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September 8, 2010

Man set to be executed for 1998 triple slaying

GREG BLUESTEIN, Associated Press Writer

ATLANTA — A Georgia man who was sentenced to death for the 1998 triple murders of a trucking company owner and his two children after they caught him burglarizing their home is set to be executed on Sept. 21.

Brandon Joseph Rhode was sentenced to die in 2000 for the killings of Steven Moss, 37, his 11-year-old son Bryan and 15-year-old daughter Kristin during their burglary of their Jones County home. His co-conspirator, Daniel Lucas, was also sentenced to death in a separate trial and he remains on death row.

Rhode and Lucas were ransacking the home in search of valuables in April 1998 when Bryan Moss saw them through a front window, and entered through a back door armed with a baseball bat, prosecutors said. They say the two then wrestled Bryan to a chair and Lucas shot him in the shoulder.

When the two men heard Kristin approaching the house, Rhode forced her to a chair and shot her twice with a pistol, according to court records. Rhode ambushed Steven Moss when he arrived home, shooting him with the same pistol. Lucas later shot each of the victims again to make sure they were dead, according to the records.

At the February 2000 trial, Rhode’s roommate Chad Jackson said the two men told him the next day that they had both shot the victims. And Danny Ray Bell, a friend of Rhode’s, told police that Rhode told him he had “messed up big time” and shot a girl and a man and needed to quickly get rid of some weapons.

Rhode also told investigators he admitted firing at Kristin with the pistol, and he led officers to two locations where he and Lucas had dumped two pistols. Experts matched them to bullets retrieved at the crime scene and the victims’ bodies.

During the sentencing phase, Rhode’s defense attorneys argued that Lucas killed the three victims while Rhode “turned his head and closed his eyes” to fire only one shot that may not have struck Kristin. He also testified it was Lucas’ idea to rob the Moss home and that he remembered “freezing up” when the shooting started.

But it didn’t sway jurors, who sentenced him to death two days after his conviction.

Rhode appealed the case several times, arguing that his trial attorneys failed to prevent enough evidence to persuade the jury to spare his life. He also contended his defense attorneys weren’t prepared for the trial’s penalty phase because they failed to launch a proper investigation of the crime.

Each time, though, the appeals were soundly denied. The Georgia Supreme Court upheld the convictions in 2001 and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review it a year later. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta later denied a new round of appeals in 2009, saying Rhode did not prove his attorneys failed him.

 

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