ProDeathPenalty.Com

James Glenn Robedeaux was convicted of killing Nancy Rose Lee McKinney, 37, on Sept. 22, 1985. McKinney was killed in the Oklahoma City apartment she shared with Robedeaux. The US Supreme Court has refused Robedeaux's final appeal. Robedeaux, convicted for killing and dismembering Nancy was executed at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. About 10 feet away, with soundproof windows between them, Robedeaux's father watched his son die. Twelve members of McKinney's family also witnessed the execution. When the privacy blinds opened onto the execution chamber, Robedeaux already was strapped to the table, a white sheet covering him to his chest. He looked up anxiously until he spotted his father, who offered a thumbs-up sign. Robedeaux, 51, addressed his last words to his family and to McKinney's survivors. He spoke softly, and at times his words over the speaker were impossible to understand. "Dad," he said, "I just want you to know I love you. Tell Mother I love her. Tell Sister I love her. Tell the kids I love them." He assured his father he had found salvation and encouraged him to trust Christ. "I'll see you again," he said. He asked McKinney's family for forgiveness. His last words were: "God bless you all. I'm going to be all right. I love you." At 12:28 a.m., Warden Gary Gibson said, "Let the execution begin." Robedeaux closed his eyes, and within a minute took a deep breath and snored once before he lost consciousness. Six minutes later, he was dead. E.J. McKinney, the victim's brother, said he has forgiven Robedeaux. "I can't really say I'm happy to see him die, but justice was carried out," he said.

Death Penalty Institute of Oklahoma

James Robedeaux - Executed June 1, 2000 (Information Compiled and Edited by Lynn Sissons)

James Glenn Robedeaux, 51, was executed by lethal injection on June 1, 2000. Robedeaux was pronounced dead at 12:34am. He was the seventh man executed by Oklahoma this year and the 26th since capital punishment was reinstated in 1977.

Background - On August 20, 1985, the disappearance of Nancy Rose Lee McKinney, 37, was reported by her mother. James Glenn Robedeaux, 36, the woman’s boyfriend, was arrested on the morning of November 15, 1985, at his home in Oklahoma City. Police Captain MT Berry stated that McKinney’s disappearance was being handled as a homicide.

In November 1978, Robedeaux plead guilty to strangling to death his first wife, Linda Sue Robedeaux in March 1978. He was sentenced on a second degree murder conviction and given a sentence of 25 years in prison with 15 years suspended. In February 1983, he also received an additional year in prison for escaping when he failed to return to Oklahoma City Community Treatment Center on July 27, 1982. He was released in September 1984. On November 19, 1985, he was charged with attempting to kill his second wife, Doris M. Robedeaux, by choking her. Doris Robedeaux told police that she and her husband were separated, but she went to meet him after he said that he wanted to try to get back together. Doris Robedeaux suffered a broken nose and fractured eye socket during that beating.

Robedeaux was charged with first degree murder in December 1985 for killing Nancy McKinney, although her body had not been found. The charge alleged he beat the woman to death in Oklahoma City on or about September 17, 1985. The charge was based on evidence found in the apartment where Robedeaux had lived with McKinney. The apartment owner said he alerted police after he and his employees found some stains on the carpets and walls. Robedeaux had been seen leaving the apartment with carpet cleaning equipment. He moved from the apartment on October 11, 1985. Stains found on the carpet, on Robedeaux’s jeans, and the seat cover of his pickup were human blood, Type A. McKinney had that type of blood.

A left leg was found on December 28, 1985, by two boys while they were playing in a creek near Wellston. On February 3, 1986, a skull was found in a rural yard where it had apparently been dragged by a dog. The state medical examiner’s office identified the skull as McKinney’s by comparing X-rays. An arm was found on February 15, 1986. No other body parts were found.

During a preliminary hearing in February 1986, Lisa Gail Austin testified that Robedeaux had told her about Nancy. She said he told her that he killed her and buried her and that he cut her up. Austin said that Robedeaux told her this at a club on November 14, 1985. Austin said when they returned home, Robedeaux was drunk and mad. She said he then choked her and pushed her down some stairs. They had lived together in Oklahoma City since October 18, 1985. After neighbors called police, Robedeaux was arrested.

During the murder trial in June 1986, a jury heard testimony from a couple living in an apartment below McKinney’s apartment. They began hearing loud noises, that sounded like someone getting on furniture and jumping off of it, at approximately 10 p.m. on September 22, 1985. A bartender testified that she helped a nervous Robedeaux move a stereo from the apartment after he started staying with her in late September. The apartment smelled, but Robedeaux explained to her that the odor was from spoiled hamburger meat. A police detective testified that when they arrested Robedeaux on November 14, 1985, he denied harming McKinney. But started crying when the police told him that they were convinced that he killed her and that her family wanted a proper burial. The next day Robedeaux told police that McKinney left the apartment after a final fight. A Noble County sheriff’s deputy testified that Robedeaux said he suffered a split lip and McKinney bled heavily after he did a pretty good number on her face.

