January 2010 Executions

Five killers were executed in January 2010. They had murdered at least 7 people.
One killer was given a stay in January 2010. He has murdered at least 4 people.

Date of scheduled execution	State	Victim name	Inmate name	Status
January 7, 2010	Ohio	Sohail Darwish	Vernon Smith	executed
During the afternoon of May 26, 1993, Vernon Lamont Smith met up with Herbert Bryson and Lamont Layson at a dirt basketball court in a park at Highland and Maplewood in Toledo. The trio discussed "hitting a lick," i.e., committing a robbery. The group got in Bryson’s car, and Smith directed them to the corner of Woodstock and Avondale, where the Woodstock Market was located. Layson remained in the car while Smith and Bryson headed toward the carryout. Jeremiah Bishop, who was two houses down from the Woodstock Market at that time, saw Smith and another person enter the carryout. Bryson testified that after he and Smith entered the carryout, they noticed only two people in the store, both of whom were behind the counter. Bryson asked about a type of beer, and the storeowner, Sohail Darwish, came around the counter and walked over to the cooler to assist him. Darwish retrieved a forty-ounce beer bottle from the cooler and placed it on the counter. Bryson did the same. As Darwish was ringing up the sale on the cash register, Smith brandished a black gun and ordered Darwish to "open the cash register, motherf*er." Darwish, who was standing next to Bryson, put his hands up in the air and did not resist. Bryson went behind the counter and hit several buttons on the cash register, trying to open it. Bryson then ordered Darwish to open the cash register, which he did. Darwish then put his hands back up in the air. Osand Tahboub, a former co-worker who was visiting Darwish at the carryout at that time, testified that the gunman then told Darwish to "move and empty your wallet, motherer." As Darwish was reaching for his wallet, Smith fired a single shot, hitting Darwish in the chest. Smith then ordered Tahboub to empty his wallet as well, and the two assailants then fled the scene. Darwish was able to push the alarm button before he fell to the floor. As a result of the single gunshot wound to the upper left side of his chest, Darwish bled to death. After Smith and Bryson left the carryout, Layson, who was waiting in Bryson’s car, noticed Smith holding a gun in his hand when he and Bryson climbed back into the automobile. According to Layson, Smith exclaimed, "Dang, I forgot the beer." When Bryson asked Smith "why did he do it," Smith replied that he shot the man "in the arm" because "he moved too slow," and that "he took too long opening the cash register." According to Layson, Smith then said, "F** him, he in our neighborhood anyway. He shouldn’t be in our neighborhood with a store no way." Later, Smith and Bryson split the money taken in the robbery, which was apparently over $400. They also gave Layson all the stolen food stamps from the robbery plus $50. On June 9, approximately two weeks after the murder, police detective Dennis Richardson received information that persons possibly involved in a homicide were incarcerated in the Sandusky County Jail. Based on this and other information he received from sources, Richardson made up an eight-man photo array, including a photo of Herbert Bryson, to show to Tahboub. The next day, upon viewing the array, Tahboub selected Bryson’s photo as "not the guy with the gun, but the other guy." Based on this information and the fact that computer records showed Smith as a known associate of Bryson, Richardson compiled a second photo array that included a picture of Smith. Richardson showed Tahboub the second photo array, and Tahboub immediately selected Smith’s photo as that of the gunman. Consequently, Smith was arrested, and along with Bryson and Layson, was indicted by the grand jury in the Darwish murder. In count one, Smith was charged with aggravated felony-murder during an aggravated robbery. A death penalty specification attached to this count alleged that Smith was the principal offender in the aggravated murder during a robbery. The second count charged Bryson and Layson with aggravated felony-murder during an aggravated robbery. Counts three through five charged all three defendants with aggravated robbery of the carryout, of Darwish, and of Tahboub respectively. All five counts also carried firearm specifications. Prior to trial, defense counsel informed the trial judge that the prosecution had offered Smith a plea bargain to avoid the death penalty. However, Smith declined the plea offer contrary to the advice of defense counsel. At an in-chambers conference, Smith reiterated his desire to decline the plea bargain and proceed to trial. A jury trial was held wherein both Bryson and Layson testified for the state as a result of plea agreements. Bryson, who was in the carryout at the time of the shooting, testified that Smith fired the gunshot that caused Darwish’s death. Layson testified that Smith exhibited no remorse when he admitted that he had shot the carryout owner. Tahboub also testified and identified Smith as the murderer. The defense presented no witnesses and made no closing argument at the conclusion of trial. After deliberation, the jury found Smith guilty as charged. At the mitigation hearing, several witnesses testified on Smith’s behalf, including his wife, mother, and a psychologist, Robert Kahl, who evaluated Smith. In Kahl’s opinion, Smith suffers from a mental illness, but Kahl was unable to identify it specifically, since he was unable to complete his evaluation due to Smith’s lack of cooperation during the interview process. Smith’s mother testified that Smith’s biological father was never around during Smith’s childhood. In addition, Smith’s stepfather physically abused the mother in front of the children, including Smith. Smith’s wife, Grace Smith, testified that Smith broke down and cried one or two days after the murder and told her that it was an accident, and that he didn’t mean to do it. The jury recommended death, and the court imposed the death sentence on Smith.

