Cedric Ransom

Timeline

• December 7, 1991 — Cedric Lamont Ransom, along with Isaac Johnson, Nathan Clark and Brian Williams, went to the home of Herbert "Bill" Primm, an optometrist, in Arlington, Texas.
• November 24, 1991 — Alexis Apples (Ransom’s sister’s boyfriend) was wanted for a capital murder at J. R.'s Food Store.
• November 11, 1992 — During the first trial of this cause, Ransom stood up in the courtroom, grabbed Chris Phillips around the neck, and held a knife-like weapon to Phillips’s throat.
• December 10, 1991 — Fort Worth police executed an arrest and search warrant at Ransom’s residence with Alexis Apples as the subject.
• February 13, 1992 — Ransom was indicted for the 12/07/91 capital murder of Herbert Primm.
• December 5, 1992 — Ransom was found guilty of capital murder.
• December 10, 1992 — Ransom was sentenced to death.
• June 15, 1994 — The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reversed Ransom’s conviction and sentence due to error occurring at jury selection.
• February 20, 1996 — On the State's motion for rehearing, the Court of Criminal Appeals issued a new opinion affirming Ransom's conviction, but vacating the sentence and remanding for a new punishment hearing.
• February 14, 1997 — Ransom was sentenced to death for the capital murder of Herbert Primm.
• March 28, 2000 — Ransom filed a federal petition for writ of habeas corpus raising 16 claims.
• May 10, 2002 — The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Fort Worth Division, denied all habeas relief.
• March 5, 2003 — The Fifth Circuit denied Ransom’s COA application in an unpublished opinion.
• June 30, 2003 — Ransom petitioned for clemency from the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.
• July 21, 2003 — The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals denied Ransom permission to file a successive federal habeas petition.
• July 23, 2003 — Ransom was executed by lethal injection in Texas.

Background

Cedric Lamont Ransom was executed by lethal injection in Texas. Herbert "Bill" Primm was an optometrist in Arlington, Texas, and was also a licensed gun dealer who sold guns out of his car trunk.

Ransom’s procedural history included a capital murder conviction and a death sentence, later reversed and remanded for a new punishment hearing, followed by a resentencing to death and subsequent denials of state and federal appeals.

The offence

On Saturday, December 7, 1991, Cedric Lamont Ransom, along with Isaac Johnson, Nathan Clark and Brian Williams, went to Herbert "Bill" Primm’s home in Arlington, Texas. Primm was opening up the trunk of his car where weapons were stored.

Clark knocked on the door and Primm told Clark to go around to the garage. When Primm opened up the trunk of his car, Clark grabbed two Tec Nine firearms from inside. Isaac Johnson ran up and grabbed one of them from Clark. At the same time, Ransom grabbed Primm by the back of the head. Ransom then hit Primm, leaned him over the trunk of the car, and shot him one time, after which Primm fell to the ground.

Johnson testified at trial that Ransom said he had shot Primm because Primm saw Johnson’s face. After shooting Primm, Ransom grabbed another Tec Nine out of the trunk and the four men ran to their car.

Steven Gervais, Primm’s neighbor, emerged from his house when he heard the noise of the gunshot. When Gervais yelled, "Hey. What are you doing?" Ransom fired upon Gervais. Gervais ran inside to retrieve his own gun but when he returned moments later, the four were gone. Gervais saw Primm and shouted back to the house for his brother to call 9-1-1. Gervais then went to try to help Primm, but could not find a pulse. The police arrived about five or 10 minutes later.

Investigation

On Tuesday, December 10, 1991, Fort Worth police executed an arrest and search warrant at Ransom’s residence. The subject of the warrant was Alexis Apples, described as the boyfriend of Ransom’s sister and who also lived at the residence.

Apples was wanted by police for his role in a capital murder at J. R.’s Food Store. During the course of the search, officers found numerous weapons including a Tec Nine and a .44 Magnum, a firearm scope, a magazine clip, .44-caliber ammunition, a shoulder holster, and a large knife in a plastic sheath.

Apples was taken into custody. At the police station, Apples gave a statement about the murders at J.R.’s Food Store and was charged with capital murder. Based on Apples’ statement, police obtained an arrest warrant for Ransom. Later that same day, Ransom and his family went to the police station to inquire about Apples. When the police learned that Ransom was downstairs waiting in the car, they sent three officers down to arrest him for the capital murder at J.R.’s Food Store.

After Ransom was advised of and waived his rights, he gave a voluntary audio taped statement about the J.R.’s offense.

