Final Meal:
Nachos with chili and cheese, one bowl of sliced jalapenos, one bowl of picante sauce, two large onions (sliced and grilled), tacos (with fresh tomatoes, lettuce, and cheese), and toasted corn tortilla shells.

Final Words:
Shamburger quoted extensively from the Bible and said he wished he could undo his actions. He apologized to the Baker family, to Victoria Kohler, and to his family. "My sin has affected other people. I understand the loss of my life is not a payment for Lori's. The loss of my life is a consequence of my actions. If I could pay with my life and bring her back, I would. To the Bakers, I am really sorry for the pain and sorrow I caused you. I really do not know what to say, but I am sorry ... forgive me." Next, he apologized to his own parents. "Forgive me. Thank you for your love." As the deadly chemicals entered his body, Shamburger sang "How Can it Be?", an old religious hymn.

Internet Sources:

Texas Department of Criminal Justice - Executed Offenders (Ron Shamburger)

Texas Attorney General Media Advisory

AUSTIN - Texas Attorney General John Cornyn offers the following information on Ron Scott Shamburger, who is scheduled to be executed after 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2002.

On Oct. 25, 1995, Ron Scott Shamburger was sentenced to die for the capital murder Lori Baker in College Station, Texas, on Sept. 30, 1994. A summary of the evidence presented at trial follows:

FACTS OF THE CRIME

Ron Scott Shamburger and Lori Baker were fellow students at Texas A&M University in College Station. As freshmen, the two had gone dancing together, but a substantial amount of time had passed before they saw each other again in the summer and fall of 1994.

On Aug. 2, 1994, Shamburger went to Lori's home to burglarize it; however, he decided to burglarize the home of Sandra King, Lori's neighbor. Shamburger stole cash and a credit card from King's home, making several purchases with the stolen card the next day. Later that month, Shamburger purchased a 9 mm semiautomatic pistol. At one point, Shamburger telephoned his mother and said, "Mom, I feel like I'm fixing to lose it." Shamburger's mother attempted to reassure him by saying, "Hang in there, it will all work out."

On September 21, Shamburger tried unsuccessfully to break into Lori's home, and again burglarized the home of one of Lori's neighbors. Shamburger used a knife to cut the window screen. He stole cash and credit cards, and immediately began to make purchases on the credit cards. Finally, on September 26 or 27, Shamburger successfully burglarized Lori's home, stealing a credit card and a pair of her underwear. On September 28, Shamburger purchased clothing with Lori's card.

On September 30, Shamburger used Lori's card to purchase a gas can and gasoline. He then went to Lori's home with the gun, gas can and duct tape. He broke into the home through a window in a spare bedroom, and then broke into Lori's locked bedroom where she slept. After Lori recognized Shamburger, he bound her hands with the duct tape. At this point, Lori's roommate, Victoria Kohler, returned home. Once Shamburger heard Victoria enter, he placed the pistol against Lori's head and shot her.

As Victoria walked through the house to make certain that it was secure, she heard noises coming from Lori's bedroom and bathroom. She walked to the back of the house where she encountered Shamburger. Victoria screamed and attempted to escape, but Shamburger was able to grab her hair and throw her to the floor. He sat on her back, making it difficult for her to breathe, poked the gun against her back and told her, "Don't move, don't scream or it will be over."

Shamburger then asked Victoria a series of questions. He asked her name, her major, whether she had class the next day and whether the professor would call the roll. Shamburger also asked whether Victoria was a Christian, whether she had a boyfriend, whether she had cash or credit cards, and whether her credit card could be used at a cash machine. He then went to her bedroom to retrieve the six dollars that Victoria possessed in her wallet, remarking, "Sweet, good bull, six dollars." He again sat on her back and began to massage her shoulders, continuing to question her. He said, "I don't want to hurt you" and "I bet your heart is beating really fast and I bet you're scared." He asked if she was a virgin and told her that he had never had sex with a woman. He also asked Victoria if she had seen him. Victoria had clearly seen him in the hall, but instead misled him and gave a false description.

