death penalty

UPDATE: Alan Hruby is Dana Ewell for the social media age

Hruby's victims - his own family

Hruby’s victims – his own family

UPDATE 2: In 2016, the state of Oklahoma threw as much of its book as it could at Hruby while still respecting the wishes of Hruby’s remaining family members, who requested that Alan not receive the death penalty. In exchange, Hruby confessed to the killings of his own mother, father, and sister, waived his right to appeal or be considered for parole, and has a no-contact order with surviving family members.

Hruby’s aunt, who wrote to the court as part of the victims’ impact statements, is a successful interior designer in California. Her letter described to the judge that Hruby “… destroyed her family.”

UPDATE: Alan’s poor father John Hruby has a $20,000 life insurance policy. John had named Alan and his late daughter Katherine as joint beneficiaries of the policy. The life insurance company doesn’t want to give Alan the $20K (good for them) and has petitioned the court to determine who should get the policy’s proceeds.

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Since Dana Ewell, the social media age has given us Alan Hruby, who in 2014 was a freshman at the University of Oklahoma. Like Ewell, Hruby suffered from an obsession with materialism, from cars to clothes to watches to shoes. Hruby went so far as open a credit card in his grandmother’s name and take out loans from loan sharks to fuel his shopping habit.

Duncan, Oklahoma police were called to the Hruby house in 2011 when Alan began choking his mother during an altercation.

But the money wasn’t coming in fast enough for Hruby. Law enforcement estimates that Alan spent a whopping $80,000 over the course of a year, and the Hrubys were enraged at their son’s shopping.

Hruby maintained Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts, keeping a rather douchy-looking record of his material possessions.

So, like Ewell, he allegedly shot and killed both his parents and his sister for the inheritance he felt he would collect once they were all dead. Once he allegedly killed them, he spent the weekend partying in Dallas for the Texas/OU football weekend.

Hruby didn’t last nearly as long as Ewell did, however, and confessed to detectives after they realized he gave conflicting stories about where he was the night of the shootings.

Hruby is awaiting trial on three counts of first-degree murder in an Oklahoma correctional facility, which probably isn’t as cushy as the Dallas Ritz-Carlton.

In December, 2014, Hruby was sentenced to four years in prison for the credit card fraud involving his grandmother’s identity.

Oklahoma prosecutors are consulting with surviving family members about seeking the death penalty in Alan’s (I almost typed ‘Dana’s’) upcoming murder trial.

Lubbock’s suitcase murderer

In 2005, a city of Lubbock solid waste worker discovered a suitcase containing the body of a young woman. This morbid find sent Lubbock detectives on a case compounded by the mystery of the victim’s identity. Through fingerprint records, they identified the young woman as Summer Baldwin. An autopsy showed that she had been pregnant at the time of her murder. Impressive detective work led detectives to Texas Tech student and Marine reservist Resendo Rodriguez.

After Rodriguez was in custody, investigators delved into Rodriguez’s laptop, and found that he had been chatting online with a 16-year-old girl named Joanna Rogers. Rogers had been found dead in a trash dumpster shortly after their chats online had taken place. Coincidence? Oh no. Rodriguez confessed to Rogers’ murder in exchange for having the death penalty waived for Baldwin’s murder (he backed out of this deal at the last second). Rodriguez did receive the death penalty after all, but unfortunately, we can only kill him once.

Joanna’s parents, Joe Bill and Kathy Rogers, plan to attend Rodriguez’ execution.

Rodriguez’ father, attorney Rosendo Rodriguez II, died in 2011 of a “sudden illness” (probably embarrassment). His obituary is here.

Rosendo Rodriguez began serving his death row sentence in 2008 in Livingston, Texas. He is exhausting his appeals process, so he does not have an execution date as of today. All of his appeals have been denied so far. He has developed a voracious reading habit that he describes on a webpage sponsored by a group that opposes capital punishment (it’s quite a missive, although he omits any reference to murdering young women).

Joanna Rogers

Summer Baldwin

Kristi Koslow – arranged to have step-parents murdered

carenkoslow1

Caren Koslow

Back in the early 90s, teenager Kristi Koslow felt slighted by her step-parents, Jack and Caren Koslow. They were very wealthy, and Jack’s divorce from Kristi’s mother had left Kristi merely upper-middle-class (life is cruel).

Hardly befitting to Kristi’s aspired station in life, she recruited her then-boyfriend Brian Salter and his friend Jeffrey Dillingham to murder her step-parents in their Ft. Worth, Texas mansion. She promised Salter that once she inherited their money, they would marry and live a life of ease. The boys managed to kill Caren when they attacked the couple while sleeping (thanks to Kristi’s house key and security system code), but Jack survived a vicious bludgeoning.

Jack was initially the prime suspect in Caren’s murder. You can read a comprehensive piece on the case at TruTV’s site.

So, where are they now?

Kristi Koslow was convicted of capital murder. Jack Koslow wanted Kristi to receive the death penalty, but she was sentenced instead to imprisonment in Gatesville, Texas when she agreed to testify against Jeffrey. She will be eligible for parole in 2027. In 1997, the Texas court of criminal appeals rejected her appeal. She holds a prison job and takes college classes. Kristi seeks penpals (yes) on Writeaprisoner.com, where she describes herself as a bi-sexual Catholic with a big heart.

Brian Salter also made a deal with prosecutors, and was also spared the death penalty. He is also eligible for parole in 2027. He is also housed at the Texas penitentiary in Gatesville.

Jeffrey Dillingham was executed for his crime in 2000 by lethal injection after all of his appeals for clemency were rejected. This is his Find-a-Grave site,

Jack Koslow, who now is estranged from Kristi, still lives in Ft. Worth, Texas. He sold the home he shared with Caren and eventually remarried. He still bears a visible scar on his throat from the attack. He is the owner of a building supply company and a supporter of the local ballet and the Ft. Worth Zoo. In 2012, he served as a city councilman for the Ft. Worth suburb of Westover Hills. He did not attend Dillingham’s execution.

Paula Haffke, Kristi Koslow’s adoptive mother, pled with the judge at Kristi’s sentencing hearing to spare Kristi’s life. She died of cancer on Aug. 9, 2005

Jeffrey Dillingham’s parents divorced in 1997. His father visited Jeffrey often and witnessed his son’s execution. His mother became active in Texas CURE, and organization seeking prison reforms.