Ronald Lee Hoke

Case details

Ronald Lee Hoke Sr. was executed by lethal injection in Virginia on December 16, 1996.

Timeline

• October 4 or 5, 1985 — Virginia Stell and Ronald Lee Hoke were both at the European Restaurant in Petersburg, Virginia; Stell arrived first and Hoke later joined her at her table. At about 6:00 p.m., the two departed together.
• October 7, 1985 — Police discovered Stell’s body in the bedroom of her apartment in Petersburg, Virginia.
• October 15, 1985 (3:25 a.m.) — Hoke flagged down a police officer in Hagerstown, Maryland and confessed to murdering Virginia C. Stell about ten days earlier in her apartment in Petersburg, Virginia.
• October 15, 1985 — Hoke repeated his confession to members of the Petersburg, Virginia police force.
• October 17, 1985 — While in the Petersburg jail, Hoke contacted the Petersburg police and confessed for a third time.
• August 5, 1986 — Hoke was tried before a jury in the Circuit Court of the City of Petersburg.
• December 16, 1996 — Hoke was executed by lethal injection in Virginia.

The offence

Virginia Stell, a Petersburg, Va., woman aged 56, was raped and robbed by Ronald Lee Hoke Sr. before being killed with a kitchen knife in her home on October 4, 1985.

Her body was found on October 7, 1985, in the bedroom of her apartment in Petersburg, Virginia. Stell was bound and gagged and was lying on her stomach, dead. Her wrists were bound with a blue electrical cord that had been removed from an electric clothes iron. Her ankles were bound with a brown electrical extension cord. Her mouth was gagged with a pair of panties tied around her head so tightly that they left an “impression” on her face. Her anal ring was dilated and smeared with both stool and a greasy, yellow substance, “like margarine or butter.”

Stell had been stabbed twice: once in the upper right front quadrant of her body and a second time in the right side of her back. The frontal wound was six-and-one-half inches deep, and the back wound was two-and-five-eighths inches deep. There were fresh, red bruises on her arms. The medical examiner opined that Stell survived “at least several minutes” after being stabbed.

In Stell’s bedroom, police found a knife covered with blood on an ironing board, and the blood on the knife matched Stell’s blood type. On the ironing board was an iron whose cord had been removed and used to bind Stell’s wrists. Several dresser drawers were open and their contents were “dumped” on the bedroom floor. Items from two purses, including empty pill containers, were strewn on the bedroom and adjacent dining room and kitchen floors. The smoke detector had been ripped from the ceiling socket.

Swabs and smears were taken from Stell’s anus and vagina and tested in a laboratory for the presence of semen. The laboratory identified semen “on the vaginal swabs and smear, on the anal smear,” and on a towel labelled “peri-anal wipings.” Semen found on the sheets and bedspread in the bedroom was consistent with Hoke’s blood type.

Investigation and confessions

On October 15, 1985 at 3:25 a.m., Hoke flagged down a police officer in Hagerstown, Maryland and confessed to murdering Virginia C. Stell some ten days earlier in her apartment in Petersburg, Virginia. Later that day, he repeated his confession to members of the Petersburg, Virginia police force. Two days later, while in the Petersburg jail, Hoke contacted the Petersburg police and confessed for a third time.

First confession (October 15, 1985)

In his first confession to the Hagerstown police, Hoke stated that he met a woman named Virginia Stell at the European Restaurant, and that he and the woman went to her apartment. He said that he then murdered her by stabbing her twice, “once in the back, once in the abdomen area in the front.”

Hoke stated that after he had stabbed her, “she was screaming,” and that he had “placed a pillow . . . over her face to muffle [the] screaming.” He said that he knew the woman was dead before he left the apartment “because she wasn’t breathing, she wasn’t moving, and her eyes were rolled back in her head.” Finally, he said that he had “dumped [Stell’s] purse and [taken] some pills and left” the apartment.

Second confession (October 15, 1985)

In his second confession to the Petersburg police on the same day, Hoke stated that after arriving at Stell’s apartment, the two of them “had sex.” He then stated that he had “put [a knife] to her throat and tied her up, gagging her mouth, tying her hands, tying her feet together.”

He stated that he had then stabbed her in the back with the knife, muffling her screams with a pillow, and rolled her over and stabbed her in the stomach. He stated that as Stell continued to scream, Hoke had “held the pillow over her face for between four and five minutes in an attempt to suffocate her,” until she died. He stated that he had then ransacked her apartment and stole some medication that was in Stell’s purse.

Third confession (October 17, 1985)

On October 17, 1985, while in the Petersburg jail, Hoke confessed for a third time. He told police that he had decided to kill Stell while they were walking to her apartment, adding that he had thought about killing someone for a long time and that “this seemed like a perfect opportunity” to do it.

Trial

On August 5, 1986, Hoke was tried before a jury in the Circuit Court of the City of Petersburg. The jury found him guilty of capital murder in the commission of robbery, rape, and abduction.

The jury concluded that Hoke “constitute[d] a continuing serious threat to society” or that his crime was “outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible or inhuman in that it involved torture or depravity of mind or aggravated battery to the victim,” and the jury “unanimously fix[ed] [Hoke’s] punishment at death.”

Sentencing

The jury “unanimously fix[ed] [Hoke’s] punishment at death.”

Appeals

United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit opinions 95-4012 and 95-4013 were associated with the case.

A clemency petition was listed in connection with the case.

Outcome

Ronald Lee Hoke Sr.

Other details

Hoke met Stell after being discharged from a state mental hospital in Petersburg. He was given a bus ticket to his home in Hagerstown, Md., and two dozen pills to counter anxiety. He cashed the bus ticket and started drinking before meeting Stell. The murder occurred hours after Hoke was discharged from the state mental hospital in Petersburg.