A doctor from the Oklahoma Chief Medical Examiner’s Office identified the skull, arm, and leg as McKinney’s. He estimated that it would take approximately 4 to 5 hours to dismember a body. A forensic anthropologist from Norman also identified the leg and skull as McKinney’s remains. He also testified that "squared off" cut marks on the leg bone are consistent with the use of a saw with a thin blade. Defense witnesses testified that Robedeaux was in bars during the time he is accused of killing and sawing up his girlfriend. Two members of a band testified that Robedeaux played drums with them every Sunday at a local club from Labor Day until his arrest in November. These Sunday sessions, including September 22, 1985, would last until 11 p.m. or midnight. Another defense witness testified Robedeaux joined him at a different bar at about 11 p.m. on September 22 and stayed until 1:45 a.m. on September 23. Robedeaux did not testify. The jury was not told at that time that Robedeaux had served a prison sentence after pleading guilty to strangling to death his first wife.

After 90 minutes of deliberations, the jury convicted Robedeaux of killing and dismembering Nancy McKinney. During the punishment phase, after hearing evidence of other attacks on women, including his first wife’s murder, they recommended the death penalty. Two former girlfriends described how Robedeaux attacked and choked them. McKinney’s 13-year-old daughter said he choked her until she passed out. A defense psychiatrist testified that he believed Robedeaux did not know what he was doing during the violent attacks because of his alcohol problem which was worsened by diabetes. He said that when a person with diabetes drinks it causes tremendous problems, and that a person in those circumstances could be in a semi-coma much of the time. Other defense witnesses described Robedeaux as a nice person when sober.

According to District Attorney Robert Macy, evidence showed that Robedeaux killed McKinney and used a saw and knife or machete to dissect her. Macy theorized that he removed the body parts in trash bags and dumped them into Coon Creek in far north Oklahoma City. Macy also said that the large amount of blood in the apartment indicated that McKinney may have still been alive at the start of the dissection. When sentenced to death, Robedeaux told the judge that he was innocent. The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board held a clemency hearing for James Robedeaux on Tuesday, May 23. The Board voted 4-0 to deny a recommendation of clemency. Vigils were held at numerous locations around the state on the evening of May 31.

Amnesty International - Urgent Action Newsletter

USA / OKLAHOMA: JAMES GLENN ROBEDEAUX

James Robedeaux was executed in Oklahoma in the first few minutes of 1 June 2000. He was sentenced to death in 1986 for the 1985 murder of Nancy McKinney. In statements issued a few hours before the execution, Nancy McKinney's relatives thanked the state Pardon and Parole Board for rejecting clemency and allowing the execution to go ahead. According to reports, Nancy McKinney's mother wrote: "I feel that any person not wanting a killer's death sentence carried out is like an accomplice to the crime. They are upholding and enabling murders." The local media reported that Nancy McKinney's daughter wrote, "I have waited for this moment for so long. It would be nice if I could have popcorn and maybe something to drink while I watch this maggot die." About a dozen relatives of Nancy McKinney witnessed the execution.

APBNews Online

"Man Executed for Dismembering Girlfriend; Asked for Forgiveness."

(June 1, 2000) McALESTER, Okla. (AP) -- Moments before James Glenn Robedeaux was executed for murdering his girlfriend, he asked forgiveness from her family -- even telling them he loved them. But the daughter of victim Nancy McKinney said she didn't care what Robedeaux had to say. Tammy McKinney said she only wishes Robedeaux would have suffered more. "I think he had an easy death. He went to sleep. That's not comparable to what he did to my mother," McKinney said after watching Robedeaux's execution with 13 of her family members. Robedeaux, 51, was pronounced dead at 12:24 a.m. today after receiving a dose of drugs at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.

Body parts dumped in stream

He was convicted of murdering Nancy McKinney on Sept. 22, 1985. He then dismembered her and dumped her body parts in a stream. Strapped down with tubes going into his arms, Robedeaux told his father he loved him and asked him to pass the same message on "to sister and to my kids." His father, watching from an adjacent room, gave Robedeaux a thumbs up. Robedeaux asked forgiveness from the McKinneys before again turning his attention to his father. "God bless you all. Don't worry about me. I'm going to be all right," he said.

