Inmate to be Executed Tonight after 30 Years on Death Row

Texas death row inmate Lester Leroy Bower is scheduled for execution tonight after 6 p.m. after spending over 30 years on death row.

In April 1984, a Grayson County jury found Bower guilty of four counts of capital murder for the killings of Bobby Tate, Philip Good, Ronald Mayes, and Jerry Brown. Years of appeals and execution stays have kept Bower alive since conviction, most recently in February when the court halted his death date as it considered another appeal.

Facts of the Case

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals described the facts of the crime as follows:

Testimony at trial showed that one of the victims, Bobby Glen Tate, owned the B&B Ranch which was located near Sherman. Mr. Tate owned an ultralight aircraft which he stored in a hangar located on his property. Another ultralight aircraft owned by David Brady was also stored in the hangar. Evidence was presented to show that Tate had decided to put his ultralight up for sale and his friend, Philip Good, another one of the victims, who sold ultralights was attempting to find a buyer for the aircraft. A day or two before the commission of the offense, Tate told his wife, Bobbi, that Philip Good had met someone the previous Wednesday who was interested in buying the ultralight.

On October 8, 1983, Mr. Tate went out to his ranch to work on a house he was building. According to Bobbi Tate, he was to return to their home in town around 4:30 p.m. About 7:30 p.m., when he failed to return, Bobbi and her stepson, Bobby Jr., went to the ranch. Outside of the hangar, they saw vehicles belonging to Tate, Philip Good and Ronald May[e]s. However, the hangar was locked and no lights were showing through the windows. Bobbi retrieved a key from her husband’s pickup and unlocked the hangar door. Upon opening the door, they saw the body of Ronald Mayes lying in a pool of blood. Bobbi and Bobby, Jr. went to the nearest phone and called police.

Marlene Good, the widow of Philip Good, reiterated a similar story. She testified that on September 30, 1983, someone called their home and spoke with Philip for ten or fifteen minutes regarding an advertisement Philip had placed in “Glider Rider” magazine regarding the sale of an ultralight. Philip told the caller that he had sold the ultralight advertised in the magazine, but he had another that he could sell. On the following Monday or Tuesday, the man called again. On Wednesday, October 5, Philip met the man at the Holiday Inn in Sherman and took him out to the B&B Ranch in order to show him Bob Tate’s ultralight. When Philip returned at about 4:00 p.m., he told Marlene that he thought he had sold Bob Tate’s ultralight and the man was going to pick up the plane on Saturday, October 8. On October 8, Marlene testified that she spent the day with Ronald Mayes’s wife. Philip spent the day helping Jerry Brown build an ultralight in Philip’s hangar. At 3:30 p.m., Philip called her and told her he was going to meet the man at the hangar on the B&B Ranch at 4:00 p.m. At approximately 4:30 p.m., Ronald Mayes left to go the hangar at the ranch. When he had not returned by 6:30 p.m., Marlene went to the hangar to see what was happening. When she arrived, she too saw all the vehicles parked outside. The door to the hangar was locked and when she looked into the hangar windows, she could see that Bob Tate’s ultralight was missing. Seeing that no one was around, she went home.

When investigators arrived on the scene, they discovered a grisly sight. Immediately inside the door of the hangar, they found the body of Ronald May[e]s. Underneath a pile of carpeting, investigators found the bodies of Philip Good, Bobby Tate, and Jerry Mack Brown. Good, Tate, and Brown had each been shot twice in the head. May[e]s had been shot once in the head, once in the neck, once in the right arm and once in the right side of the chest, and once in the back of the chest. All of the victims still had their wallets and their jewelry. Tate’s ultralight which had been in the hangar earlier in the day was missing. A table situated against one wall of the hangar had a large spot of blood on it. Tests showed that this blood matched a sample of blood taken from Tate’s body during an autopsy. This, plus the placement of the bodies underneath the carpet, led investigators to speculate that Tate had been shot while sitting at the table and then had been dragged over and placed with the bodies of Brown and Good. Investigators also found eleven spent .22 caliber shell casings which had been manufactured by Julio Fiocchi. The scattered arrangement of the casings on the floor of the hangar indicated that the killer had used an automatic weapon rather than a revolver, since an automatic ejects the cartridges after each shot.

Dr. Charles Petty performed autopsies on the victims. According to Dr. Petty, three of the victims, Good, Brown and Tate all sustained two gunshot wounds to the head. In the cases of Good and Tate, both men had one contact wound. On the other hand, both of Brown’s wounds were contact wounds. Mays sustained one contact wound to the head and four other wounds to the upper part of his body. Dr. Petty further testified that the presence of the contact wounds indicated that when the weapon was fired, the muzzle of the gun was placed directly against the victim’s head. In addition, the gunpowder residue left on the victims indicated that in each instance the murder weapon was equipped with a silencer. Dr. Petty testified that he removed eleven bullets and fragments from the victims. All of the bullets appeared to be .22 caliber hollow point bullets.

