Summary:

On the run after escaping from the Lubbock County Jail, Vaughn broke into the home of a friend's mother, Dora Watkins, and killed her.

Ms. Watkins was found strangled with a cloth bound tightly around her neck. There was severe facial damage with bleeding from the nose, and she had been sexually assaulted and dragged across the floor. Her home had been ransacked and her checkbook, credit card, driver's license, and jewelry were missing.

Vaughn pawned the jewelry, including her wedding ring, and was arrested in after he unsuccessfully attempted to cash Ms. Watkins' checks.

When he was arrested, he had Ms. Watkins' driver's license and checkbook in his possession.

Final Meal:

A double meat cheeseburger with everything, a baked potato, a salad, a Coke and butter pecan ice cream.

Final Words:

Vaughn smiled, laughed and mouthed to relatives that he loved them, but had no final statement.

ClarkProsecutor.org

Texas Attorney General

Media Advisory

Friday, May 2, 2003

Roger Dale Vaughn Scheduled to be Executed.

AUSTIN - Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott offers the following information on Roger Dale Vaughn, who is scheduled to be executed after 6 p.m. on Tuesday, May 6, 2003.

On May 27, 1992, Roger Dale Vaughn was sentenced to death for the capital murder of 63-year-old Dora Watkins, which occurred in Wilbarger County, Texas, on Oct. 16, 1991. A summary of the evidence presented at trial follows:

FACTS OF THE CRIME

On Oct. 14, 1991, Roger Dale Vaughn escaped from the Lubbock County Jail. Under the guise of being recently released from prison, Vaughn sought out a friend, Larry Shaw, who agreed to drive Vaughn around town and offered to lend Vaughn money.

That evening in Shaw's car, Vaughn struck Shaw on the head, rendering him unconscious. When Shaw regained consciousness, he jumped from the moving car. Vaughn chased after him, beat him unconscious, and left him in a field, partially paralyzed. Vaughn stole Shaw's identification and fled in Shaw's car to Electra, Texas.

The next day, Vaughn visited friends in Electra. While there, he attempted to contact another friend in Vernon, Texas, and ended up speaking with the friend's mother, Ms. Watkins. Vaughn made arrangements to stop by her house the next evening when he would be in Vernon.

The next afternoon, Vaughn burglarized his aunt and uncle's house in Vernon, stealing two pairs of boots and two rifles. He pawned the rifles in Wichita Falls and returned to Vernon.

That evening, Vaughn murdered Ms. Watkins. Ms. Watkins was found strangled with a cloth bound tightly around her neck. There was severe facial damage with bleeding from the nose, and she had been sexually assaulted and dragged across the floor. Her home had been ransacked and her checkbook, credit card, driver's license, and jewelry were missing.

Vaughn traveled to Wichita Falls and pawned Ms. Watkins' jewelry, including her wedding ring. Vaughn also cashed several of her checks, telling one vendor he was the victim's son and telling another he was her husband.

On Oct. 17, 1991, Vaughn was arrested in Wichita Falls after he unsuccessfully attempted to cash another of Ms. Watkins' checks.

When he was arrested, he was wearing one of the stolen pair of boots, and he also had Ms. Watkins' driver's license and checkbook in his possession. In addition, several pawn receipts were found in his pocket, with the claim checks made out to Shaw.

One pawn broker, who had refused to lend money to Vaughn because he did not match the physical description shown on Shaw's license, copied the license plate number of Vaughn's vehicle, which was later identified as Shaw's stolen car.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

• May 27, 1992 - Vaughn was sentenced to death for the robbery/murder of Dora Watkins in the 46th Judicial District Court of Wilbarger County, Texas.

• March 29, 1995 - The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Vaughn's conviction and sentence on direct appeal.

• September 26, 1995 - The Supreme Court of the United States denied petition for a writ of certiorari on direct appeal from the Court of Criminal Appeals.

• December 10, 1997 - The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied Vaughn's state application for writ of habeas corpus.

• July 31, 2001 - The United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas denied federal habeas corpus relief.

• July 25, 2002 - The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit denied a certificate of appealability ("COA").

• February 24, 2003 - The Supreme Court of the United States denied petition for a writ of certiorari following the Fifth Circuit denial of COA.

