posted on July 23, 2004 10:46:24 AM new
:0))
July 23, 2004
JARRATT -- Katie and Nathan Bailey died in their beds in the early morning hours of Sept. 10, 1998. Katie, 22, was still asleep, and Nathan had just awakened when both were shot in the head.
Their killer, Katie's husband and Nathan's father, closed his eyes for a final time shortly after 9 p.m. Thursday.
Mark Bailey, a Gulf War Navy veteran who killed his Hampton family, was executed at the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt by lethal injection.
As he died, a group of people outside the prison played taps at Bailey's request, said Jack Payden-Travers, of Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. They also recited a prayer for men and women in the service. "He wanted us to know he was not always a murderer and a monster," said Payden-Travers.
His parents Myron and Bonnie Bailey had visited earlier in the day. Katie Bailey's family witnessed the execution, said Larry Traylor, a spokesperson for the department of corrections.
Neither family could be reached for comment Thursday night.
In the final weeks before his death, family members and others pleaded for Gov. Mark Warner to spare Bailey's life.
Warner declined Thursday to grant the clemency request from Bailey, clearing the way for him to be put to death.
In letters to the governor, mental health advocates and a Gulf War veterans group said that if Bailey's mental illness had been treated, he might not have killed his family.
Bailey, 34, said he was depressed about his deteriorating marriage when he decided to kill his wife Katie at his Grimes Road home in Hampton. He shot her three times in the head the morning before he went to work. When he heard his two-year-old son Nathan stir in his bedroom, his shot the little boy too. He later said he killed the child on impulse, as he didn't want the toddler to see his dead mother.
After the killings, bailey cleaned up and tried to make it look like an intruder broke into his home. He cut a phone line and a window screen. He then went to work and told his boss he'd received a strange phone call concerning his wife's safety.
When police arrived at the bailey home, they realized the crime scene had been staged. Bailey confessed to the killings later that day.
During the July 1999 trial, testimony revealed Bailey had been planning his wife's death for several days before the actual murders.
He told co-workers his wife had received threatening notes, and he had borrowed the .22 caliber pistol used in the shootings.
The trial also revealed Bailey had been raped on two occasions and had attempted suicide several times.
A psychologist testified that Bailey suffered from a borderline personality disorder.
Bailey said he thought his wife had been having an affair and the couple - first cousins once removed - had grown apart over the years.
The jury sentenced him to death for his son's murder and to life in prison for the shooting of his wife. At 9:07 p.m. Bailey was pronounced dead. On hearing those words, his spiritual adviser, Churchill Gibson, who prayed softly for Bailey as he died, said simply, "He's gone home."
Nathan's killing fell under a statute that mandates a capital murder charge when the victim is under 14 and the killer is 21 or older.
posted on July 23, 2004 11:03:16 AM new
yeah, sad logans. And they played Taps outside the prison like a military funeral -and here he was a murderer? Weird....
Well, I posted this to get the ire of twelvepole...(not all gulf-war vets are so great, eh?) twelve, everybody else is having a piece of you today and I shant be neglected! ...lol..
btw, what is a first cousin once removed?
(never could figure that stuff out when people start talking about my in laws cousin's step brother's mother.....or whatever they go in length to connect there.....)
posted on July 23, 2004 11:15:52 AM new
That is a horrible story..Nero.. so sad that innocent lives were lost.
The words "once removed" mean that there is a difference of one generation. For example, your mother's first cousin is your first cousin, once removed. This is because your mother's first cousin is one generation younger than your grandparents and you are two generations younger than your grandparents. This one-generation difference equals "once removed."
posted on July 23, 2004 06:54:42 PM new
Helen, they follow up on the traumatic stress of combat down here alot because it is a big military area.
I just read the other day, something like up to 65% will come back needing some form of counseling, but they wont seek it because the military attitude has always been 'suck it up'. The biggest detrement is if they did get counseling, it will be on record and could effect their stature or jobs.
So meanwhile, they are helz to live with it when they return. Thats really sad, too, ya know? It effects more than just them.
I retract my three cheers for gulf vets. (- didnt even get a rise outta 12!) Guess even he knows there are all kinds in the miliary.
posted on July 24, 2004 05:39:59 AM new
Let's not forget about the most famous Gulf War Vet : Timothy McVeigh.
Released from the Army after serving in the Gulf War and later committed the most violent act of terrorism on US soil until 9/11.
Let's have a BBQ, Texas style, ROAST BUSH
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All Things Just Keep Getting Better
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We the people, in order to form a more perfect Union....
.....one Nation indivisible, With Liberty and Justice for ALL.
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