Robert Charles Comer

Case record: Robert Charles Comer

Status / outcome

Robert Charles Comer was executed by lethal injection in Arizona on May 23, 2007.

He had said: "Go Raiders."

He received a special meal consisting of fried okra, 4 buns with butter (lots), salt (lots), and banana bread (2 slices).

Timeline

• February 2, 1987 — Robert Comer and his companion Juneva Willis arrived at the Burnt Corral campground in Apache Lake, Arizona.
• April 11, 1988 — Comer was sentenced.
• January 6, 1988 — Start of trial.
• January 21, 1988 — Verdict.
• January 6, 1988 — Start of trial (trial record).
• March 2000 — Since March 2000, Comer attempted to withdraw his federal appeals so he could be executed.
• Early 2007 — The Ninth Circuit Court granted Comer’s request to withdraw his federal appeals.
• May 23, 2007 — Comer was executed by lethal injection in Arizona.
• 1994 — The State of Arizona issued a warrant of execution.

Background

Robert Charles Comer was a male admitted to Arizona State Prison with inmate information showing:

• Date of birth: 12/14/1956
• Admission date: 04/11/1988
• Sentencing county: MARICOPA
• Case number: 8701352
• Height: 74 inches
• Weight: 185 lbs.
• Eyes: Brown
• Ethnic: CAUCASIAN
• Gender: MALE

Comer had been sentenced to death for the murder of a man at a campsite at Apache Lake.

The offence

Comer and his girlfriend, Juneva Willis, were at a campground near Apache Lake. They invited Larry Pritchard, who was at the campsite next to theirs, to have dinner and drinks with them.

Around 9:00 p.m., Comer shot Pritchard in the head, and later stabbed him in the neck. Comer then removed an Emergency Medical Technician badge from Pritchard’s pocket, and Willis hid Pritchard’s body by covering it with wood.

After the murder, Comer and Willis drove to Pritchard’s campsite, where they stole a number of Pritchard’s belongings, as well as his dog. Comer and Willis then proceeded to the campsite of Jane Jones and Richard Smith.

Comer and Willis posed as “Arizona Drug Enforcement” officers. They ordered Jones and Smith out of their tent at gunpoint. Comer flashed the EMT badge and then tied up Jones and Smith with wire and duct tape, then put them in their truck and stole several items from their tent.

Comer drove Jones’s and Smith’s truck while Willis followed behind.

After a short time, Willis stopped following Comer. When Jones asked to relieve herself, Comer permitted her to do so but accompanied her into the woods and sexually assaulted her. Comer sexually assaulted Jones again in front of the truck.

Comer threatened to kill Smith. Jones convinced Comer not to kill Smith. Comer left Smith in the woods and drove off with Jones. When the truck ran out of gas, Comer and Jones walked back to Willis. The three of them then drove together, along with Willis’s two children.

During this journey, Comer shot and killed Pritchard’s dog, and sexually abused Jones twice more.

Jones finally managed to escape while Comer was fixing his truck. She was later picked up by a passing motorist. Smith had also managed to walk back to the Burnt Corral campground and reported the incident to the Department of Public Safety.

Comer also removed the EMT badge from Pritchard’s pocket, and Willis covered Pritchard’s body with wood.

During the events described, Comer and Willis:

• stole belongings from Pritchard’s campsite, and stole Pritchard’s dog
• stole items from Jones’s and Smith’s tent
• used an EMT badge as part of their approach
• kidnapped Jones and Smith and restrained them with wire and duct tape
• sexually assaulted Jones multiple times
• threatened Smith before leaving him in the woods

Investigation / apprehension

The police quickly apprehended Comer and Willis after the incident.

Smith reported the incident to the Department of Public Safety after walking back to the Burnt Corral campground.

Arrest / charges

Comer and Willis were charged in Maricopa County with:

• first degree murder and armed robbery of Pritchard
• armed robbery, kidnapping, and aggravated assault of Jones and Smith

Comer was charged with:

• two counts of sexual abuse of Jones
• three counts of sexual assault of Jones

Willis pled guilty to one count of kidnapping in exchange for agreeing to testify against Comer. The other charges against her were dropped.

Trial

The trial proceeded in Maricopa County before:

• Presiding Judge: Ronald S. Reinstein
• Prosecutor: K.C. Skull
• Defense Counsel: Roland Steinle, Ann Hutchins, and Stephen Venezia

Key trial dates and outcomes were:

• Start of trial: January 6, 1988
• Verdict: January 21, 1988

Comer did not attend his trial.

Sentencing

After conviction, Judge Ronald Reinstein demanded Comer’s presence at sentencing.

Comer had been sentenced to death.

At sentencing, authorities subdued Comer when he tried to stab jailers with a handmade shank. He was strapped to a wheelchair and pushed into Reinstein’s court. He was naked except for a towel draped over his genitals, with his face bloodied from the jailhouse struggle.

Comer was sentenced on April 11, 1988.