• March 27, 2003 - The 46th Judicial District Court of Wilbarger County, Texas, issued an order setting the execution date for May 6, 2003.

CRIMINAL HISTORY

• February 28, 1973 - Vaughn was court-martialed and found guilty by the Army for being absent without leave. He was sentenced to 30 days hard labor and a reduction in pay and rank.

• April 23, 1973 - Vaughn was discharged from active duty for "unsuitability - character and behavior disorders."

• December 14, 1977 - Vaughn was convicted of burglary of a habitation and placed on 10 years probation.

• February 28, 1978 - Vaughn's probation was revoked for the aggravated assault of two individuals he cut with a knife.

• February 24, 1986 - Vaughn was found guilty of receiving stolen property in Wyoming. He was sentenced to a term of not less than four nor more than five years. His sentence was probated.

• June 4, 1986 - Vaughn was convicted of forgery and sentenced to prison for a term of not less than two and a half years nor more than five years. His probation request was denied.

• August 8, 1991 - Vaughn was arrested for forgery and robbery in Lubbock, Texas. The victim in the robbery case was an 86-year-old woman. As Vaughn fled the scene, he threatened several bystanders. It was for these charges that Vaughn was being held in the Lubbock County Jail prior to his escape and the capital murder of Ms. Watkins.

ProDeathPenalty.com

Roger Vaughn was sentenced to death in the 1991 strangling of Dora Watkins of Vernon during a robbery. At the time of the attack, Vaughn was an escapee from the Lubbock County Jail.

He had been charged with forgery and robbery. Dora was at home when Vaughn broke into her residence. Dora was raped and then strangled with a piece of cloth. Jewelry and bank checks were stolen and Vaughn's fingerprints were later found on Dora's wallet. At the time of the murder, Vaughn was an escapee from the Lubbock County jail.

He had escaped after being charged with forgery and robbery in a separate incident. On the same day of Dora's murder, Vaughn had also burglarized the home of his own aunt, who lived just a few blocks away from Dora. Vaughn had previously been convicted of burglary of a habitation for which he served 2 1/2 years of a 10 year sentence before being paroled.

Woman's Killer is Executed

After jail escape in '91, he strangled 66-year-old victim

Houston Chronicle

AP - May 7, 2003

HUNTSVILLE -- A former electrician with an extensive criminal past was executed Tuesday for killing a 66-year-old woman after he had escaped from the Lubbock County Jail.

Roger Dale Vaughn smiled, laughed and mouthed to relatives that he loved them, but had no final statement. Instead, he asked a prison chaplain to read Psalm 103, which tells about God's compassion and repeatedly uses and ends with the phrase, "Praise the Lord, oh my soul."

Just before the lethal drugs began to take effect, Vaughn said, "My hand is about to pop down here," turning his head toward his left hand, where a needle was inserted. He gasped and sputtered and was pronounced dead at 6:26 p.m., 10 minutes after the flow of drugs began. Among the witnesses were the victim's two sons and a daughter.

Vaughn, 48, was a trusty at the jail more than 11 years ago when he fled, stole a vehicle and three days later was arrested for strangling and raping Dora Watkins during a burglary of her home in Vernon, about 150 miles east of Lubbock. The U.S. Supreme Court refused in February to review Vaughn's capital murder case and no late appeals were filed to try to block the execution, the 14th in Texas this year.

"He's just a mean fellow," said Dan Mike Bird, the Wilbarger County district attorney who convinced a jury that Vaughn should be put to death. "I've never murdered anybody," Vaughn insisted last week in an interview on death row. "I just fit the bill." He was being held on forgery and robbery charges in Lubbock when he fled the county jail Oct. 14, 1991.

He tracked down a friend, convinced him he had been paroled, then got the friend drunk, knocked him out and stole his truck and money. He drove east to Electra, midway between Wichita Falls and Vernon, and tried to call Watkins' son, an acquaintance, to get some money. Instead, he reached Dora Watkins and arranged to stop by the next day. Vaughn said he visited the victim, then left. Watkins -- badly beaten about the head, strangled with a cloth and raped -- was found dead by people coming for a church meeting at her house.

Texas Execution Information Center by David Carson

Txexecutions.org

Roger Dale Vaughn, 48, was executed by lethal injection on 6 May 2003 in Huntsville, Texas for the rape and murder of a woman during a burglary of her home.

