have three other people killed (which was brought out at trial by a jailhouse snitch).  The jury sentenced Wesbrook to death, and his initial round of appeals was  DENIED.

But during the punishment phase the State called Dr. George Denkowski as an expert witness on Wesbrook’s future dangerousness.  However, in April 2011 Denkowski entered into a settlement agreement with the Texas State Board of Examiners of Psychologists, whereby he agreed to a reprimand AND further “agreed to not accept any engagement to perform forensic psychological services in the evaluation of subjects for mental retardation or intellectual disability in criminal proceedings”.

Wesbrook requested that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, on its own motion, reopen the case.  TCCA did in April 2012 by remanding the case to the trial court “to allow it the opportunity to re-evaluate its initial findings, conclusions, and recommendation in light of the Denkowski Settlement Agreement”.  The trial court, in September 2014, recommended that relief be DENIED, and TCCA so agreed in January 2015.  (At this point there is nothing further in terms of appellate decisions; the Denkowski issue could end up putting this whole thing on hold.)

Wesbrook’s ex was clearly no saint.  And if he had only killed her and the other two men in the threesome you could have argued a crime of passion and probably shown mercy.  But there were two others there that weren’t doing it yet they died too.  And his other actions show criminal intent.

So this is another thug who is due his.

 

 Coy  Wayne Wesbrook

Born: February 1, 1958 (age 58), Houston, TX

Criminal penalty: Capital punishment

Killed: 5