Aggravating circumstances were listed as:

• Prior convictions involving violence
• Pecuniary gain
• Especially heinous, cruel or depraved

The conviction and convictions listed in the inmate information included:

• ARMED ROBBERY
• KIDNAPPING
• AGGRAVATED ASSAULT
• SEXUAL ABUSE
• SEXUAL ASSAULT
• PROMOTE PRISON CONTRABAND
• MURDER 1ST DEGREE

Appeals / federal proceedings

Comer attempted to withdraw his federal appeals so he could be executed.

Since March 2000, Comer had been attempting to withdraw his federal appeals so he could be executed. The Ninth Circuit Court granted his request in early 2007.

Citations listed for appellate and federal proceedings included:

• State v. Comer, 165 Ariz. 413, 799 P.2d 333 (1990) (Direct Appeal).
• Comer v. Stewart, 215 F.3d 910 (9th Cir. 2000).
• Comer v. Stewart, 230 F.Supp. 1016 (D. Ariz., 2002).
• Comer v. Stewart, 312 F.3d 1157 (9th Cir. 2002).
• Comer v. Schriro, 458 F.3d 891 (9th Cir. 2006).
• Comer v. Schriro, 463 F.3d 934 (9th Cir. 2006) (Habeas).
• Comer v. Schriro, 480 F.3d 960 (9th Cir. 2007).

Execution

Comer was executed in Arizona by lethal injection on May 23, 2007.

Witnesses and officials included:

• Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard
• State Sen. Ron Gould, R-Havasu City
• officials from Phoenix police, Maricopa County Sheriff’s and Pinal County Sheriff’s departments

He was given the opportunity to invite witnesses to watch his death, including his attorneys:

• Michael Kimerer
• Holly Gieszl
• Amy Byrd (a pen pal he met in prison)

Comer took a picture of his daughter into the death chamber with him and maintained eye contact with witnesses as he was injected.

His last words were:

• "Go Raiders."

The lethal injection drugs described were:

• Sodium Pentathol to render him unconscious
• pancuronium bromide to stop his breathing and paralyze him
• potassium chloride to stop his heart

Other details

Prison conditions and conduct

Comer was housed at Special Management Unit II (SMU II), described as a super-maximum institution at the Arizona State Prison in Florence.

He was described as having:

• 300 laps around his cell making one mile, and doing 30 to 50 miles a day
• been cited for violations of prison rules, including possession and manufacture of weapons and arson
• had a cell with no bars and no view of the outside world, looking out at a concrete wall through a metal grid with half-inch holes
• a layer of Plexiglass over the grid and had to yell to be heard
• no furniture but a bed and toilet
• his desk being taken away after he cut metal off it
• later receiving a radio and a television
• weekly recreation, three showers, one five-minute phone call weekly, and approved visits
• being transported shackled and face down on a gurney when leaving his pod

Statements about competency and appeals

Comer had sought permission from a federal court to drop his criminal appeals, described as an attempt to expedite his execution.

Quotations attributed to Comer included:

• "I am ready."
• "Go Raiders."
• "I hate reporters more than lawyers."
• "Go, Raiders."
• "I killed for no good reason and screwed up the lives of many innocent people."
• "I think it's just time for me to pay the price."
• "This is my life. I made the decision to pull my appeals."
• "Remember I stuck a gun in the guy's ear and pulled the trigger, scrambled his brains, right?"
• "You sentenced me to die. You have that right in this state. I don't see where the big problem is."
• "A couple years ago, I'd have chopped your head off just for looking crossways at me."
• "For no reason at all."
• "I'm still the same guy as I was back then."
• "But a lot of things have meaning for me now, like my victims."
• "It's just time to end it."
• "This has to do with me being tired."
• "Has to do with me paying my debt to society. Let's do it."
• "I don't know what everybody's so scared about."
• "Death is not that damned bad."
• "Living ain't that damned bad."
• "But I killed Larry . . ."
• "Within the limits that I have, I try to live it fully . . . I mean, I can't get a weekend pass to go to the bowling alley, and I love to bowl."
• "I can't get a weekend pass to go to the bowling alley, and I love to bowl."
• "I don't live dead in that cell."
• "I'm the guy who they invented super-maxes for."
• "They let me out and walk around the halls, I'll get along just like everybody else."
• "Except I have this problem."
• "Someone runs their mouth at me, I deal with it."
• "Ma'am, I've spent 15 years in an isolation cell. Already. And look at me. What is wrong with me that I'm hiding?"
• "I don't believe I have a life that will make me jump up and down and clap my hands and go to a party or nothing."
• "It's the law."
• "Just because I say the law's wrong doesn't make the law wrong."
• "I just don't believe in it."
• "I was sentenced to die, legally sentenced to die here."
• "Yeah."
• "It's a good appeal, but it's for you all, not for me."
• "I killed Larry Pritchard."
• "There is no doubt about that."
• "So [prosecutor] K.C. Scull called me a monster."
• "What was I trying to make him call me?"
• "Sure didn't want to be called Goldilocks."
• "Do you understand you could be found not guilty?"
• "Yes, ma'am."
• "And I presume that you don't believe that that's really much of a possibility, am I right?"
• "No, ma'am."
• "And why?"
• "I did it."