Shamburger covered Victoria's head with a blanket and forced her to crawl into the bathroom. He then taped her hands behind her back. He left her in the bathroom for some time, then took her to the garage, removed the tape from her hands, and locked her in the trunk of her car. He returned about 10 minutes later and told her that he was going to take her somewhere and drop her off. He then drove the car around town, talking to Victoria through the back seat. He said, "I guess you know Lori is dead. . . . I guess there is a first time for everything." He said he knew that the authorities would eventually find him and asked Victoria if she thought he should commit suicide. She advised against suicide. He asked if anyone could forgive him and she told him, "The Lord forgives." He told her he was planning to burn the house to destroy any evidence and asked Victoria if there was anything she wanted to save. She specified her scrapbooks and pictures. He then stopped the car, unlocked the trunk, and told her not to leave the trunk until she heard sirens or she couldn't stand it any longer, and not to get out immediately because he might be watching her. She hid in the trunk for a while to make sure he was gone; she then exited the trunk, drove to a nearby house, and asked the residents to call 9-1-1.

Meanwhile, Shamburger walked back to Lori's house. He found Victoria's scrapbooks and placed them on the floor of her room. He retrieved the can of gasoline from the trunk of his car, then decided to try to find the bullet that he had shot into Lori's head so the police would not be able to trace it to him. He moved Lori's body and the headboard to her bed, searching for the bullet. He cut some of Lori's hair, then used a knife to inspect the exit wound on the back of her head. Shamburger never found the bullet. He then poured gasoline over Lori's body and her room. He placed his hat on the bed because it was covered with "blood and brains and all that good stuff." He then lit the fire, only to realize he had left his car keys inside somewhere. He tried unsuccessfully to find them and was slightly charred in the process. Then, according to Shamburger, "That's when I just realized that, you know, I was going to have to turn myself in. Forget trying to even, you know, fake this or anything."

Shamburger walked around to the backyard. Lori's brother Mark Baker, who lived next door, heard the explosion and had come outside to see what had happened. Mark saw smoke pouring out of the back of Lori's house and began smashing her bedroom window with a baseball bat. As he frantically called his sister's name, he heard Shamburger's voice in the backyard saying, "She's dead." He walked toward the backyard and saw Shamburger walking around in circles in the middle of the yard, holding a gun and repeatedly saying, "She's dead." Shamburger turned and started toward Mark. Mark ran back inside his house and locked the door.

Shamburger then walked to a store and bought a Coke and bottled water. He called Steve Biles, a minister at his church and personal friend, and asked Biles to meet him. Shamburger and Biles drove around for a while and Shamburger eventually confessed his actions to Biles. Biles took Shamburger to retrieve his Bible, then they drove to the police station where Shamburger attempted to turn himself over to the police. All officers, however, were out investigating the instant crime, so Shamburger and Biles waited in the lobby. After Shamburger started flicking bullets on the floor, police officers arrived and ordered everyone in the room to the floor. Shamburger was arrested and soon after confessed to the murder of Lori Baker and the other burglaries. He said he did not intend to kill anybody when he broke into Lori's house, but admitted that he took the gun with him so he could "try to fight my way out or something" if he was caught.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY Shamburger was indicted by a Brazos County grand jury for the capital offense of murdering Lori Baker during the course of committing or attempting to commit burglary of a habitation. Shamburger pleaded not guilty. On Oct. 19, 1995, the jury convicted Shamburger of capital murder. After a subsequent hearing on punishment, and based on the jury's answers to the special punishment issues, the trial court assessed punishment at death by lethal injection.

Upon automatic review of Shamburger's conviction and death sentence, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upheld the judgment and sentence in an unpublished opinion dated Oct. 7, 1998. The United States Supreme Court denied Shamburger's petition for writ of certiorari on June 1, 1999.

Shamburger then filed an application for a state writ of habeas corpus. The state habeas court issued findings of fact and conclusions of law recommending that relief be denied. After determining that the findings were supported by the record, the Court of Criminal Appeals denied habeas relief on Feb.3, 1999.

