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William Dillard Powell (September 25, 1946 – March 11, 2005), a 58-year-old white male, was executed by lethal injection at the Central Prison in Raleigh, North Carolina, on March 11, 2005. Powell was found guilty of the 1991 murder of Mary Gladden, a 54-year-old white female. Powell, who was 45 years old when he committed the capital crime, was sentenced to death on April 29, 1993. == Victim and crime description == Mary Black Gladden was an employee of The Pantry on Charles Road in Shelby, North Carolina. She was killed on October 31, 1991, while on duty at The Pantry. On that day between 3:15 a.m. and 3:30 a.m., Scott Truelove bought $5 worth of gasoline at The Pantry. Later he would state that while paying at the counter, he stood near a "rough-looking man with unkempt, shoulder-length hair, facial hair, and a tattoo on his left forearm." The next morning, November 1, Truelove stated that he had read about the murder and gave a description of the man to Captain Ledbetter of the Shelby Police Department. On November 16, Truelove identified Powell as the man by picking him out of a photographic lineup. Prior to the identification, Truelove was made aware that there was a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Gladden's killer. At approximately 4:15 a.m. on October 31, Clarissa Epps stopped at The Pantry to buy gasoline. She went in to pay for her purchase and after waiting in vain for a clerk to appear, called out but received no answer. Epps, after seeing Gladden lying in blood behind the counter, drove home and called police. On October 31, in response to a radio dispatch, Officer Mark Lee of the Shelby Police Department arrived at The Pantry at 4:26 a.m. Lee first ensured that all customers had left the store and then found Gladden behind the counter. She was lying on her back in a pool of blood with her head toward the cash register and her hands at her sides. Lee noticed injuries to her left eye and ear as well as other injuries to her head. He also saw a one-dollar bill on the floor near her left foot and another on the counter. Dr. Stephen Tracey, who performed the autopsy, testified that Gladden had numerous lacerations on her head and that her skull was fractured in several places. Gladden’s nose was broken and her left eye had been displaced by a fracture to the bone behind it. Her brain had hemorrhaged, was bruised and lacerated in several places, and contained skull fragments. Tracey determined that blunt trauma to the head caused Gladden’s death and that she died from the trauma before she lost a fatal amount of blood. He also concluded that human hands had not inflicted the wounds, surmising from their size and shape that the perpetrator had used a lug-nut wrench, a tire wrench, or possibly a pipe. Mark Stewart, an employee of The Pantry, testified that he worked on both October 27 and November 1. On October 27, Stewart saw a tire tool behind the counter to the side of the cash register. The tool had lain there for approximately one year. It was curved on one end with a round hole for a lug nut and was split on the other end for hubcap removal. Stewart noticed that the tool was missing when he worked on November 1. This could not be confirmed as the store was still closed on November 1, the day after Gladden was killed. Thomas Tucker, a district manager of The Pantry, testified that he arrived at The Pantry sometime after 6:00 a.m. on October 31. He examined the cash register tape for that morning and it showed, among other transactions, a gasoline sale of $5 at 3:29 a.m. and a no-sale at 3:35 a.m. The cash register enters a no-sale when it is opened but no purchase is made. According to the tape, no transaction occurred between the $5 purchase and the no-sale. Tucker opened the register at 6:22 a.m. at the direction of Captain Ledbetter to determine whether any money had been taken during the homicide. He concluded that approximately $48 was missing. William Powell was a 45-year-old, disabled father and a former police officer in Cleveland County. He resided, along with his girlfriend, Lori Yelton, on a dead end road called Locust Street, just off of East Marion in Shelby. Powell walked with a pronounced limp due to a compound ankle fracture which required the surgical insertion of pins, plates and screws. He was a Viet Nam era veteran, and though he never saw combat, he served his country for close to two years in the US Army. He was referred to by his former wife, Marjory Powell, who testified for the defense, as a wonderful father, a gentle person with an infectious sense of humor. She went on to state that in the decade she had known Powell, he had never become violent. While Marjory Powell had physical custody of the children, William Powell kept the three of them on alternating weekends without incident. During her testimony, Marjory Powell also indicated that it was her belief that William Powell was incapable of the crime of which he'd been accused. She cited many examples of his pacifism for the record. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「William Dillard Powell」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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