Kathy E <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
I think most of us remember when this case happened and watching the
extradition proceedings for the various teens involved, here is a
complete summary of the case from beginning to end for you. Enjoy! :)
=====================================================================
On February 12, 1998, seventeen-year-old Rod Ferrell pled guilty to
killing a Eustis, Florida couple with a crowbar. The leader of a teenage
vampire cult, Ferrell was allegedly helped in the double slaying by his
then-girlfriend, Charity Lynn Keesee, and two other members of the cult.
The victims, Richard Wendorf and Naoma Queen, were the parents of
Heather Wendorf, a friend of Ferrell's, and were beaten to death in
their home on November 25, 1996.
The road to the murders began some three days earlier, on November 22.
Late that night or early in the morning of the 23rd, Ferrell -- along
with Keesee and the two cult members, Howard Scott Anderson and Dana
Cooper -- left his hometown of Murray, Kentucky to drive down to Eustis.
After the four arrived in Eustis, Ferrell, who had lived there for
several years before moving back to Murray to live with his mother,
tracked down Wendorf and told another acquaintance, Audrey Presson, that
he was in town for unfinished business.
A Disturbing Upbringing
When Ferrell was born on March 28, 1980, his mother, Sondra Gibson was
only 17 years old, and his father, Rick Ferrell, was also a teen. The
two were married nine days after baby Rod was born, but split up weeks
afterwards.
Rick Ferrell filed for a divorce and joined the military, while Sondra
kept the child. Her parents also looked after Rod, who claimed Sondra's
father -- his grandfather -- raped him when he was 5.
Rod also claimed that as a young child, he was exposed to occult rituals
and human sacrifices, and was introduced to the "Dungeons & Dragons"
role-playing game.
Sondra Gibson eventually remarried and moved frequently with Rod before
leaving him in Murray, Kentucky and moving with her new husband to
Michigan. He allegedly told Rod that they were never coming back, and
Gibson apparently became so upset that she divorced him and moved back
to Murray to be with Rod. (Her second husband also allegedly engaged in
satanic rituals.)
Around this time, Rod began to undergo some sort of transformation. He
walked in cemeteries at night, cut himself so others could drink his
blood, and told people he was a 500-year-old vampire named "Vesago." His
school work slipped and he began flagrantly disobeying his schools'
policies, skipping class, smoking on campus and generally defying
teachers and school officials. He also indulged in playing "Vampire: The
Masquerade," a realistic role-playing game in which players act out
vampiric scenarios in real-time.
His mother allowed him to stay out all night, use drugs, and skip
school, and he frequently spent time with a young man named Stephen
Murray, who brought the teenage Ferrell into the vampire world and
"crossed him over," turning him into a presumptive vampire and giving
him his name.
By the spring of 1996, Rod was also talking long-distance to Heather
Wendorf, who apparently told Rod that her parents were hurting her and
that she wanted him to come get her, but that he would have to kill them
to do so.
In September 1996, Murphy attacked Ferrell, who refused treatment when
taken to a local hospital. Murphy was convicted for the attack. Shortly
after, Sondra Gibson was charged with soliciting a minor -- Murphy's
14-year-old brother -- whom Gibson wrote love letters, imploring him to
"cross her over" and have her as his vampire bride.
"Vesago" Attacks
On November 25, the day of the murders, Ferrell and his companions were
stopped by law enforcement officers and questioned because their vehicle
had a flat tire. The flat caused Ferrell to change his plans. He told
Wendorf and another friend, Jeanine LeClaire, about this and allegedly
discussed with the group a plan to kill Wendorf's parents and take their
Ford Explorer to use as a getaway vehicle.
Ferrell and friends arrived near the Wendorf home and met Heather
Wendorf down the road from her house. He sent the three young women --
Heather Wendorf, Cooper and Keesee -- to visit Heather's boyfriend and
pick up LeClaire. Ferrell and Anderson stayed behind, armed with clubs.
The two young men searched the outside of the Wendorf home, looking for
some way to get inside. They entered through an unlocked door to the
garage and searched the garage for better weapons. Ferrell finally
settled on a crowbar.
Ferrell and Anderson then went inside the house, yanked one phone from
the wall, and came upon 49-year-old Richard Wendorf, asleep on the
couch. Ferrell beat him several times with the crowbar, fracturing his
skull and giving him numerous chest wounds, including fractured ribs.
As Richard Wendorf lay dying, Naoma Queen left a bathroom in the house
and entered the kitchen, where she found Ferrell. Ferrell had blood on
his clothes and the crowbar in his hands. Queen threw hot coffee on him
and fought him, but Ferrell beat her down to the floor and bashed her
head with the crowbar several times.
With Heather's parents dead, the two young men searched the house. They
took a Discover card from Richard Wendorf's pocket and the keys to the
Explorer, which they drove off in.
They soon met the girls, who were returning to the area near the Wendorf
home in the Buick Skyhawk they had originally used to drive down from
Kentucky. The group then used both vehicles to drive to nearby Sanford,
where they dumped the Buick. They switched the license plates, so that
the Explorer had the Buick's plates (and the Buick, now left behind, had
the plates of the stolen Explorer).
The group of five -- Ferrell, Anderson, Keesee, Cooper and Heather
Wendorf -- drove west along Interstate 10 through Tallahassee and
towards New Orleans, presumably to meet famed vampire writer Anne Rice.
They stopped in Crestview, Florida and bought gas and a knife using
Richard Wendorf's stolen Discover card.
One of the five made a call from Baton Rouge to Charity Keesee's family,
and soon after, the five were caught. Ferrell was videotaped making two
slightly different confessions, and four of the suspects -- the two
guys, Dana Cooper and Heather Wendorf -- were charged with murder.
Keesee was charged with being an accessory after the fact. A grand jury
indicted Ferrell and Anderson on December 17, 1996 but refused to indict
Heather Wendorf.
The Trial and Sentencing
The trial against Ferrell began on February 12, 1998. As the state
offered its opening arguments, Ferrell pled guilty to the four charges
against him: armed burglary, armed robbery, and two counts of
first-degree murder. The jury empanelled for his trial was then given
the task of determining if Ferrell should be given life in prison or
death in Florida's electric chair.
Ferrell's lawyers argued that his young age should be a mitigating
factor in his sentence, as well as his emotional age, which a
psychiatrist placed at three years of age and his extreme emotional and
mental disturbance.
On February 23, the jury voted unanimously to give Ferrell the death
sentence. After additional testimony from both sides, Judge Jerry
Lockett accepted the jury recommendation four days later and sentenced
Ferrell to the electric chair. He is now the youngest person in Florida
to sit on death row.
After the sentencing, Judge Lockett also urged prosecutors to charge
Heather Wendorf, pointing to unanswered questions about her parents'
death and saying, "There is genuine evil in this world." Ferrell's
mother, Sondra Gibson, said she felt her son did not deserve the death
penalty, but endorsed the judge's suggestion about Wendorf.
"There's one person walking around who's just as guilty as he is," she
said.
--
Kathy E
"I can only please one person a day, today is NOT your day, and tomorrow
isn't looking too good for you either"
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