Shamburger next filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division, on June 1, 2000. The district court entered final judgment denying federal habeas relief on March 15, 2001. Shamburger's motion to alter or amend the judgment was denied on July 3, 2001. Appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit followed. On March 25, 2002, the Fifth Circuit denied Shamburger a certificate of appealability and upheld the district court's judgment denying Shamburger federal habeas relief. Shamburger's motion for rehearing in the Fifth Circuit was denied on April 22, 2002.

On July 22, 2002, Shamburger filed a petition for writ of certiorari in the Supreme Court challenging the Fifth Circuit's denial of relief. He filed an application for stay of execution on Aug. 23, 2002. On Sept. 6, 2002, the Supreme Court denied certiorari review and Shamburger's request for a stay.

On Sept. 12, 2002, Shamburger filed a successive application for state habeas corpus relief. That application is currently pending before the 361st District Court for Brazos County and the Court of Criminal Appeals.

CRIMINAL HISTORY

Shamburger has no prior criminal history.

ProDeathPenalty.com

Shamburger, a born-again Christian from Longview, was a 22-year-old fifth-year senior nearing a degree in biomedical science when authorities say he became obsessed with burglaries in which he stole credit cards and cash. Shamburger was surprised to find Lori home. He bound her with duct tape, then shot her in the head with a pistol when she awoke to find him in her bedroom, killing her instantly.

Baker's 20-year-old roommate, returning home, heard noises from Baker's room and walked in that direction when she was confronted by Shamburger. When he asked her if she could identify him, the roommate lied and said no, so Shamburger put her in the trunk of her car, binding her hands with duct tape. He then backed the car through the garage door. He drove her around town before leaving her in the vehicle not far from home. Then he returned to the murder scene, retrieved a can of gasoline from his own car parked outside, cut some of Baker's hair from around her fatal head injury and used a knife to poke at the wound in an unsuccessful search for the bullet. He poured gasoline in the room and over her body and set it ablaze only to discover the keys to his car were inside the burning room. They had fallen from his shirt pocket. Baker's brother, who lived next door, heard the explosion and tried to break windows to get his sister out. Shamburger was in the back yard by then, walking in circles, holding his pistol and repeating: "She's dead." Kohler in the meantime had climbed from the trunk of her car, went to a nearby house and had the people there call 911.

Shamburger fled, called a friend, a minister at his church, met him and told him about the killing. They both went to the police station where Shamburger turned himself in to authorities. "In this case, he breaks in with tape, a gun, gasoline," Turner said, explaining why he went for the death penalty although Shamburger had no previous record. "The premeditation, as well as escalation, I thought showed there was no question in my mind he'd be an extreme danger if we hadn't caught him." Shamburger, who had been working in a supermarket, said he used the loot from his burglaries for movies, food and clothing. While taking responsibility for the slaying -- "I can't say I'm here for something I didn't do" -- he said he hoped his victim's family could forgive him. "I think we already have," Faye Baker, the victim's mother, said Tuesday. "We are strong Christians. I believe for my own salvation that I need to forgive him... We don't harbor resentment. It's an absolute miracle that we don't." That doesn't, however, diminish the pain of losing her daughter. "He took the most precious thing in the world away from us and really destroyed our lives," she said. "But we don't think about him."

A Brazos County jury convicted Shamburger of capital murder in 1995. Prosecutors noted that in the months prior to the murder, he had committed a string of burglaries. "How do you explain it?" said Bill Turner, the Brazos County district attorney who prosecuted Shamburger. "It's real frightening. "He does look like the boy next door. He does look like the guy you might trust, but there was more to him than that." "I don't know why you do the things you do," Shamburger said recently from death row. "One thing leads to another... You lose touch with reality. You've chosen to do things that are wrong. There was an adrenaline rush to it -- the satisfaction of not being caught."

UPDATE: Ronald Shamburger sang an old religious hymn and uttered several quotes from the Bible as the lethal drugs were administered. Then he looked at the victim's family and said, "I am really sorry for the pain and sorrow I caused you. I really do not know what to say, but I am sorry ... forgive me." He was pronounced dead at 6:17 p.m. CDT, six minutes after receiving the injection lethal drugs.

Texas Execution Information Center by David Carson.

