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Carlos
Lamont ORDWAY
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics:
Robbery - Drugs
Number of victims: 2
Date of murders:
August 11, 2007
Date of arrest:
Same day
Date of birth: June 21, 1981
Victims profile:
Patrick Lewis, 21, and Rodriques Turner, 25 (his
alleged accomplices in a Louisville bank robbery)
Method of murder:
Shooting
Location: Lexington, Fayette County, Kentucky, USA
Status:
Sentenced to death on October 29, 2010
Carlos Lamont
Ordway, DOB 6-21-81, was sentenced to death on October 29, 2010 in
Fayette County for two counts of murder.
On August 11, 2007
Carlos Ordway killed 2 men in a gun fight in Lexington, KY. Both
victims were found in their vehicle. One was pronounced dead at
the scene and one was pronounced dead at the hospital. Ordway
fled the scene of the crime but was apprehended later on the same day.
Judge Goodwine sentences man to death for
Lexington murders
By Greg Kocher - Kentucky.com
October 30, 2010
A former Louisville man was sentenced to death
Friday for the 2007 murders of two men in Lexington.
Carlos Ordway, 29, was convicted in July of fatally
shooting Patrick Lewis, 21, and Rodrieques Turner, 25, both of
Louisville, while the two were inside a car on Appian Way.
Before Ordway was sentenced Friday, public defender
Sam Cox noted that even Turner's mother, in a letter to the judge
filed in the court record, said that she would be satisfied with life
without parole.
Cox and co-public defender Dennis Shepherd had
argued during the trial that Ordway acted in self-defense. But at the
conclusion of a two-hour sentencing hearing, Fayette Circuit Judge
Pamela Goodwine said "the jury chose not to believe Mr. Ordway's
self-defense theory."
The jury recommended the death penalty, "and this
court is going to carry out the sentence of the jury," Goodwine said.
Goodwine said she had reviewed similar
death-penalty cases involving multiple murders.
The defense said that Ordway grabbed Turner's gun
and shot the two men after one of them put a gun to Ordway's head and
took drugs from him.
The judge rejected a defense motion that there was
insufficient evidence to put Ordway to death.
"We had a thoroughly circumstantial case, and at
the very best we had a guess as to what happened in that moving
vehicle, in that neighborhood at 10 o'clock at night," Shepherd said.
But Fayette Commonwealth's Attorney Ray Larson said
"juries don't want to sentence people to death. In this instance, the
jury believed that the evidence was so strong against that defendant,
that they believed that that was the appropriate punishment for what
he did."
Goodwine agreed, saying "the evidence supports the
finding of the jury on two counts of intentional murder."
Goodwine rejected a defense argument that Ordway
should not be sentenced to death in the name of "conservation of the
commonwealth's resources" during a time of recession.
"I don't think anybody would argue that the
commonwealth is in recession, and that there is an added cost to
putting someone on Death Row. There is no question about that,"
Goodwine said. "But quite honestly, I believe ... that is a debate
that is more appropriate to be addressed in the legislature."
She also rejected a defense motion that execution
should be removed as a sentencing option "because of a historical bias
in using the death penalty against African-American defendants."
"Obviously, you don't have to explain to me the
historical predicament of African-Americans," said Goodwine, who is
black. "But, again, I think the job of a trial judge in imposing a
sentence is to do so color-blind. ... I try to do that in any case,
regardless of the race of the defendant."
Ordway spoke only during the beginning of the
hearing, when he asked Goodwine why he was handcuffed and shackled,
and why the courtroom had eight law enforcement officers watching him
in the courtroom.
"I ain't disrespected nobody," Ordway said.
Goodwine responded that as a convicted felon,
Ordway no longer had a presumption of innocence, and that he was being
treated as any similar defendant would.
Fayette jury recommends death penalty in 2007
slayings
By Josh Kelgey - Kentucky.com
July 30, 2010
A Fayette Circuit Court jury recommended the death
penalty Thursday night for Carlos Ordway of Louisville for the
slayings of two men in 2007.
The jury returned a guilty verdict on two murder
counts Wednesday. Other potential sentences were 20 to 50 years, life
in prison, life without parole for at least 25 years and life without
parole.
Formal sentencing by Judge Pamela Goodwine is
scheduled Sept. 10.
Dennis Shepherd, one of two public defenders who
represented Ordway, said he was "certain there would be an appeal."
Commonwealth's Attorney Ray Larson declined comment, saying it was
inappropriate until after formal sentencing.