Firearms examiners restored the serial number to the Tec Nine taken from Ransom’s bedroom. The number matched the serial number of one of the Tec Nines recorded in Primm’s acquisition-disposition log without a purchaser, and the jury also heard testimony that the serial number of the Tec Nine rifle found in Ransom and Apples’ residence was found in Primm’s log showing acquisition without resold record.

Arrest

Ransom was arrested on December 10, 1991, at a police station after officers sent three officers to arrest him when they learned he was waiting in a car downstairs.

Trial

Ransom was indicted for the 12/07/91 capital murder of Herbert Primm on February 13, 1992.

During the trial, Ransom attacked his lawyer, Chris Phillips, and also attacked a prosecutor, Bob Gill, with a homemade knife-like weapon in court. On November 11, 1992, at the close of voir dire in the first trial of this cause, Ransom stood up in the courtroom, grabbed Chris Phillips around the neck, and held a knife-like weapon to Phillips’s throat. When bailiff William Wooden entered the courtroom, he slammed his asp on a table and screamed at Ransom to release Phillips. Ransom pulled away, looked at Bob Gill, then advanced toward Gill, raising the weapon in a stabbing motion and threatening, "I'll kill you. I'll kill you." When Gill grabbed Ransom’s arm, the men fell to the floor, and Ransom continued to fight Gill until Wooden pulled Gill away. Wooden struck Ransom with his asp, took the weapon from him, and handcuffed him. As a result of the incident, Gill, Phillips, and both bailiffs suffered cuts and injuries. Phillips and Gill were removed from the case, and Gill later testified against Ransom during his punishment hearing.

Ransom was found guilty of capital murder on December 5, 1992.

At a later stage, the case addressed jury selection error and the admissibility of evidence of extraneous offenses involving an assault committed by the defendant in the courtroom and his possession of a stolen gun registered to the victim. The procedural history included an automatic direct appeal and later review decisions by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

The record also described Ransom’s punishment phase: closing arguments in the second trial included Assistant District Attorney Richard Bland rattling off the list of convictions and charges against Ransom and arguing that Ransom smuggled a crude knife into the 1992 trial and used it to attack his lawyer and a prosecutor, and that he had assaulted a corrections officer in the Fort Worth jail. During the 1997 punishment hearing, Ransom denied involvement in the Primm case but admitted to killing El-Hamad.

Sentencing

Ransom was sentenced to death on December 10, 1992.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reversed Ransom’s conviction and sentence due to error occurring at jury selection on June 15, 1994. On February 20, 1996, on the State’s motion for rehearing, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued a new opinion affirming Ransom’s conviction, but vacating the sentence and remanding for a new punishment hearing.

After retrial of the punishment phase, Ransom was again sentenced to death on February 14, 1997. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the judgment of the trial court in an unpublished opinion on February 10, 1999.

A federal petition for writ of habeas corpus was denied by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Fort Worth Division, and the Fifth Circuit denied Ransom’s COA application in an unpublished opinion.

Appeals

The procedural history included state and federal habeas proceedings and subsequent denials. Ransom did not seek rehearing.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals denies Ransom permission to file a successive federal habeas petition on July 21, 2003.

In late appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court, Ransom contended he was mentally retarded and should be ineligible for execution under a U.S. Supreme Court decision in another case. About an hour before his scheduled punishment, the high court rejected the appeals.

Outcome

Cedric Lamont Ransom was executed by lethal injection in Texas on July 23, 2003.

Ransom’s final words were:

"I just want to address Katrina and Rebecca. You have been beautiful to me. Without you in my life, I would not have been able to make it like this. Probably, I would have put up a good fight; you have calmed me. I love you. I respect you. Big brother, you put up the best fight you could and I love you. That is it."

Ransom did not request a last meal.

The lethal dose of chemicals began at 6:12 p.m. and he was pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m.

Other details

Prior criminal history and other acts presented at trial

Before the robbery and murder of Herbert Primm, the evidence presented at the 1997 retrial on punishment showed that Ransom had participated in several other violent crimes with friends.

On November 24, 1991, two weeks before Primm’s murder, Ransom and Alexis Apples stole a car from a church parking lot and picked up Brian Williams. The trio parked behind J.R.’s Food Store in Fort Worth. Ransom and Apples went into the store armed with guns and wearing ski masks while Williams waited in the car. Immediately upon entering the store, Apples shot store clerk Juan Valdez and Ransom shot store owner Sulieman El-Hamad. Ransom then ran out of the store carrying the store’s cash register. Valdez died at the scene. El-Hamad was left completely paralyzed and was unable to breathe on his own, and died approximately eight months later as a result of his injuries. Ransom admitted to police involvement in these murders and gave an audio taped confession.