Ronald Scott Shamburger, 30, was executed by lethal injection on 18 September in Huntsville, Texas for the murder of a 20-year-old woman in her home.

On 30 September 1994, Shamburger, then 22, drove to the home of Lori A. Baker, 20. Shamburger and Baker were both students at Texas A&M University and had been acquainted for about five years. He brought a 9 mm semiautomatic pistol, a can of gasoline, and a roll of duct tape with him. He entered the house through the window of a spare bedroom. He then broke into Baker's locked bedroom. When Baker awoke and recognized him, Shamburger bound her with duct tape. At this point, Baker's roommate, Victoria Kohler, 20, came home. Shamburger placed the pistol against Baker's head and pulled the trigger, killing her instantly.

Shamburger then grabbed Kohler, threw her to the ground, and threatened to kill her. He sat on her back and asked her a series of detailed questions. For example, he asked her name, her major, whether she had classes the next day, whether she had money, whether she had a credit card, whether she was a Christian, and whether she was a virgin. He also asked whether she saw him. Kohler gave him a false description, so that he would think she couldn't describe him. He then covered her head with a blanket and bound her hands with duct tape. He carried her to the trunk of her car, unbound her hands, and closed her in.

Shamburger then drove around for awhile. He spoke to Kohler, who could hear him through the back seat. He told her that Lori was dead and he was going to burn the house down. He asked her if there was anything in the house she wanted him to save. She asked him to save her pictures and scrapbook. He also asked her whether she thought he should commit suicide, and she told him no. Shamburger abandoned the car a few blocks from the house and told Kohler to stay in the trunk until she heard sirens. She waited until she was sure he was gone, then drove to a nearby house and called the police.

Meanwhile, Shamburger returned on foot to the victims' home. First, he got the gas can out of his car and brought it inside. Next, he found Kohler's scrapbooks and set them on the floor. He then probed Baker's head wound with a knife in an attempt to retrieve the bullet, but he was unsuccessful. He poured gasoline on her body and set it on fire. When he was ready to leave, he realized that his car keys had fallen out of his shirt pocket somewhere inside the house. He looked inside the burning house, but was unable to find them. With his car in the driveway and the house already violently ablaze, he knew he had no chance of avoiding suspicion, so he stood outside the house and waited.

When the fire started consuming the house, Mark Baker, Lori's brother who lived next door, came outside. He began calling Lori's name and breaking her bedroom window with a baseball bat, but he heard a voice in the yard saying, "she's dead." Mark turned and saw Shamburger walking around in the yard, holding a gun, repeatedly saying, "she's dead." He ran back inside his own house.

Shamburger then walked to a store and called Steve Biles, a minister at his church. He asked Biles to meet him. They drove around for awhile, then Shamburger told him what he had done. Biles drove him to the police station, where Shamburger attempted to surrender. All officers on duty, however, were out investigating the fire, so Shamburger and Biles waited in the lobby. While they were waiting, Shamburger pulled out his pistol and started flicking bullets onto the floor. Officers were summoned back to the station, Shamburger was arrested, and he confessed.

At his trial, Shamburger pleaded not guilty. He claimed that he only went to Baker's house to burglarize it, and he never planned to kill her. Prosecutors noted that he brought a gas can, indicating that he had something more sinister than a burglary planned. They also focused on his attempt to dig the bullet out of the victim's head with a knife as a sign that, though he had no criminal record, he had the heart of a cold-blooded murderer.

A jury convicted Shamburger of capital murder in October 1995 and sentenced him to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed his conviction and sentence in October 1998. All of his subsequent appeals in state and federal court were denied.

Prior to killing Baker, Shamburger was a former Eagle Scout, a senior at Texas A&M University, and he aspired to become a minister. In the summer of 1994, however, he found a credit card that someone left behind at the store where he worked. In a death-row interview, Shamburger said that this fateful incident started a chain of events that led up to Baker's murder. He said that he was going to report the lost credit card, but instead, he decided to take it home and buy something with it, then get rid of it.