On 14 October 1991, Vaughn, then 37, fled from the Lubbock County jail, where he was a trusty who was facing charges of forgery and robbery. Vaughn then located a friend, Larry Shaw, and told him he had been paroled. Vaughn got Shaw drunk, stole his car, and beat him severely until he was partially paralyzed. He also stole Shaw's identification.

The next day, Vaughn attempted to contact a friend by telephone. He ended up speaking with the friend's mother, Dora Watkins, 66. Vaughn made arrangements to stop by her house in Vernon the next evening.

On the afternoon of 16 October, Vaughn burglarized his aunt and uncle's house in Vernon, stealing two pairs of boots and two rifles. He pawned the rifles in Wichita Falls, then returned to Vernon. That evening, Vaughn, then 37, broke into Watkins' house. Vaughn sexually assaulted Watkins, then strangled her to death with a piece of cloth. Vaughn stole some checks and jewelry from the home.

Vaughn was arrested the next day in Wichita Falls after an unsuccessful attempt to cash one of Watkins' checks. He had Watkins' identification and checkbooks in his possession. He also had several pawn receipts made out in Larry Shaw's name, and was driving Shaw's car. According to the prosecutor, Watkins had a bite mark on her face that matched an impression taken of Vaughn's teeth.

Vaughn had a previous conviction for burglary of a habitation. He was sentenced in 1977 to 10 years' probation, but after only two months, his probation was revoked because of an aggravated assault, and he was sent to prison. He was paroled 2½ years later, in 1980. Vaughn was granted clemency in August 1985 and was discharged from parole.

However, in 1986 he was convicted in Wyoming of receiving stolen property and put on probation. Later that year, he was convicted of forgery and sent to prison. The date of his release was not reported. He was arrested on fraud and robbery charges in August 1991 and sent to the Lubbock County jail.

Vaughn was also court-martialled by the U.S. Army in 1973 and convicted of being AWOL. He was subsequently discharged for character and behavior disorders.

A jury convicted Vaughn of capital murder in May 1992 and sentenced him to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence in March 1995. All of his subsequent appeals in state and federal court were denied.

"I've never murdered anybody," Vaughn insisted in an interview from death row the week before his execution. "I just fit the bill." Vaughn admitted that he visited Dora Watkins the day after he "got stupid and walked off," from jail, but he said that he didn't rob her and didn't kill her. He said that he later picked up a hitchhiker who left a package inside his car. That package contained jewelry, credit cards, and a checkbook belonging to Watkins. "I hocked the rings," he said. "I needed money. I wrote a couple of checks."

At his execution, Vaughn smiled, laughed, and mouthed to relatives that he loved them, but he declined to make a last statement. At Vaughn's request, the prison chaplain read Psalm 103 during the execution procedure. After the warden signaled for the lethal injection to begin, Vaughn turned his head toward his left hand, where a needle was inserted, and said, "My hand is about to pop down here." He then succumbed to the chemicals. He was pronounced dead at 6:26 p.m.

Man Who Raped, Murdered Elderly Woman Executed in Texas

TheDeathPenalty.com

May 6, 2003

HUNTSVILLE, Tex. - A man who escaped from a county jail and then raped and murdered a 66-year-old woman was executed by lethal injection Tuesday night at the state prison. Roger Dale Vaughn, 48, became the 14th convicted killer executed in Texas in 2003. Two more men are scheduled for execution this month.

Vaughn gave no last statement, but requested that a chaplain read a passage of the Bible before the lethal chemical injection began. Vaughn, 48, was prounced dead at 6:26 p.m. - about 10 minutes after the lethal injection began.

His victim was Dora Wakins, who was found strangled in her Vernon home. She had been strangled with cloth. The murder occurred on October 16, 1991.

Vaughn’s fingerprints were later found on her wallet. Vaughn had previously spent time in a Texas prison for burglary and in Wyoming for forgery. Before the murder, Vaughn was being held on robbery and forgery charges in the Lubbock County jail. A trustee at the jail, he escaped October 14, 1991.