Larry Fletcher, a firearms examiner with the Dallas County Institute of Forensic Sciences, testified that tests run on both the spent casings and the bullets indicated that the shots were fired from either an AR-7 .22 caliber rifle, a Ruger .22 caliber semi-automatic pistol, or a High Standard .22 caliber semi-automatic pistol. Markings on the bullets indicated that a silencer was used. In addition the ammunition was manufactured by Julio Fiocchi and was A-sonic (traveled at speeds below the speed of sound) and had hollow points. Fletcher testified that A-sonic ammunition had the characteristic of reducing the noise discharge normally heard upon the firing of a weapon. Fletcher also testified that Julio Fiocchi ammunition was unique in that in his nine years as a firearms examiner, he had never encountered it before. Due to the condition of the bullets, Fletcher could positively say that only two of the bullets were fired from the same weapon. One of these bullets was extracted from the body of Mr. May[e]s and one from the body of Mr. Tate.

Much of Fletcher’s testimony was duplicated by the testimony of Paul Schrecker, a firearms examiner with the FBI. Schrecker testified that all eleven casings were fired from a single weapon, and the markings on the casings were all consistent with a Ruger firearm. His examination of the bullets indicated that at least seven of the bullets were fired by the same weapon. He agreed with Fletcher that a silencer was used. As far as the type of ammunition used, Schrecker testified that he had never encountered Fiocchi .22 caliber long rifle ammunition before this case.

Dennis Payne, Bower’s supervisor at Thompson-Hayward Chemical Company in Dallas, testified that Bower had worked for the company in Colorado until he was laid off in February of 1983. Then in May of 1983, Payne had hired him for a sales position in Dallas. Although Bower’s job performance in Colorado had been excellent, his performance in Dallas was poor.

While working in Dallas, Bower had been assigned a telephone credit card. A review of the record of the Thompson-Hayward Chemical phone bills indicated that on Friday, September 30, a call was made and charged to Bower’s company credit card. This call was made to Philip Good’s residence and the conversation lasted ten minutes. A direct dial call was made to Philip Good’s residence again on Monday, October 3. This was a two minute call. Another call was placed on Bower’s credit card to Philip Good’s residence on Friday, October 7. This call lasted three minutes.

Another one of Bower’s coworkers, Randal Cordial, testified that prior to the company sales meeting on January 3, 1984, Bower told him that he was building an ultralight airplane and lacked only the engine.

FBI Special Agent Nile Duke testified that after they traced the above- mentioned phone calls to the Thompson-Hayward Chemical Company, he began interviewing all the employees of the company in hopes of finding out who had placed the calls. After learning that Bower had told Special Agent Jim Knight that he had telephoned Philip Good, he scheduled an interview with Bower on January 11, 1984 at the company office. During the two hour interview, Bower told Duke that he had seen an advertisement in Glider Rider Magazine regarding an ultralight aircraft that Good had for sale. Bower admitted calling the Good residence twice. According to Bower, during the first call which he said was the shortest, he had spoken only with Mrs. Good who told him that Mr. Good was not at home. He later called back and spoke with Mr. Good who informed him that the ultralight had been sold. Bower told Duke that he had made only two calls and none of the calls had been placed on company credit cards. Bower also told Duke that he had never made an appointment to see Good and had only passed through Sherman on his way to Tulsa or Gainesville. When asked his whereabouts on the day of the murders, Bower told Duke that he could not account for his whereabouts on October 8, although he did remember that he was sick with a virus on Monday, October 10 and had stayed home from work. Finally Duke testified that Bower admitted he owned a .300 Winchester Magnum rifle, a Remington 1100 shotgun, a Savage Model B side-by-side double barrel shotgun, a Ruger 277V .220 caliber rifle, a 6.5 caliber Japanese rifle, a Winchester bolt action .22 caliber rifle, a Marlin lever action .4570 caliber government rifle, a .243 caliber Remington 700 rifle, and a .20-Model 929 Smith and Wesson .44 caliber Magnum revolver. Bower also told Duke that he had previously owned a .357 caliber revolver. When asked specifically about a .22 caliber handgun, Bower replied that he did not own one.

On January 13, 1984, Bower went to the FBI office in Dallas to take a lie detector test. After talking with the agents there, Bower decided not to take the test. According to FBI agent William Teigen, at that point all the authorities knew about Bower was that he was employed at Thompson- Hayward, that three telephone calls had been made on the company phone bill to Philip Good’s residence and that he was interested in ultralights. Bower stayed and talked with the FBI agents some four hours. During this conversation, Bower admitted that he had made the calls but that he decided not to buy the ultralight from Good and never had any further contact with him. Bower also told the agents of his interest in ultralights. Bower related to the agents how he had spent hours researching ultralights and how he hoped someday to build an ultralight. Bower went on to tell the agents that he had already obtained a piece of fabric for the covering, a fiberglass boat seat and some aircraft aluminum. Teigen testified at trial that after talking with Bower he believed that Bower was more than obsessed with the aircraft. When asked specific questions by the agents, Bower said that he had never bought an ultralight, that he had not been in Sherman on the day of the murders, that he had not met Philip Good on the day of the murders and had never met him in person, that he did not know where the missing ultralight was, and that he had never seen the missing ultralight.