After this successful experiment in crime, Shamburger started stealing credit cards and, later, committing burglaries -- breaking into homes in search of credit cards and money. He knew Lori Baker from school, and he had gone to her house on three previous occasions to burglarize it. On the first two visits, he ended up burglarizing her neighbors instead. On the third visit, on or about 27 September, he successfully broke into her house and stole a credit card and a pair of her panties. He bought the pistol and gasoline can used in her murder with her credit card.

Of Baker's murder, he said, "Things happened so quickly, sometimes you don't have time to think. ... It was a response, a reflex. I panicked." He said that didn't kill Kohler because "I had time to think about it, and I wasn't going to kill anyone else."

Lori's parents, Derrel and Faye Baker, doubted that burglary was Shamburger's true motive for murdering their daughter. They said that he desired a romantic relationship with her, but she was uninterested in him. They said that she turned down his requests for dates, but continued to be nice to him. His last call to her came the week before her death, when Lori told him that she was in an exclusive relationship. "My personal opinion is that he wanted her for himself, and when he thought he couldn't have her, he decided no one was going to have her," Faye Baker said.

Shamburger said he wished he could undo his actions. He apologized to the Baker family, to Victoria Kohler, and to his family. "My sin has affected other people," he said. "I understand the loss of my life is not a payment for Lori's. The loss of my life is a consequence of my actions. If I could pay with my life and bring her back, I would."

Shamburger quoted from the Bible as he was being prepared for execution. Making his last statement, he looked at the victim's family and said, "To the Bakers, I am really sorry for the pain and sorrow I caused you. I really do not know what to say, but I am sorry ... forgive me." Next, he apologized to his own parents. "Forgive me," he said. "Thank you for your love." As the deadly chemicals entered his body, Shamburger sang "How Can it Be?", an old religious hymn. He was pronounced dead at 6:17 p.m.

The Huntsville Item

"Convicted Killer Spends Last Day on Death Row," by Mark Passwaters. (September 17, 2002)

There isn't much for an inmate to do on death row. Ron Shamburger, scheduled to be executed this evening for the 1994 murder of a fellow Texas A&M student, spends a lot of time listening to the radio and reading. "I usually listen to stations which play religious music or religious broadcasting," he said in an interview several weeks ago at death row in Livingston.

One thing he doesn't do much is think about Lori Baker, a girl he knew from Bible study classes at A&M. She also is the woman he murdered on the night of Sept. 30, 1994, and burned her body in an attempt to hide evidence of his guilt. "It's not something I dwell a lot upon, but I do ask myself, 'how did I place myself in this situation?'" he said. "Mentally preparing to talk about this eats at you. I try not to think about a lot because I want to be able to sleep at night." Shamburger admits to killing Baker during a burglary attempt, saying, "I'd developed a pattern of doing things that were wrong." He described his habit of breaking into houses as "an obsession," and said he burglarized the same houses repeatedly.

Shamburger started breaking into Baker's house after running into her on campus during the 1994 summer session. While he had known her since the fall of 1992, they hadn't seen one another in a while. "She was more like a friend. We went dancing a few times," he said. "It was kind of understood that it'd never be much more than friends. I asked her out a couple of times, and she turned me down." In the days before the killing, he broke into her house and stole around $30, a credit card and a pair of her underwear. In his dozens of burglaries, Shamburger had never been confronted by anyone, even when he broke into houses where the residents were home at the time. "I wasn't even considering the full effects of confrontation," he said. "You just say, 'this is never going to happen.'"

However, when Shamburger broke into Baker's house on the night of the murder, he was armed with a 9 mm pistol, a gas can and a roll of duct tape. He said he didn't remember much of what happened next, but information from authorities paints a clearer picture. Police saw Shamburger brake into the house through a spare bedroom window, then went into Baker's room and bound her with the duct tape. Later, Baker's roommate, Victoria Kohler, returned home; as soon as Shamburger heard her come in, he placed his gun to Baker's head and fired, killing her instantly. He called the shooting "a reflex-type action." "Was I in my right mind? No," Shamburger said. "They'll ask me things about what happened and I'll say I don't remember. "There may have been a few minutes (between the shooting and facing Kohler), but time takes on another meaning," he said. "It slows down. It feels like an eternity. "Initially, the purpose of the confrontation was to kill (Kohler)," Shamburger said. "Then I thought, 'I'm not going to kill her, I'm going to hide from her.'"