National Coalition to the Death Penalty

Roger Vaughn (TX) - May 6, 2003

The state of Texas is scheduled to execute Roger Vaughn May 6 for the murder of 66-year-old Dora Watkins in Vernon. Vaughn, a white man, allegedly strangled Watkins to death on Oct. 16, 1991 after escaping from the Lubbock County Jail.

In his appeals, Vaughn argued that he suffered the effects of poor legal representation, and that given effective assistance of counsel, he might have avoided the death penalty. Although nearly every death row inmate files an ineffective assistance appeal, Vaughn’s is somewhat noteworthy: his attorneys failed to investigate a potential alibi defense. They also failed to raise a proper objection to evidence of extraneous crimes, which could very well have made the difference between a life sentence and the death penalty.

Vaughn also argued that the state’s death penalty scheme, which places future dangerousness at issue but precludes the jury from considering parole eligibility, is unconstitutional.

He claimed that if his jurors had known about the parole structure in life sentences – had they known he would not even be eligible for parole for at least 35 years, or until age 72 – they would not have sentenced him to death. However, the state’s perpetuation of the myth that people serving life sentences often leave prison on parole in 15 years caused them to weigh future dangerousness differently, and as a result, send him to death row.

The fact that Texas does not have life without the possibility of parole is likely one of the critical reasons why it leads the nation in executions. Texas has executed more than 300 people since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976, and has accounted for more than half of the executions in the United States this year.

In the past two months, every major newspaper in Texas has run an editorial supporting a moratorium on executions, citing concerns ranging from ineffective counsel to prosecutorial misconduct. Please contact Gov. Rick Perry to voice your concerns over the death penalty process in Texas and request a stay of execution for Roger Vaughn.

Texas Executes Former Escapee for 1991 Rape-Murder

CNN.com

May 7, 2003

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (Reuters) -- Texas Tuesday executed a former electrician who raped and murdered an elderly woman after escaping from jail. Roger Dale Vaughan, 48, was executed by lethal injection for the 1991 murder and robbery of Dora Watkins, becoming the 14th killer put to death this year in Texas.

Vaughan was condemned for raping and strangling to death the 66-year-old woman in her Vernon, Texas home on October 16, 1991, two days after he broke out of the Lubbock County Jail. Already a convicted felon, Vaughan was being held on forgery charges before his jailbreak set off a series of new crimes including burglaries, thefts, and the vicious beating of a friend.

Vaughan left his friend partially paralyzed in a field, then stole his truck and drove 150 miles (241 km) west to Vernon. There, he burglarized the home of his aunt and uncle, and that night went to Watkins' home. He was captured the day after the murder at a Wichita Falls pawn shop trying to cash one of Watkins' checks. At another shop, he had pawned her wedding ring.

Asked for a final statement as he lay strapped to the gurney in the death chamber at the state prison in downtown Huntsville, Vaughan responded "No thank you." Watkins family and Vaughan's three children watched from separate rooms attached to the death chamber. For his final meal, Vaughan requested a double meat cheeseburger with everything, a baked potato, a salad, a Coke and butter pecan ice cream.

He was the 303rd inmate executed by Texas since the state resumed capital punishment in 1982, six years after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a nationwide death penalty ban. Two others are scheduled to be executed this month in Texas, by far the nation's busiest death penalty state.

Deathrow.at

Execution date set for May 06, 2003

To anyone who may care, I am Roger Dale Vaughn #999029. I am a 47 year old, father of four, a husband of twenty five years, a brother to six and on death row in Texas. I can never begin to tell you how serious this is. Texas is one of thirty six states in the United States that has capital punishment. Texas kills more people in a year than all the other states together. The court systems are not fair for all people. The poor are almost always found guilty because the attorneys want money, and without money they do as little as they can. It cost many people in Texas their lives, but the courts never change.

I'm in the fight of my life, and need your help. Everything cost money and I don't have and to fight with. I need you to want to be my friend, to want to fight with me to stay alive. I'll be going through a long and frustrating procedure. One that most men become depressed and lose their selves to the darkness of pain, I want to win and I need you to help. Please write and tell me you want to fight with me. You want to help with being a friend and with some financially. Be my helper to stay alive. Thanks.

