Billy Glaze

Case record: Billy Glaze

Background

Billy Richard Glaze (also known as “Jesse Sitting Crow”) was a serial killer who was convicted of killing three women and was under investigation for the murder of a fourth. He was a Native American who believed that all Native women should be raped and killed.

Glaze was suspected of the murders of at least 50 women in multiple states. He claimed he was innocent in interviews and made statements to police. In 1987, he stated to a former KARE 11 reporter, Bernie Grace, that he was innocent.

Glaze was incarcerated in a prison out of state since 1989.

The offence

Glaze was convicted of killing three Native American women in 1986 and 1987:

• Kathleen Bullman on July 27, 1986.
• Angeline Whitebird Sweet on April 12, 1987.
• Angela Green on April 29, 1987.

According to the Hennepin County Medical Examiner and Minneapolis police investigators, the three murders were committed by one individual. This conclusion was based on marked similarities among the victims and the crime scenes. The murders were close in time sequence. Each victim was a young adult Native American female mother of young children. Each victim was commonly alone on the streets at night, frequented the same type of bars, and suffered from alcoholism. Each murder occurred in a location frequented by transients. Each victim was bludgeoned and beaten about the head and face, and the mouth and face of each victim were focal points of trauma. Each victim had a stick thrust into her vagina at or near the time of death, and in each case, the stick was left in the vagina. None of the victims had any injury to their external genitalia. Each victim was left nude or almost nude, and each body was posed in a degrading manner.

During the investigation, Glaze was described as having made derogatory comments about Native American women and his desire to sexually assault them with sticks, knives and other objects. Several witnesses testified that they had seen Glaze with each victim shortly before she was killed.

In addition to the three convicted murders, Sharon Ann Lingor’s case was reopened for investigation. Investigators sought DNA comparisons between Glaze and evidence from Lingor’s slaying.

Investigation

Soon after Green’s murder, a Minneapolis police task force investigating the murders learned that a man later identified as Glaze might be a suspect.

Lois Morrison, Glaze’s girlfriend, told police that Glaze had left Minnesota and was now living in New Mexico. New Mexico authorities were notified of the investigation.

Investigators found similarities between Lingor’s killing and that of a 1987 murder for which Glaze was convicted, as well as two others. In the 1987 killing, the female victim was found near railroad tracks about a block from where Lingor was discovered. Lingor was also seen at Mr. Arts bar the night before her death, a bar that Glaze was known to frequent, according to the search warrant.

A search warrant filed by Minneapolis Police showed that Glaze boasted to Los Angeles investigators in 2004 that he was behind over 20 homicides.

DNA testing was scheduled to compare DNA taken from Sharon Ann Lingor’s murder scene with DNA associated with Glaze at the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension’s crime lab.

Arrest

Glaze was arrested in Albuquerque for an unrelated charge. He was returned to Minnesota on May 24, 1987 after New Mexico authorities were notified of the investigation.

Glaze voluntarily submitted hair, blood and saliva samples to investigators for testing on May 24, 1987.

Glaze was arrested August 31, 1987 while drunk driving, for a violation of his parole from a rape in 1974.

During the August 31, 1987 arrest, the arresting officers found a bloody shirt, crowbar and nightstick in his truck.

Hair samples from the crowbar were used to convict him of murder.

Trial

Charges

Glaze was charged with three counts of premeditated murder in the first degree and three counts of first degree murder during a sexual assault.

Evidence and witness testimony

The state presented significant evidence tying Glaze to the murders.

Several witnesses testified that Glaze frequently made derogatory comments about Native American women and his desire to sexually assault them with sticks, knives and other objects. Three witnesses testified that Glaze knew each of the victims and that they had seen Glaze with each victim shortly before she was killed.

• Leroy Hamblin testified that he saw Glaze murder Bullman on July 27, 1987.
• Kevin Broen testified that he saw Glaze near the scene of Green’s murder on April 29, 1987.
• Flint Burnside testified that he walked Green to a bar the night she was murdered and observed that she had rings on her fingers.
  • Glaze gave Morrison a pearl ring that was identified as very similar to a ring that Green was believed to have been wearing at the time of her murder.
  • Tennis shoe prints on the sand next to Green’s body were similar to shoes that Glaze had recently bought at K-Mart.

Statements and jail testimony

While in jail, Glaze reacted to the police chief’s remark that the murderer of the victims should be found and executed. Glaze told another inmate that he wanted to confess to the murders, but that he was afraid that he would be executed.

Another inmate testified that Glaze told him: “I can't believe I killed them. I killed them with my hands.”

Later, that same inmate wrote a note to Glaze telling him not to “let anyone know about your case like that.”

Glaze returned the note after he had written on it: “don't let anyone hear you, but not let anyone know, I killed them. I was mad at them.”

Verdict and conviction dates

On February 10, 1989, a jury convicted Glaze of:

• three counts of first degree murder during a sexual assault, and
• three counts of the lesser-included offense of second degree intentional murder.

Sentencing

Glaze was sentenced to three consecutive terms of life imprisonment on February 14, 1989.

Appeals

Glaze appealed his convictions following the Minnesota Supreme Court decision.

Minnesota Supreme Court

On March 16, 1990, the Minnesota Supreme Court affirmed his convictions.

Federal habeas corpus appeal

Glaze filed a writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota. The matter was referred to a magistrate judge.

On March 16, 1992, the district court adopted the magistrate judge’s recommendation and report and denied Glaze’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus.