As it turned out, he knocked Kohler to the ground and asked her a series of bizarre questions. Instead of killing her, Shamburger covered her head with a blanket, taped her hands behind her back and put her in the trunk of his car. After driving her around for a few minutes, he stopped the car since he decided to go back to the house on foot and set it ablaze. Before setting the house on fire, Shamburger used a knife to cut into Baker's head in an attempt to find the bullet and remove it. When he failed, he poured gasoline on her body and set the house on fire. As the blaze expanded, the house eventually exploded. "There was a growing realization of what is going on and what is happening," he said. "It is an enormous situation. You see the devastation of your actions."

Though he claims not to remember it, Shamburger began pacing around Baker's back yard, gun in hand, muttering, "she's dead." One of the first people to see him was Baker's next-door neighbor and brother, Mark, who rushed across to try to save her. As Mark Baker tried to force his way into the house, he heard a voice say, "she's dead." It was Shamburger, moving toward him with the gun still in his hand. Baker ran back to his house and locked the door.

After going to a nearby store, Shamburger called Steve Biles, the minister at his church, who convinced Shamburger he needed to turn himself in. Shamburger went to a nearby police station and turned himself in, flicking bullets out of the gun in the waiting room as he came inside.

Though the murder happened more than seven years ago, the memories of the crime are still fresh in the mind of many former A&M students and College Station residents. An individual on the Web site www.Texags.com, who identified himself as Mark Baker's roommate, described their recollections of that night. Baker "was very attractive, yet she had a certain independence about her that you had to admire," the person wrote in a post on the Web site recently. On the night of the murder, "The police, firemen, and ambulance came in about five minutes, sirens blaring. We watched them go in and out of Lori's house.

"We repeatedly asked, 'Is there anyone in there?" the writer continued. "They avoided answering. Finally, we got one officer to admit what he knew. Those words are etched in my memory forever. He said, 'To be honest with you, yes there is a woman in there. And she's gone.'" While it was noted Shamburger showed little remorse for Baker's death during his trial, he says he is now a changed man. "I've learned the consequences of actions," he said. "I know there are so may people I haven't even met that I've caused pain to and suffering to."

He said he would like to ask for forgiveness from the Bakers "face to face," but added, "I'm very leery (about meeting them). I don't want to add to their pain." He also said he knows there is a required punishment for his actions. "My morality in this life has consequences in this life," he said.

Mark Baker's roommate knows full well the consequences of Shamburger's actions. "You often hear people say, 'live everyday to its fullest, because it could be your last,'" he wrote. "I try to do that each day, and when I do, I think of Lori."

MSNBC/AP

"Shamburger Executed for Killing Another Aggie."

Sept. 19 - (Huntsville-AP) -- Convicted killer Ron Shamburger apologized to the victim's family before being executd Wednesday night for the 1994 slaying of a fellow Texas A&M student.

Shamburger was condemned for the fatal shooting of Lori Baker during a robbery at her home in College Station. The Longview man became the 26th condemned killer to be put to death this year in Huntsville.

Shamburger was a fifth-year senior nearing a degree in biomedical science when authorities say he became obsessed with burglaries -- in which he stole credit cards and cash. Shamburger sang an old religious hymn and uttered several quotes from the Bible as the lethal drugs were administered. Then he looked at the victim's family and said, "I am really sorry for the pain and sorrow I caused you. I really do not know what to say, but I am sorry ... forgive me."

Houston Chronicle

"Former Student Executed for Killing Fellow Aggie." (AP September 19, 2002)

HUNTSVILLE -- A former Texas A&M student who had been considering pharmacy school or a Baptist seminary after graduation was executed Wednesday for gunning down another Aggie during a burglary at her home eight years ago. Ron Shamburger confessed to the fatal shooting of Lori Baker, 20, within hours of the attack, which climaxed a series of burglaries he'd been committing in College Station, many of them at homes he'd broken into numerous times.