Roger Dale Vaughn #999029
Polunsky Unit D.R
12002 FM 350 South
Livingston Texas 77351 USA

Lamp of Hope

My name is Roger Vaughn. I am 43 years old, brown hair and green eyes. I'm a Libra, born on October 11, 1954. I'm 6' tall. I'm a natural Texan. I came from the northern portion, way up there by all the Indians in Oklahoma!

I would like some friends to write to. I will not be prejudice against the fellas, but females would be preferable. I mean, let's face it, this is prison, and it's not like I'm getting much female companionship here... My interests are: reading good novels, country music (and classic rock), hollywood movies (I bet I can name more stars than you!), sports, rodeos and cars. Basic guy stuff. I'll answer all letters for the sake of courtesy.

Fight the Death Penalty in the USA

Roger Dale Vaughn, 48, 2003-05-06, Texas

A former electrician with an extensive criminal past was executed Tuesday for killing a 66-year-old woman after he had escaped from the Lubbock County Jail. Roger Dale Vaughn smiled, laughed and mouthed to relatives that he loved them, but he had no final statement. Instead Vaughn asked a prison chaplain to read Psalm 103, which talks about God's compassion and repeatedly uses and ends with the phrase, "Praise the Lord, oh my soul."

Just before the lethal drugs began to take effect, he said, "My hand is about to pop down here," turning his head toward his left hand, where a needle was inserted. He gasped and sputtered and was pronounced dead at 6:26 p.m., 10 minutes after the lethal drugs began. Among the witnesses were the victim's 2 sons and a daughter.

Vaughn, 48, was a trusty at the jail more than 11 years ago when he fled, stole a car and three days later was arrested for strangling and raping Dora Watkins during a burglary of her home in Vernon, about 150 miles west of Lubbock. The U.S. Supreme Court refused in February to review Vaughn's capital murder case and no late appeals were filed to try to block the execution.

"He's just a mean fellow," said Dan Mike Bird, the Wilbarger County district attorney who convinced a jury Vaughn should be put to death. "I've never murdered anybody," Vaughn insisted last week in an interview on death row. "I just fit the bill." Vaughn was being held on forgery and robbery charges in Lubbock when he fled the county jail Oct. 14, 1991. "I got stupid and walked off," he said.

He tracked down a friend, convinced him he had been paroled, then got the friend drunk, knocked him out and stole his truck and money. He drove east to Electra, midway between Wichita Falls and Vernon, and tried to call Watkins' son, an acquaintance, to get some money. Instead, he reached Dora Watkins and made arrangements to stop by the next day. Vaughn said he visited the victim, then left. "I didn't know the woman died," he said from prison, contending he later picked up a hitchhiker who left a package in his car. Inside the package, he said, were jewelry, credit cards and a checkbook belonging to Watkins. "I hocked the rings," he said. "I needed money. I wrote a couple of checks."

Watkins, badly beaten about the head, strangled with a cloth and raped, was found dead in her kitchen by people showing up for a church meeting at her house. "Anybody who saw what I saw when I went into that kitchen would have made the same decision I made," Bird said, explaining why he sought the death penalty in the case. "It was a war scene in there in the kitchen."

Evidence showed Vaughn pawned the jewelry, including Watkins' wedding ring, in Wichita Falls and cashed several checks. One pawnbroker who refused to lend him money wrote down his license plate number, which was tracked to the stolen car. "I was smoking crack, I wasn't in full control," Vaughn said of his arrest Oct. 17, 1991, a day after the slaying. "I was a sitting duck. "There were some stupid moves I made ... stupid blunders, no reason why. Just stupidity," he said.

Bird disputed Vaughn's contention someone else was responsible for the slaying, saying evidence pointed to Vaughn. "The most damning evidence is she had a bite on her face and that bite absolutely matched with his teeth impression," the prosecutor said. "I didn't know at the time, but learned through this case that bite marks are a lot like fingerprints."

Vaughn was court martialed from the Army for being AWOL and discharged for character and behavior disorders. In 1977 he received 10 years probation for burglary in Gray County, in the Texas Panhandle. The probation was revoked when he assaulted 2 people with a knife.

In 1986, he was convicted of receiving stolen property in Wyoming, but got off with probation. The same year, he got up to 5 years for forgery in that state. He was back in Texas in August 1991 when he was arrested in Lubbock, where he was in jail when he escaped.

(sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin)

Roger Dale Vaughn