Quotations attributed to lawyers and officials included:

• Arizona Department of Corrections spokesman Bill Lamoreaux: "This is his day. This is what he's been waiting for since 2000."
• Prosecutor K.C. Scull: "He's very cunning, he's very intelligent."
• Prosecutor K.C. Scull: "Rehabilitation was never a factor in this case. You do things that are so bad, we don't care of you're rehabilitated."
• Prosecutor K.C. Scull: "Everybody's entitled to closure here," especially the woman Comer raped repeatedly back in 1987
• Prosecutor K.C. Scull: "She has to get up every day and think, That S.O.B. is still breathing somewhere and I wonder if he'd come and kill me if he had the chance,"
• Arizona Department of Corrections Director Terry Stewart: "As far as the allegation that it makes them worse, do you understand how ludicrous that is?"
• Arizona Department of Corrections Director Terry Stewart: "Here we're dealing with a human being who either won't behave in prison or he is a predator and you can't leave him in the general population. What else are we going to do with him?"
• Arizona Department of Corrections Director Terry Stewart: "Where he is is a function of who and what he is."
• Deputy warden Blaine Marshall (testimony): "I've never doubted that he understands everything going on,"
• Protester Dan Wolford: "Taking a person's life does not bring a person back"
• Protester Dan Wolford: "His taking a life doesn't justify taking his. He doesn't forfeit his right to live because he took someone else's life."
• George Williams: "This man can never do it again."
• George Williams: "He can never kill again."
• George Williams: "This man can never do it again after 10. He can never kill again. They will be safe from this man,"
• public defender Victoria Washington: "Because of the lack of standards provided for in the statute, the lethal-injection process subjects condemned prisoners to significant and utterly unnecessary risks that they will be tortured to death,"
• Arizona Attorney General's Office (as quoted): "This case is not a forum to evaluate alternative methods of running a prison."
• Ruth Zemek: "You don't teach not killing by killing,"
• Margaret Snider: "I don't think it accomplishes anything. The crime has been committed. It doesn't make anything well."
• George Williams (pro-death penalty protester): "prisoners escape, murderers get released, people kill prison guards. But not this one."
• Eleanor Eisenberg: "There's a lot of support in the literature that the mental health of anybody in those conditions for any period of time is going to deteriorate,"
• Eleanor Eisenberg: "Most people who are in prison are going to get out of prison. It seems to me our interest should be to have people come out of prison not worse than when they went in, and ideally better prepared."
• Eleanor Eisenberg: "They aren't getting there in complete isolation and in the absence of any rehabilitation, psychological counseling or jobs skills development."
• Deputy: "Taking a person's life does not bring a person back," (included above)
• Protester Dan Wolford: "If you take an eye for an eye, it just makes both people blind,"

A quote by attorney Julie Hall to Comer included:

"Dear Gypsy,"
"The things I am going to say are sincere and from my heart, and not some line of bullshit from a lawyer."
"A glass wall that tries to tell people, this person you are looking at is not a person; it is a specimen of evil that we removed from society. But I know the glass wall is lying, because when I look through it, I am looking at a friend."
"The story that needs to be told in your case is that society has to share in the responsibility for the death of the man you were convicted of killing. That society helped pull the trigger that night."

Execution timing and description

Comer was described as dying peacefully, and the execution was described as lasting nine minutes from start to finish.

It was also reported that his chest stopped moving after the third drug was given and that he was dead by 10:08 a.m. Another account described a steady gaze and defiant smile while drugs coursed through his body.

Special meal

His special meal was listed as fried okra, 4 buns with butter (lots), salt (lots), and banana bread (2 slices).

People

• Robert Charles Comer — defendant; executed by lethal injection
• Juneva Willis — Comer’s girlfriend; pled guilty to one count of kidnapping; hid Pritchard’s body by covering it with wood; hid after stops following during the drive
• Larry Pritchard — victim; was shot and stabbed; his EMT badge was removed from his pocket; his belongings and dog were stolen/killed
• Jane Jones — victim; was tied up, kidnapped with Richard Smith, sexually assaulted multiple times; escaped; picked up by a passing motorist
• Richard Smith — victim; was tied up, kidnapped; was threatened with being killed and left in the woods; reported the incident after walking back
• Ronald S. Reinstein — presiding judge at trial/sentencing
• K.C. Skull — prosecutor
• Roland Steinle, Ann Hutchins, Stephen Venezia — defense counsel listed for the trial
• Michael Kimerer, Holly Gieszl, Amy Byrd — witnesses invited to watch the execution, including attorneys listed and a pen pal
• Bill Lamoreaux — Arizona Department of Corrections spokesman
• Terry Goddard — Arizona Attorney General (witness)
• Ron Gould — State Sen. (witness)
• Victoria Washington — public defender quoted about lethal injection risks
• Lisa McCalmont — former assistant federal public defender quoted about lethal injection drug effects
• Dan Wolford — protester quoted about taking a life
• George Williams — pro-death penalty protester quoted about execution
• Ruth Zemek and Margaret Snider — protesters quoted about death penalty objections
• Gabrielle Smith — quoted about opening her drug store as execution began