Lamont Reese

Lamont D. "Mont" Reese, a 28-year-old black male, was executed by lethal injection at the Texas State Penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas on June 20, 2006. Reese was found guilty of the 1999 murder of three black males: Riki Jackson, 17, Alonzo Stewart, 25, and Anthony Roney, 26. Reese, who was 21-years old when he committed the capital crime, was sentenced to death on January 18, 2001.

On March 1, 1999, Riki Jackson, Alonzo Stewart, and Anthoney Roney flirted with Reese’s 18-year-old black girlfriend, Kareema S. Kimbrough, outside a Fort Worth, Texas convenience store. After an exchange of words, Kimbrough, Reese, and three black males, Brian Kenson Johnson, 19, Steven Lamont Kindred, 16, and Jason Montel Leadley, 14, left the store. Kimbrough drove them back to the store armed where Reese shot and fatally wounded Jackson, Stewart, and Roney injuring an unidentified 13 and 24 year-old.

After the murders Reese and his friends returned to Kimbrough’s home where they bragged about their crime. One of the men told another man who had not participated in the shooting that Reese had shot three people with an assault rifle, and Reese did not dispute this statement. Reese boasted that he got the men who were at the pay phone at the store.

On the heels of his arrest police impounded Reese's vehicle and found five live cartridges in the glove compartment that were identical to several live rounds of ammunition discovered at the crime scene. After his arrest Reese approached the jailer and asked if he was classified as a “celebrity inmate.” The jailer responded that Tarrant County had no such classification but instead classified appropriate inmates as “high profile.” When he assured Reese that he would check on his classification Reese announced, “Hell, I killed three people.”

On May 25, 1999, Reese was indicted in Tarrant County. On November 30, 2000, he was convicted of capital murder. On November 6, 2002, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed his conviction and sentence. Reese had to be carried to the death chamber, refusing to walk there. In his final statement, he explained, "I am not going to play a part in my own murder. No one should have to do that." Accomplices, Kimbrough, Johnson, Kindred, and Leadley, were also convicted of capital murder, and sentenced to life, 50 years, 45 years, and 30 years, respectively.

References

* [http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/reeselamont.htm Offender Information] . "Texas Department of Criminal Justice". Retrieved on 2007-11-19.
* [http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/reeselamontlast.htm Last Statement] . "Texas Department of Criminal Justice". Retrieved on 2007-11-19.
* [http://www.clarkprosecutor.org/html/death/US/reese1027.htm Lamont Reese] . "The Clark Country Prosecuting Attorney". Retrieved on 2007-11-19.
* [http://www.deathrow-usa.com/LamontReese.htm Lamont Reese - Death Row Texas] . "DeathRow-USA.com". Retrieved on 2007-11-19.
* [http://philebus.tamu.edu/pipermail/dp-announce/2002-March/000024.html Letter written by Lamont Reese] . Retrieved on 2007-11-19.
* Michelangelo Delfino and Mary E. Day, "Death Penalty USA 2005 -2006", (2008c), 270-271.
* "Reese v. Dretke" (2004) 99 Fed.Appx. 503.