As Shamburger was strapped to the gurney, he uttered several quotes from the Bible. He then looked at the victim's family and said, "I am really sorry for the pain and sorrow I caused you. I really do not know what to say, but I am sorry ... forgive me." He sang an old religious hymn as the lethal drugs were administered. He was pronounced dead at 6:17 p.m. CDT, six minutes after receiving the lethal injection.

Evidence showed Shamburger used a credit card stolen from Baker's home a few days before the fatal attack to buy the murder weapon, a 9 mm pistol. Shamburger's lawyers went to the U.S. Supreme Court to try to halt the punishment, but the court denied his petition and application for stay of execution. Similar efforts failed Tuesday in the state courts.

Shamburger, from Longview, was a 22-year-old fifth-year senior nearing a degree in biomedical science when authorities say he became obsessed with burglaries in which he stole credit cards and cash. On the night of Sept. 30, 1994, he broke into the home of Baker as the Aggie junior slept. She awoke, was bound with duct tape, then was fatally shot in the head.

"How do you explain it?" said Bill Turner, the Brazos County district attorney who prosecuted Shamburger. "It's real frightening. "He does look like the boy next door. He does look like the guy you might trust, but there was more to him than that." "I don't know why you do the things you do," Shamburger said recently from death row. "One thing leads to another... You lose touch with reality. You've chosen to do things that are wrong. "There was an adrenaline rush to it -- the satisfaction of not being caught."

Baker's roommate, 20-year-old Victoria Kohler, returning home, heard noises from Baker's room and walked in that direction when she was confronted by Shamburger. He abducted Kohler and stuffed her in the trunk of her car, driving her around town before leaving her in the vehicle not far from home.

Then he returned to the murder scene, retrieved a can of gasoline from his own car parked outside, cut some of Baker's hair from around her fatal head injury and used a knife to poke at the wound in an unsuccessful search for the bullet. He poured gasoline in the room and over her body and set it ablaze only to discover the keys to his car were inside the burning room. They had fallen from his shirt pocket.

Baker's brother, who lived next door, heard the explosion and tried to break windows to get his sister out. Shamburger was in the back yard by then, walking in circles, holding his pistol and repeating: "She's dead." Kohler in the meantime had climbed from the trunk of her car, went to a nearby house and had the people there call 911.

Shamburger fled, called a friend, a minister at his church, met him and told him about the killing. They both went to the police station where Shamburger turned himself in to authorities. "In this case, he breaks in with tape, a gun, gasoline," Turner said, explaining why he went for the death penalty although Shamburger had no previous record. "The premeditation, as well as escalation, I thought showed there was no question in my mind he'd be an extreme danger if we hadn't caught him."

Shamburger, who had been working in a supermarket, said he used the loot from his burglaries for movies, food and clothing. While taking responsibility for the slaying -- "I can't say I'm here for something I didn't do" -- he said he hoped his victim's family could forgive him. "I think we already have," Faye Baker, the victim's mother, said Tuesday. "We are strong Christians. I believe for my own salvation that I need to forgive him... We don't harbor resentment. It's an absolute miracle that we don't." That doesn't, however, diminish the pain of losing her daughter. "He took the most precious thing in the world away from us and really destroyed our lives," she said. "But we don't think about him."

Shamburger, 30, was the 26th Texas inmate executed this year and the second in as many days. Convicted killer Jessie Joe Patrick received lethal injection Tuesday for the 1989 slaying of an 80-year-old Dallas woman.

TheDeathHouse.Com

"Evil in The Heart of The Boy Next Door," by Colleen Kavanagh.

LIVINGSTON, Tex. - With a single gunshot in 1994, Ron Scott Shamburger went from a college senior to a capital murderer. Now he is within days of being executed.

The East Texas native with boy-next-door looks shocked the Texas A&M University community when he murdered fellow Aggie Lori Ann Baker, 20, during what he says was a botched burglary at her College Station duplex. But others believe that Shamburger had an obsession with Baker, stalked her and intended to kill her all along. Whatever the reason, Texas plans to execute him in Huntsville on September 18. Shamburger says he is ready to die. "Whether I die this year, next year or if I live 30 years, my walk is with the Lord," he said in a Death Row interview. "When your relationship is with the Lord, death shouldn't be something that's feared. To die for the Lord Jesus is not a hard thing. To live for him is."

