Ohio Executes Trucker Who Went On Killing Spree

LUCASVILLE, Ohio -- A former Oregon truck driver who went on a multistate killing spree was executed Tuesday for murdering an Ohio man who gave him a ride in February 1991.

John Fautenberry, 45, was pronounced dead at 10:37 a.m. at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, about two hours after the U.S. Supreme Court denied a request to delay his execution on a claim that he had brain damage.

Fautenberry was sentenced to death for killing Joseph Daron Jr., 46, who picked up the hitchhiking Fautenberry east of Cincinnati. Court records show Daron pleaded for his life before Fautenberry shot him and threw his body into a wooded area near the Ohio River.

Fautenberry shook his head and said no when technicians asked him whether he wanted to make a final statement before being executed. He had no family members or friends present.

Fautenberry wore black-rimmed glasses and remained passive during the execution process. He walked into the death chamber unassisted and lay on the gurney in preparation for lethal injection.

Technicians had some difficulty inserting the shunts into Fautenberry's right arm, and blood pooled on the bandages. His arms and chest convulsed slightly and his Adam's apple jerked for about five minutes after the lethal drugs began to flow about 10:25 a.m.

His Ohio defense attorney, Dennis Sipe, said he was concerned about the lengthy shunt insertion process.

"It was obvious there was a heavy flow of blood," Sipe said. "It seemed like it took a while to get those things installed."

Fautenberry kept rubbing the fingers of his left hand together until about a minute later, when his fingers grew still. At 10:28 a.m., the warden shook him on the shoulder and called his name, part of Ohio's revised execution procedure. Fautenberry did not respond, and a second dose of the injection was not used.

Fautenberry gave up his right to a trial by jury in Cincinnati and pleaded no contest July 23, 1992, to two counts each of aggravated murder and grand theft and one count of aggravated robbery in Daron's death.

Daron's daughter Rachel, who was four when her father was murdered, attended the execution with her mother, but they remained in a waiting room and did not watch the procedure.

"I just saw him go in the hearse, and that was good enough for me," Rachel Daron said afterward.

The 22-year-old said she wished the execution had come sooner, but she did not expect to hear any last words from Fautenberry.

"I knew he's not sorry," she said. "He didn't care. And even if he did, it's not going to bring my dad back or any of the other victims back.'

Fautenberry also confessed to killing four people in three other states - Alaska, Oregon and New Jersey - during a five-month period in late 1990 and early 1991.

Six people watched the execution on behalf of victims' families, including Charlene Farmer, the mother of Gary Farmer, a fellow trucker whom Fautenberry was convicted of killing.

Visibly shaken, Charlene Farmer clutched several photographs of her son and held them to her lips during the execution process. Afterward, she said she had traveled to Ohio from Tennessee for the execution with the hope that Fautenberry would finally apologize to her for killing her son.

"He saw me. I know he did," she said, describing Fautenberry's behavior during the execution. "He turned and looked at me."

Farmer, of Springfield, Tenn., said she believed Fautenberry died an easy death.

"My son laid in the truck for they don't know how long with a bullet in his brain," she said.

In New Jersey, Fautenberry was convicted of manslaughter for killing Farmer, a fellow trucker, and received a life sentence.

In Alaska, Fautenberry pleaded guilty in the March 1991 fatal stabbing of Jefferson Diffee of Juneau and received a 99-year sentence.

Fautenberry confessed to shooting two people in the head in Oregon. Donald Nutley, whom Fautenberry he met at a truck stop, was shot dead after the two went target shooting in November 1990. Christine Guthrie, a Portland bank teller, was killed in February 1991 after Fautenberry returned to the state from Ohio.

Sipe had argued that the state should pay a neuropsychologist to examine Fautenberry, whose last mental exam was 13 years ago. Sipe contended that Fautenberry should not be executed because he has brain damage from a childhood accident and from an injury while serving in the U.S. Navy.

Ohio has put 30 men to death since it reinstated the death penalty in 1999. Fautenberry is the first inmate executed in Ohio since June 3.

Charlene Farmer said her family was destroyed by the death of her son, who was 26 when he died. She said he was an active Boy Scout and described him as a "big Momma baby."

Her three other children, now grown, used to come home every weekend, she said. But since her son died, it's too painful for them. During family holidays, they still often leave the dinner table to go cry in the bathroom, she said.

"His pain has ended," she said of Fautenberry. "Mine hasn't. Mine will only end when I'm gone."

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