Date of scheduled execution	State	Victim name	Inmate name	Status
January 7, 2010	Louisiana	Courtney LeBlanc, 12	Gerald Bordelon	executed
Gerald Bordelon, a previously convicted sex offender, was sentenced to death for the rape and murder of his 12-year-old step-daughter, Courtney LeBlanc. Bordelon had prior convictions for forcible rape and aggravated crime against nature. He had been paroled after serving 10 years of a 20-year sentence. Courtney's mother Jennifer Kocke had met Bordelon on the internet and married him in 2001. They moved from Louisiana to Mississippi and lived in a trailer owned by Bordelon's parents outside of Gloster, Mississippi. However, during the Christmas holidays in 2001, Courtney's mother learned from Courtney and one of her sisters that Bordelon had molested them. She notified the police and Bordelon was ordered to leave the residence. Kocke and her children moved back to Louisiana, however she maintained contact with her husband. She moved into a rented trailer Denham Springs in October 2002. Bordelon began working on various repairs to the trailer. On November 15, 2002, Bordelon kidnapped Courtney from her home at knifepoint. Courtney was alone at the trailer because her uncle had been admitted to a local hospital in critical condition following a car accident and Kocke stayed at the hospital overnight with her brother. Local residents volunteered to search for the missing girl, and 11 days after she disappeared, on November 26, 2002, Bordelon confessed to her murder and led authorities to Courtney's partially nude body. In his videotaped confession, Bordelon admitted that he had taken Courtney to a wooded area near Baton Rouge on the banks of the Amite River where he strangled her. He said he parked his car in a wooded area early that morning and found Courtney sleeping on the couch. He shook her arm and told her to come with him. In his confession, Bordelon said, "I took Courtney and told her if she screamed or hollered or tried to get away, I was going to kill her." He said that during the drive to Mississippi, he forced Courtney to remove her underwear so he could fondle her. He drove down a gravel road and made the girl perform oral sex on him. They left Mississippi around 9 am and returned to Baton Rouge. He made Courtney walk down a dirt path near the Amite River, and Courtney asked, "Where are we going?" He told her they were going "to the river." When asked what Courtney's last words were, Bordelon said, "Why do you like the river?" After reaching the banks of the river, Bordelon said he pushed Courtney down and she fell on her face, then rolled over. He straddled her and choked her with his hands. Courtney was able to bite Bordelon's left thumb hard enough to cause bleeding. After choking Courtney to death, Bordelon said he moved her body into a wooded area and concealed her with heavy underbrush, then returned to his car and threw out Courtney's panties. He then called his sister and went to her home so he could wash his clothing. Bordelon's semen and Courtney's DNA were found in Bordelon's car. While awaiting trial, Bordelon and another inmate escaped from the Livingston Parish jail in 2003, but were recaptured the same weekend. A passing motorist reported seeing Bordelon near a highway. Bordelon has said, "I would commit the crime again if ever given the chance." The jury took only 38 minutes to deliberate before sentencing Bordelon to death. In October 2003, an Amite County jury deliberated for less than half an hour before finding Courtney’s mother, Jennifer Kocke, guilty of felony child abuse for allowing her daughter to have contact with her husband, who was a four-time convicted sex offender. Circuit Judge Forrest “Al” Johnson ordered that Jennifer could never have any contact with Gerald Bordelon. And Johnson ordered that on every June 5, which was Courtney’s birthday, Jennifer must write at least a 200-word letter to her daughter and have it filed in the Amite County Circuit Court no later than each June 10.