William Lee Neal

Case record

William Lee Neal, also known as William "Cody" Neal, was sentenced to death and later had his sentence commuted to life in 2003.

The offence

Neal pleaded guilty to bludgeoning to death Angela Fite, Candace Walters and Rebecca Holberton with a logging ax during a weeklong killing rampage in July 1998. He also tied up a fourth victim, forced her to watch one of the murders and then raped her.

Neal’s plea covered rape, torture and ax slayings of three women in a Golden, Colorado, condominium last summer. In the sentencing proceedings, the judges heard grisly details of the crimes from police officers who viewed the carnage at the crime scene, Neal’s taped confessions and emotional testimony from the rape victim.

The 22-year-old woman testified that Neal lashed her to a mattress in the town house where the murders occurred and made her watch as he crushed Fite's skull with a log-splitting maul. Neal then raped the woman at gunpoint.

Neal still faced sentencing on nine other counts related to the crime spree, including sexual assault, kidnapping and theft charges.

Neal pleaded guilty to all 13 counts against him, including three counts of first-degree murder; two counts of second-degree kidnapping; two counts of first-degree sexual assault; two counts of criminal extortion; two violent crime charges related to the kidnapping; and one count of felony theft.

Investigation and confession

Investigators said Neal confessed to the crimes less than a week after they took place.

Trial and plea

Neal pleaded guilty in February to bludgeoning to death Angela Fite, Candace Walters and Rebecca Holberton with a logging ax during a weeklong killing rampage in July 1998.

Neal entered the plea at his arraignment. The court proceedings described Neal as being “very calm, very collected, very sure” of himself during the arraignment.

Neal acted as his own lawyer. He declined to cross-examine prosecution witnesses during the 10-day sentencing proceedings.

Neal told the judges in earlier testimony that he knew he deserved no mercy but that he had turned his life over to God and wanted to minister to other inmates if his life was spared.

Neal also recently fired his attorney and was representing himself when he entered the plea.

Sentencing

A three-judge panel rejected Neal’s claims that he was a changed man who wanted to live so he could serve God in prison, and sentenced him to death.

In a sentencing hearing, presiding Judge Thomas Woodford told Neal his crimes were “brutal, needless killings” that also emotionally devastated the victims' families.

Woodford said: “[The] panel has determined that the only penalty that can be imposed in accordance with the law which these judges are sworn to uphold is a death sentence,”

Prosecutors contended that Neal stole the women's money and then killed them to cover his crimes. Jefferson County District Attorney Dave Thomas described the case at sentencing as: “tailor-made” for the death penalty.

Thomas told APBnews.com: “These extremely heinous crimes were done with a cruelty and depravity not commonly seen,” and: “The testimony was unlike anything I've seen in 26 years [as a prosecutor] -- it was nothing short of chilling.”

Neal’s court-appointed legal advisor, defense attorney Randy Canney, told APBnews.com that he wondered if justice would be done if the state executes a defendant whom he believed was mentally ill. Canney said: “[Neal] can't adequately represent himself; he fired his public defenders and pleaded straight up to the murders with no sentencing concessions,” and: “But you have gutless prosecutors who want to kill people for their own political good.”

Canney also said Neal would face an automatic appeal, and he would try in his limited capacity to see that independent psychiatric testimony was included in the appellate trial.

The sentencing hearing included evidence viewed by the judges and police officers, and emotional testimony from the rape victim.

The panel was described as the three-judge panel in Colorado capital cases that requires a three-judge panel to unanimously agree to impose a death sentence.

The sentencing panel sentenced Neal to death after hearing that his crimes were “brutal, needless killings” and after determining the penalty under the law.

Appeals and status change

Neal had his death sentence commuted to life in 2003.

Other details

Neal was 43 years old at the time of his guilty plea and sentencing proceedings.