'I didn't believe his apologies' With that, Robedeaux nodded to the prison official standing over him and closed his eyes tight. He would not open them again, quickly falling silent after a gasp and quick cough. The execution was too quick and easy, said Sean Liggons, Nancy McKinney's son. "I wish it could have been more painful. I didn't believe his apologies or nothing. I just wanted him to rot in hell," Liggons said. At least one member of Nancy McKinney's family -- her brother E.J. McKinney -- said he has forgiven Robedeaux. "I was just praying in my spirit that the words he was saying were true, because where he is now there are no appeals," he said.

Murderer had killed before When Nancy McKinney met Robedeaux in the summer of 1985, he had just been released from prison and was on probation for strangling his wife in March 1978. Robedeaux had served just seven years of a 25-year sentence after pleading guilty to second-degree murder. McKinney and Robedeaux began living together -- against the wishes of some of McKinney's relatives. Her sister, Donna Pittsen, said she only met Robedeaux once and felt the "presence of evil" in him immediately. While they were together, McKinney stopped showing up for work at a hospital and was fired. Her four children, whom Robedeaux was suspected of abusing, were taken away by the state. In August 1985, Robedeaux and McKinney moved into an Oklahoma City apartment that a month later would stink with the smell of McKinney's blood. By December, her body parts began showing up in creeks in a three-county area.

The stench of blood About a week after the murder, McKinney's mother, Carmen McKinney, visited the apartment, finding a rented rug cleaner but no trace of her daughter. When police investigated the apartment in October, they found bloodstains that had soaked through the apartment's shag carpeting as well as a stench that Robedeaux said was from spoiled meat. Carmen McKinney said the only remains of her daughter are ashes held by various members of the McKinney family. She said the family plans to hold several ceremonies and sprinkle some of her ashes in a place where her daughter used to spend time with her children. She said the family also plans to put a gravestone for McKinney near Pawnee.

Robedeaux is the seventh inmate executed in Oklahoma this year, with three more executions upcoming. Robert James Berget is scheduled to die June 8, William Clifford Bryson on June 15 and Gregg Francis Braun on July 20.

Robedeaux v. State, 866 P.2d 417 (Okl.Cr. 1993) (Direct Appeal).

Appellant, James Glenn Robedeaux, was tried by jury and convicted of the crime of Murder in the First Degree (21 O.S.Supp.1982, § 701.7) Case No. CRF- 85-6362 in the District Court of Oklahoma County. The jury recommended the death penalty and the trial court sentenced accordingly. It is from this judgment and sentence that Appellant appeals. Appellant was found guilty of the first degree murder of Nancy McKinney. The decedent was last seen alive on September 22, 1985, at the apartment she shared with Appellant. In late December 1985, and early February 1986, various body parts, identified as having come from the decedent, were found in Logan County. Further facts will be presented as necessary.

The evidence presented by the State in the instant case showed the decedent and Appellant shared an apartment, number 204, in Oklahoma City, from August until approximately September 22, 1985. Living in the apartment directly below them were Barbara and Bobby Jones. It was on the morning of September 22, 1985, that Barbara Jones saw the decedent for the last time. At approximately 10:00 a.m., the decedent took the trash to the dumpster. Later that evening, the Jones' left their apartment, returning between approximately 9:00 and 10:00 p.m. Each testified that around 10:00 p.m. they heard a loud noise coming from upstairs which sounded like someone jumping off furniture onto the floor. The noise was so loud that the Jones' apartment shook. The noise continued for several hours, stopping at approximately 1:00 a.m. Initially, the noise was heard at intervals of several minutes apart, and then at less frequent intervals. Barbara Jones testified that she could distinguish between the heavy footsteps of Appellant and the "softer" ones of the decedent. After that night, she never heard the decedent's footsteps again. She also stated that a week prior to this incident, she had heard the decedent and Appellant arguing. The decedent was overheard to say "don't hit me anymore".

On Monday, September 23, 1985, Barbara Jones heard a noise outside her door, near a storage closet at the end of the hall. Several minutes later she saw Appellant, wearing a pair of light blue pants or jeans, go up the stairwell to his apartment. He was seen leaving the apartment at approximately 10:00 a.m. that day in a blue Ford car which was usually driven by the decedent. The next day, Bobby Jones saw Appellant coming out of his apartment at 12:25 p.m. carrying two small dark colored trash bags, one in each hand. Appellant later apologized to Mr. Jones for being noisy. He told Jones that he did drink and had a tendency to get a little loud. However, Appellant did not indicate that he was apologizing for any specific time when he thought he may have been noisy.