Glaze then appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

• Submitted: Oct. 16, 1992
• Decided: Feb. 25, 1993

In his appeal, Glaze argued that:

• the exclusion of exculpatory evidence denied him due process.

The appeal was denied, and the order of the district court was affirmed.

Specific habeas claims discussed

Glaze argued that, on three separate occasions during the trial, he was precluded from introducing evidence that the murders had been committed by a person or persons other than him. Glaze argued that the excluded evidence tended to show that Michael Cooper murdered Green. Glaze argued the excluded evidence showed that:

1. Cooper wore a black baseball cap with a “Coors” logo that was similar to a cap found at the murder scene.
2. Green had told others that Cooper had raped her at knife point six months prior to the murder and a knife was found at the murder scene.
3. Green had given her sister a list of people she feared and Cooper was on the list.

The state argued that Glaze had not shown that the exclusion of the Cooper evidence rendered the entire trial fundamentally unfair. The court agreed. The Minnesota Supreme Court held that the Cooper evidence was admissible on the issue of the identity of the person who murdered Green and that it was harmless due to overwhelming evidence of Glaze’s guilt. The Minnesota Supreme Court also held that the Cooper evidence had not been completely excluded because the jury heard that Green had a pimp who wore a “Coors” cap and that a similar cap was found at the murder scene. The court noted that defense counsel’s closing statement told the jury that Green was afraid of someone.

Glaze also argued that he was denied due process because he was precluded from introducing into evidence a confession by another person that he had committed the murders. Kenneth Alexander, an inmate at the Minnesota Correctional Facility at Lino Lakes, called defense counsel. Alexander told defense counsel that in April of 1987, he had been “shooting dope” with a person named Kerry Haukw. Alexander said Haukw confessed to him that Haukw was the one the police were investigating in connection with the murders of the Native American women. Glaze argued that the confession by Haukw should have been admitted as a statement against interest if corroborated, and he contended the trial court violated his due process rights by not allowing him a continuance to locate prostitutes who would have testified that Haukw had previously placed gun barrels in their vaginas, in a manner similar to the objects found in the vaginas of the three victims.

The court held that exclusion of the statement did not infringe any constitutional right and did not violate Glaze’s due process rights.

Finally, Glaze argued that he was denied due process because he was precluded from presenting evidence of a statement by Phillip Foy, whose whereabouts were unknown at the time of trial, regarding a fight between Sweet and Joe Foster the night she was killed. Glaze argued that the fight was admissible under Hawkins as tending to prove that another person had a motive for murdering Sweet. The state argued it was hearsay. The court agreed.

Outcome

Glaze was convicted of three counts of first degree murder during a sexual assault and three counts of the lesser-included offense of second degree intentional murder. He was sentenced to three consecutive terms of life imprisonment.

Minneapolis police were investigating whether Glaze was linked to Sharon Ann Lingor’s murder. Lingor’s killing was a potential investigative lead, and Minneapolis detectives sought DNA comparisons between Glaze and evidence from the Lingor case.

Other details

Victims and related details

• Kathleen Bullman was murdered on July 27, 1986.
• Angeline Whitebird Sweet was murdered on April 12, 1987.
• Angela Green was murdered on April 29, 1987.
• Sharon Ann Lingor was killed on September 6, 1986 in Minneapolis. Investigators said she was found lying across the railroad tracks near 29th Street and Columbus Avenue S., and she had been stabbed repeatedly and sexually assaulted. Lingor was 37 years old.

Investigators said all the convicted victims were American Indian and were lured from bars.

Clyde Bellecourt

Twin Cities American Indian leader Clyde Bellecourt remembered community paranoia after the murders. He said he sat in the courtroom during part of Glaze’s trials. Glaze sent Bellecourt a letter after his conviction maintaining his innocence and asking for help. Bellecourt told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS he never wrote back.

Bellecourt said: “The evidence that was presented and everything that was heard in the courtroom really pointed to him as a predator.”

Letter and interview statements

In an interview with Los Angeles Police Department investigators in 2004, Glaze admitted to committing more than 20 homicides and that he met many of his victims in bars.

In a prison interview with Bernie Grace in 1987, Glaze claimed he was innocent.

Glaze said: “They framed me because I ain't the serial killer.”

Glaze also said: “Give me a lie detector test or anything to prove I didn't do it.”

In 1996, Glaze said:

Other named individuals

• Walter W. Redman (Warden) was named as an appellee.
• Hubert H. Humphrey, III (Attorney General, State of Minnesota) was named as an appellee.
• Michael Cooper was named in arguments about excluded evidence related to Green.
• Kenneth Alexander was an inmate at the Minnesota Correctional Facility at Lino Lakes.
• Kerry Haukw was the person Alexander said confessed to him.
• Phillip Foy was the person whose statement was addressed in another evidentiary argument.
• Joe Foster was named in connection with an alleged fight involving Sweet.

Criminal justice case identifiers and timing (federal appeal)

Glaze, Appellant, v. Walter W. Redman, Warden, Delaware Correctional Center, Hubert H. Humphrey, III, Attorney General, State of Minnesota, Appellees, No. 92-1751, United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

The district court cited Glaze v. Redman, No. 3-90-447, slip op. at 5 (D.Minn. Mar. 19, 1992) and the Minnesota Supreme Court citation was State v. Glaze, 452 N.W.2d 655 (Minn. 1990).

Disputed or contested matters in the appeal discussion

Glaze argued excluded evidence involved allegations about Michael Cooper murdering Green, allegations about Kerry Haukw’s confession, and allegations about a fight between Sweet and Joe Foster involving a statement by Phillip Foy.