After further investigation, a search warrant was obtained for Bower’s residence. The search was conducted during the evening of January 20, 1984. Among the items seized were various manuals and magazines which were introduced into evidence at trial: a manual on the Cuyuna ultralight aircraft engine, a magazine entitled Glider Rider’s Magazine which showed Bower as a subscriber, the World Guide to Gun Parts, the Instruction Manual for Ruger Standard Model .22 Automatic Pistols, Vol. II of Firearm Silencer Manual, two Xeroxed pages from Shotgun News depicting silencers and silencer weapons, The AR-7 Exotic Weapons System Book, a manual on explosives entitled High-Low Boom! Modern Explosives, another manual entitled Semi-Full Auto, AR-15 Modification Manual, another weapons manual entitled Rhodesian Leaders Guide, and several catalogs containing ads for military equipment including guns, clothing and numerous publications including books on how to kill. Authorities also found a form letter address to “Dear Customer” from Catawba Enterprises, indicating that Bower had purchased an item from the company. Authorities also found inside a briefcase which was located inside Bower’s garage an Allen wrench which could be used to mount a Catawba silencer to a pistol and a packet of materials which included among other things Bower’s Federal Firearms Licenses which permitted him to sell firearms, ammunition and other destructive devices. Bower’s own Firearms-Acquisition and Disposition Record which was also seized during the search indicated that he bought a Ruger RST-6- automatic .22 pistol, serial number 17-28022 on February 12, 1982 and sold it to himself on March 1, 1982. Investigation showed that on February 12, 1982, Bower also ordered three boxes of Julio Fiocchi .22 ammunition. Perhaps most incriminating were the parts of the ultralight found during the search. In the garage were two ultralight tires and rims with the name “Tate” scratched in each rim. Another ultralight tire and rim were found in Bower’s house. Six pieces of aluminum ultralight tubing were found in the garage. Wadded up on top of a box in the garage were warning stickers that had been removed from the aluminum tubing of an ultralight. In addition, an ultralight harness was found in the house and a fiberglass boat seat was found in the garage. Authorities also removed a pair of rubber boots and a blue nylon bag from Bower’s garage after noticing what appeared to be blood stains on these items. Also removed was a sledge hammer and some ashlike debris taken from the trunk of Bower’s car.

Scientific evidence presented at trial showed that a fingerprint belonging to one of the victims, Jerry Mack Brown, was found on one of the pieces of ultralight tubing found in Bower’s garage. In addition, an analysis of the sledge hammer removed from Bower’s garage showed that material present on one side of its head was polypropylene, the same material which was used to make the American Aerolight decals. Metallic smears present on the other side of its head tested out to be of the same type of aluminum alloy as was used to make the Cuyuna engine, the reduction unit for a Cuyuna engine, the crank case and the carburetor used in ultralight aircraft. An analysis of the material taken from the trunk of Bower’s car also revealed a fragment of this same aluminum alloy. A forensic metallurgist with the FBI determined that this metal fragment was once a portion of a reduction unit for an ultralight engine and it appeared that the reduction unit was fragmented by a smashing action, consistent with a blow from a sledge hammer. Also found in the debris from the trunk of Bower’s car were fragments of an American Aerolights decal. Tests on the boots removed from the garage showed the presence of human blood on the right boot but an attempt to type the blood was inconclusive. Tests on the blue nylon bag found in Bower’s garage also indicated the presence of human blood.

Other testimony was presented to show that Catawba Enterprises dealt primarily in silencer parts and that the Catawba silencer could be easily installed on a Ruger RST-6 semi-automatic .22 pistol with an Allen wrench. Ed Waters, the attorney for Catawba Enterprises testified that ninety-nine per cent of the company’s business was selling silencers and thus if Bower had one of the company’s form letters acknowledging a transaction, Bower had probably purchased a silencer from the company.

Sandy Brygider, the owner of Bingham Limited, the sole distributor of Julio Fiocchi ammunition in the United States testified that the .22 sub-sonic Fiocchi ammunition was not sold over the counter but rather was a specialty item used primarily for suppressed weapons. Brygider testified that in the previous three years, his company had sold Fiocchi ammunition to only ten or fifteen dealers in Texas. He further testified that his company records showed that they had shipped three boxes of Fiocchi .22 long rifle sub-sonic hollow point ammunition to Bower on February 12, 1982 and five more boxes on December 10, 1982.

Lori Grennan, the customer service coordinator for American Aerolights, testified that her company manufactured the ultralight owned by Bob Tate. She testified that it was possible for the aircraft to be broken down and put into a thirteen foot carrying case and carried by one person. Grennan also testified that every ultralight manufactured by her company bears three company decals, two on one of the pieces of tubing and one on the engine. However, after examining the tubing removed from Bower’s garage, she noted that these stickers decals were not present. She also testified that every ultralight has certain warning stickers. When shown the wadded up stickers found on the box in Bower’s garage, Grennan testified that those were the warning stickers that would go on the ultralight manufactured by her company. Finally, Grennan testified that the harness and tire rims found in Bower’s garage came from an ultralight manufactured by American Aerolights.