The next time the Jones' saw Appellant was on September 28, 1985. At that time he was placing a red and white carpet cleaning machine in the back of a white pickup. Earlier that day, Ms. Jones had heard the noise of a carpet cleaner or vacuum upstairs for approximately two hours. Sometime around September 28, 1985, the decedent's mother, Carmen McKinney, came to the Jones' apartment asking if they had seen the decedent. The decedent and her mother usually talked to each other by telephone at least two or three times a week. However, Mrs. McKinney had not heard from her daughter since September 10, 1985. On September 25, 1985, Mrs. McKinney posted a note on the decedent's door asking her to call.

A.D. Smedley owned the apartment complex where the decedent and Appellant lived. He entered their apartment on the last day of September or the first of October, 1985, with Allen Savill and Roy Aber. While in the apartment, he noticed dark spots, which appeared to be blood, on the wall of the walk-in closet and a dark stain on the carpeting. Mr. Smedley placed a trespass note on the apartment door and had the lock changed on October 9, 1985. Shortly thereafter, Appellant contacted one of Smedley's employees and he authorized Appellant's entrance into the apartment to retrieve his clothing. Upon Smedley's visit to the apartment on October 11, 1985, he noticed that the stains on the wall were wiped clean and the carpet was damp. On October 15, 1985, Smedley went back to the apartment with the police and as he stepped into the apartment they were met with a foul odor, like spoiled meat. At that time the officers removed some carpeting and part of the carpet pad. Smedley returned to the apartment on October 24, 1985, with Mr. Aber, and discovered more spots when they pulled the carpet back in the bedroom. The police were contacted and upon their arrival at the apartment, they removed the entire bedroom carpet. The police also removed several pieces from the carpet pad. That same day, Smedley observed what appeared to be a spot of blood on a dining room drape and washed it off. On October 25, 1985, Smedley assisted in cleaning up the apartment and attempted to wash the stain off the floor where the carpet and pad had been removed. As he cleaned the stain with Clorox, the stain turned red.

Carpet layer John Fox removed the carpet from the apartment on October 25, 1985. He also observed the stains in the hallway and the odor in the apartment which was so nauseating that he took off his t-shirt, wrapped it around his face, and went outside and vomited. When Roy Aber let the Appellant into the apartment on October 11 to get his possessions, he noticed an odor. Appellant told him that the odor was caused by some hamburger meat which had spoiled. Aber did not detect an odor within the apartment the first time he visited the apartment with Savill, but he did notice one on his September 28 and October 2, 1985, visits.

Allen Savill, a maintenance engineer for Mr. Smedley, first went to apartment 204 during the week of September 23, 1985, when he noticed a brownish-red stain in the entrance to the bedroom closet. However, when he returned to the apartment the following Saturday, September 28, the stain had been cleaned up. He also noticed three apparently dirty towels hanging on a rack in the bathroom. All three towels had a reddish tint as if they had been used to clean up something. Savill also saw Appellant carry two loads of boxes to the trash dumpster on October 11, 1985. After Appellant left, Savill checked the dumpster and retrieved the three towels, which he had previously seen in the apartment bathroom, and put them in his truck. He later turned them over to Smedley, who turned them over to the police.

John Farris, Collection Agent for Ford Motor Credit Company, was sent to the decedent's apartment on September 25, 1985, to collect back payments due on decedent's 1982 Ford Fairmont and to repossess the vehicle if payment was not made. Just as he arrived at the apartment complex, Farris and his partner met Appellant coming out of the door to the stairwell of the apartment. Farris asked for directions to either apartment 36 or 205 and if he knew where Nancy McKinney lived. Appellant's response was that he did not know where either of those apartments was and gave Farris directions to the manager's office. As Farris and his partner were leaving, they saw Appellant get into the Ford Fairmont. Again, they asked him if he knew Nancy McKinney and he replied in the affirmative, but claimed that he did not know who they were talking about the first time. On September 24, 1985, at approximately midnight, Appellant phoned JoAnn Robinson at her home in Tuttle and asked her to meet him in Oklahoma City. On September 26, Appellant and Robinson went to a pawn shop to redeem some tapes. Appellant asked Robinson to sign for the tapes because there had been a lady with him when he pawned them. Robinson signed the decedent's name to redeem the tapes. On September 27, Robinson and Appellant went to Otasco's and rented a Rug Doctor carpet cleaner.