The murder occurred in the early morning hours of Sept. 30, 1994, Shamburger shot Baker in the forehead when she awoke to find him inside her house. While he was searching for the bullet - reportedly by using a knife to dig into the wound - Shamburger was interrupted when Baker's roommate, Victoria Kohler, got home. He bound Kohler's hands with duct tape, threw her into his trunk and drove away before abandoning the car with her still in it and alive. Upon verifying that she could not identify him, he returned to the crime scene, where he set Baker's body on fire in an attempt to cover up the murder.

September 18, 2002 - HUNTSVILLE, Tex. - A former Texas A&M University student who admitted to murdering a coed during a burglary of her home was executed by lethal injection Wednesday night - the second execution in two days in the state. Ronald Shamburger went to the death house at 6 p.m. and was declared dead at 6:17 p.m. As he was being executed, Shamburger uttered quotes from the Bible. He also told the vicitm's famly, witnessing the execution, that he was sorry. Shamburger confessed to shooting fellow Texas A&M student Lori Ann Baker, 20, in the head during the burglary on September 30, 1994.

The Bryan-College Station Eagle

"Former A&M Student Executed for Murder of Another Aggie", by John LeBas.JOHN LeBAS

September 18, 2002 - HUNTSVILLE — Ron Shamburger, who confessed to shooting fellow Aggie Lori Baker nearly eight years ago, was executed Wednesday for her murder.

Shamburger, 30, died by lethal injection as the victim’s family and his parents watched. As he lay strapped to a gurney, Shamburger quoted extensively from the Bible and apologized for killing the 20-year-old Baker in 1994 after breaking into her College Station home. “To the Bakers, I’m really sorry for the pain and sorrow I caused you,” Shamburger said. “I really don’t know what else to say but I am sorry — forgive me.”

Lori Baker’s mother, Faye Baker, crossed her arms and held hands with her son, Mark, and husband, Derrel. The family stood silent and stoic as Shamburger looked at them and spoke. Shamburger’s parents, Dacell and Lynell Shamburger, watched and wept in another observation room as he apologized to them, too. “Forgive me,” he said. “Thank you for your love.”

Shamburger, eyes closed, sang an old spiritual song as the lethal drugs began to flow into his body. In mid-verse, he stopped and exhaled heavily before falling motionless. Shamburger was pronounced dead at 6:17 p.m., six minutes after the lethal dose started. He was the 26th Texas inmate executed this year. The families of the victim and her killer left the death house without speaking to reporters.

Shamburger ate tacos and chili-cheese nachos for his final meal. A friend from Switzerland flew in to watch the execution. In his last statement, Shamburger said only those who have faith in Jesus Christ go to heaven. The Bible verses he recited spoke of salvation and forgiveness but also God’s vengeance for bad deeds. His voice started to waver as he sang the hymn, and he fell unconscious after the words, “How can it be that you my God ...” The rest of the verse is “... should die for me?”

Shamburger was a 22-year-old Texas A&M senior when he went to Lori Baker’s home the night of Sept. 30, 1994. He brought a pistol, a gas can and duct tape for what he later claimed was a burglary. When Baker awoke to find Shamburger in her bedroom, he bound her with tape and shot her once in the head. He then kidnapped Baker’s roommate, forcing her into the trunk of his car and abandoning it a few blocks away. Returning to the murder scene, Shamburger tried unsuccessfully to dig the bullet out of Baker’s head to cover his tracks. When that didn’t work, he set fire to her body. Hours later, accompanied by a minister, Shamburger turned himself in to College Station police and confessed to the crime.

Brazos County District Attorney Bill Turner, who prosecuted the case in 1995, said the calm, friendly-looking Shamburger had two sides — the college student who led Bible studies, and the cold-blooded murderer. Turner said he never second-guessed his decision to seek the death penalty after Shamburger was convicted. He said Shamburger’s effort to recover the bullet showed a capacity for cold-bloodedness. “We presented a case against someone we believed to be a future threat to society,” he said. “The jury agreed with that, and we commend them on their action.”