On November 27, 1991, only three days after the murders at J.R.’s and 10 days before Primm’s murder, a robbery-murder occurred in Fort Worth at Brian’s Food Store, owned and operated by Adam and Diana Mefleh. Diana was talking on the telephone with her husband around 3:50 p.m. when he told her that two men whom he had never seen were entering the store. Diana heard one man tell Adam to open the cash register and move away from the counter, and the other male warned, "Do what he said or he will shoot you." The phone then fell to the floor and Diana called 9-1-1. Adam’s body was found behind the counter; he had been shot in the head from a distance of two to three feet. During the investigation, Ransom’s fingerprints were found on a candy wrapper left on the store counter. Police recovered a 9 mm semiautomatic shell casing from a freestanding shelf in the store, and found another projectile in a candy rack. Test firing confirmed that the bullet and casing were fired by a 9 mm handgun seized from the house where Ransom and Apples lived.

During later testimony, Ransom said he was with Apples during the robbery and that Apples shot a man at Brian’s Food Store with a chrome 9 mm. The State introduced evidence that in September and October 1989, then 16-year-old Ransom and several friends participated in four home invasion burglaries. During three burglaries, victims were robbed at gunpoint late at night. One victim was kicked, beaten and threatened with death. Another victim, a 19-year-old college student living with her parents, was surprised by intruders while taking a shower and was pulled from the shower by Ransom and an accomplice. Ransom confessed his part in the burglaries to police.

Evidence also described violent behavior continuing after incarceration for Primm’s murder. On February 2, 1995, a fight broke out between two inmates in the outdoor recreational area, and when inmates were ordered to "rack up", Ransom refused to obey, was restrained by two officers, broke free, lunged at two inmates, and had to be restrained again. At the time, Ransom was housed in a segregated unit on death row pending an investigation for an attempt to take over the prison garment factory.

On December 31, 1996, Ransom was housed in the Tarrant County Jail awaiting his new trial on punishment in this case. Ransom and another inmate played basketball in the gym area. When recreation time concluded, Sheriff’s Deputy Mark Ortega escorted them back to their cells. Ortega stopped at Deputy Tim Rice’s office to pick up some paperwork and instructed Ransom and the other inmate to stand against the wall and wait. Shortly thereafter, Ransom ran into the office and struck Rice with a traumatizing blow to the back of the head while the other inmate attacked Ortega. Rice did not recall anything after a second blow until he awoke in the medical department in extreme pain. Rice suffered closed head injuries that kept him out of work for more than a week and still affected him at the time of his trial testimony.

Escape attempt from death row

In 1997, Ransom made an unsuccessful escape attempt from death row. The escape attempt involved Ransom and another condemned inmate cutting through a fence with a hacksaw blade, climbing onto the roof, and making a run for perimeter fences. The attempt was foiled when a guard spotted the inmates and ordered them to stop, and both stopped.

Custodial and execution information

At execution, Ransom thanked friends for their support and expressed love to them. Without their calming influence, he said, "Probably I would have put up a good fight." He told them, "I'll be OK." He did not look at or acknowledge Lori Primm, the victim’s wife.

Ransom declined requests to be interviewed from death row.

Ransom did not complete high school.

During the execution day coverage, he was described as the first of two scheduled to die in consecutive nights that week.

Co-defendants and other case outcomes referenced

Isaac Deon Johnson was convicted of first-degree murder in the Primm case and sentenced to five years in prison. He was released in less than 18 months.

In 1993, Johnson was convicted of aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon and sentenced to 20 years in prison and was still in custody at the time described.

Nathan Clark was described as apparently not charged in the Primm murder, but in 1993 he was convicted of aggravated robbery and cocaine possession and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Brian Keith Williams was also serving a 25-year sentence for aggravated robbery.

Alexis Alexander Apples was convicted of murder with a deadly weapon in the J.R.’s Food Store case. He was sentenced to life in prison and was in custody at the time described.

Charges and conviction scope

Ransom was indicted for and tried for the 12/07/91 capital murder of Herbert Primm. He was also described as being indicted but not tried for the murders of Juan Valdez, Sulieman El-Hamad, and Adam Meflah.