Ordway, 29, was accused of fatally shooting Patrick
Lewis, 21, and Rodrieques Turner, 25, both of Louisville, while the
two were inside a car on Appian Way in Lexington. Defense attorneys
argued during the trial that Ordway acted in self-defense.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys were given the
chance to address the jury one last time before asking them to select
a penalty. Both Larson and public defender Sam Cox focused largely on
Ordway's troubled childhood.
Cox told jurors of a mother who didn't love Ordway,
a father who wasn't there, and an 8-year-old Ordway who slept with
hammers and screwdrivers in his bed to protect himself from visions.
"He was afraid," Cox said. "He saw things."
Larson said those difficulties provide no excuse
for the killings and 13 other convictions in Ordway's past involving
using a gun in a crime.
"Practically all children raised in those kind of
circumstances do not commit murder," Larson told jurors. "We're sorry
... but that does not give him the right to take a life, let alone
two."
Prosecutors said Ordway fired a gun into a car that
had crashed on Appian Way on Aug. 11, 2007. Lewis was hit five times,
Turner three, Larson said.
The defense argued that the killing was
self-defense, saying Turner and Lewis robbed Ordway. Ordway grabbed
Turner's gun and shot the two men after one of them put a gun to
Ordway's head and took drugs from him, the defense said.
Though the jury rejected self-defense, Cox asked
them Thursday to consider "mitigating circumstances" when selecting a
sentence for Ord way, saying the death penalty would cause his family,
including his mother, sisters and children, to suffer. Larson argued
otherwise.
"Carlos Ordway is a very dangerous man," he told
jurors. "His reaction is always to shoot first.
"The only real appropriate penalty is death."
Appian Way double-murder called self defense
Shawntaye Hopkins - Kentucky.com
July 21, 2010
Defense attorneys for a Louisville man accused of
killing two men in a car on Appian Way about three years ago say the
defendant did not act guilty immediately following the shooting
because he had acted in self-defense.
Prosecutors, however, say Carlos Ordway, 29, fired
shots into a car that had crashed, killing Patrick Lewis, 21, and
Rodrieques Turner, 25, both of Louisville. After firing those fatal
shots, prosecutors say, Ordway then attempted to car-jack two vehicles
in the area.
The contrasting viewpoints on what unfolded the
night of Aug. 11, 2007, were offered during opening statements in the
capital murder trial that began Tuesday morning in Fayette Circuit
Court. The trial before Judge Pamela Goodwine is expected to end by
July 29.
Investigators say Ordway was riding in the front
passenger seat of the vehicle that was driven by Turner. Lewis was
seated directly behind Ordway as the trio traveled from Louisville to
Lexington.
The three men were heading to Lexington because
Ordway had drugs to sell and Turner had made the arrangements with the
buyers, defense attorney Sam Cox said. Ordway did not know Lewis, a
longtime friend of Turner, was also going to Lexington. They picked up
Lewis before leaving town.
Cox said Turner and Lewis robbed Ordway while in
the area of Armstrong Mill Road and Appian Way. Lewis put a gun to the
back of Ordway's head, and Turner also had a firearm. Ordway handed
Turner some Ecstasy pills and gave Lewis cocaine. But, Cox said, Lewis
wasn't satisfied.
"He had no choice but to fight for his life," Cox said of Ordway.
The defense said Ordway grabbed Turner's gun while
Lewis was putting the drugs in his underwear and then shot Lewis.
Ordway then shot Turner and the car crashed, Cox said.
Cox said Ordway shot the men again once he was
outside the car because Lewis had started to get out of the vehicle
and the other gun had fallen near Turner.
At least one witnesses said he saw Ordway open
Lewis' door and shoot into the vehicle. Other witnesses could not
recall how the door was opened.
Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Lori Boling told
the jury that witnesses reported Ordway was standing outside the
vehicle after it crashed and reached into the car and shot the two
men.
After the shooting, Boling said Ordway attempted to
stop two passing vehicles and tried to force the occupants out of
their cars.
Susan Jeffries of Lexington testified that she was
traveling with her mother-in-law when a man she later identified as
Ordway approached the car and pointed a gun at the window. Jeffries
said Ordway wanted them to get out of the car.
But defense attorneys said Ordway did not attempt
to flee and did not try to steal any vehicles.
Cox said Ordway yelled for the women who were near the intersection to
get out of the area because it was dangerous; not to get out of the
car.
Defense attorney Dennis Shepherd questioned whether
Jeffries misread the situation. He asked her whether she saw a
difference in two phrases: "Get out" and "Get out of the car."
Jeffries said she did not see the difference, and
said Ordway was pulling on the door handles.
The trial resumes at 9 a.m. Wednesday.
In addition to murder, Ordway is charged with
tampering with physical evidence and being a persistent felony
offender.