Patricia Avery first met Appellant at Marie's Club in late September, either the 21st or 28th. Appellant moved in with her the following Monday and lived with her for approximately two (2) weeks. Avery testified that Appellant took her to the apartment where he and the decedent had lived. Appellant had her sit in the pickup while he went upstairs to the apartment, where he remained for ten or fifteen minutes. Avery then accompanied Appellant to the apartment to help him carry down his stereo. Appellant advised her there would be a bad odor because he had left some meat out. As she entered the apartment, Avery detected a very bad, gagging odor but saw no food or garbage laid out.

Lisa Austin first met Appellant on October 18, 1985. She lived with Appellant until the time of his arrest. Approximately one month after first meeting, Appellant told Austin that he had killed the decedent and cut her up. Sixteen-year-old, Charles Dewayne Stokes, Jr., was playing on a pipe across the Deep Fork River near Wellston, Oklahoma during the morning of December 28, 1985, when he noticed a dog chewing on a object that, upon closer observation, appeared to be a leg. David Habben lived on a ranch in South Logan County, near Waterloo Road and Indian Meridian. Located west of Mr. Habben's house is Coon Creek, which runs into the Deep Fork River. On February 3, 1986, he found an object that appeared to be a human skull in the front yard of his house. The skull had been laying there for approximately a month. Assisting in the search for his sister's body, the decedent's brother discovered an arm and attached hand in the middle of the Coon Creek stream bed. This creek bed was approximately a quarter of a mile west and two to three hundred yards south of Mr. Habben's house.

Eric Mullenix, homicide detective for the Oklahoma City Police Department, talked with Appellant on November 14, 1985. After reading Appellant his rights, Mullenix and Detective Horn talked to him from noon until approximately 7:30 p.m. Appellant told them that he and the decedent had lived together since July 1985. In August they moved to the apartment which the decedent had rented. However, she left it sometime around the first of September, taking all of her belongings, while he was visiting his parents in Red Rock, Oklahoma. He told the officers that he and the decedent had verbal arguments but that he had never struck her. He stated that he had not injured himself in the apartment nor was he aware of anyone else injuring themselves in the apartment to the extent that they would have bled heavily. He said he did clean the carpet before vacating the apartment, although admitting he had no cleaning deposit to be returned on the apartment. He explained that he had spilled red Kool-aid in the bedroom, having taken a glass to bed several times and having it knocked over. He also explained that he had spilled some oil in the living room hall after lubricating hinges on a door. When confronted with Mullenix' opinion that the authorities had reason to believe that Appellant caused the death of the decedent, he denied the killing and stated that the decedent had merely left and he had not seen her.

At approximately 3:00 or 4:00 p.m., Appellant hung his head, began crying, and asked to speak with his father, Willis Robedeaux. At that point, the officers attempted to contact Appellant's father by telephone. As the officers tried to locate Mr. Robedeaux, further questioning of Appellant ceased. The exception was an inquiry as to the location of the decedent's body. Rod Tavanello of the Noble County Sheriff's Department and Bill Grant, an investigator with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, came to Oklahoma City to interview the Appellant on November 15, 1992. After being advised of his rights, the Appellant said that he had not seen the decedent since the first week of September. He stated that he and the decedent had "two or three fights" during the time they were living together, and he had hit her several times during these arguments. Appellant said that he was mad at the decedent because she had written several bad checks. He further stated they had gotten into a fight several days before she left and he had done a "number on her" when he hit her in the temple and in the face, causing her to bleed. He stated a ring he was wearing struck her in the head and that she was hit so hard her bleeding soaked the carpet. When asked about the blood in the closet, he responded by saying that he and the decedent had wrestled in the bedroom and that the decedent was "a big girl" who "fought back by hitting him in the mouth and splitting his lip". He then took her to the bathroom to clean her up and had to lean her up against the wall for support. He further stated that prior to that fight, they both had been drinking. An examination of the skull and comparison to X-rays of the decedent was performed by Dr. Larry Balding, Medical Examiner's office, and anthropologist, Dr. Clyde Snow. The conclusion reached was that the skull was that of the decedent. They also examined the leg found at Deep Fork River. They were of the opinion that the leg was that of the decedent. Examining the arm and attached hand found at Coon Creek, the doctors opined that it too belonged to the decedent. Dr. Balding testified that there was no way, from the three body parts, to determine the cause of death, but because of the evidence of dismemberment of the body, he believed it to be a homicide.

Tests performed on the towels retrieved from apartment 204 and the closet wall showed the presence of human blood, Type A, consistent with that of the decedent. Jeans belonging to Appellant showed the presence of human blood, Type A. Appellant had Type O blood. A luminol process performed on the carpet in the apartment revealed a high concentration of blood in specific areas of the carpet. It appeared as though the blood had been diluted and spread over the carpet through a cleaning process. The blood was typed and found to be Type A.