Quincy Javon Allen

Overview

Quincy Javon Allen was sentenced to death in South Carolina on February 20, 2004.

Timeline

• July 7, 2002 — About 4 a.m., Allen twice shot a homeless man, James White, who was sleeping on a bench in Finlay Park.
• July 10, 2002 — Allen killed Dale Evonne Hall, 45. Hall was shot in the head, face, leg and stomach with a sawed-off, 12-gauge shotgun.
• August 8, 2002 — After a confrontation at about 10 p.m. with Texas Roadhouse employee Brian Marquis, Allen fatally shot Marquis’ friend Jedediah Harr, 22, in Harr’s car. At 10:15 p.m., Allen pursued Marquis to a convenience store and later drove to his home, where Allen set fire to the porch.
• August 9, 2002 — About 2 a.m., Allen set fire to the car of another Texas Roadhouse worker on Parklane Road. A few minutes later, Allen randomly selected another car to set afire on Longbrook Road.
• August 12, 2002 — Allen fatally shot Richard Hawks, 53, of Lowgap, North Carolina, and Robert Shane Roush, 29, of Lancaster, Ohio, at a Citgo gasoline station in Dobson, North Carolina.
• August 14, 2002 — Allen was apprehended in Mitchell County, Texas. Allen was sleeping in a vehicle at a rest area.
• February 25, 2004 — Allen pleaded guilty in North Carolina to killing two men on Aug. 12, 2002, in a Dobson, N.C., gas station.
• February 20, 2004 — Allen pleaded guilty to the N.C. killings and was later sentenced to life in prison.
• February 28, 2005 — Allen pleaded guilty to the S.C. killings.
• February 20, 2004 — Quincy Allen was sentenced to death in South Carolina.

The offences

Shooting of James White — Finlay Park

About 4 a.m. on July 7, 2002, Allen twice shot James White, a homeless man sleeping on a bench in Finlay Park.

Allen recorded an audiotape “like a diary entry,” in which he described the attempt in matter-of-fact tones and “mocking the homeless man at one point.”

“I guess he didn’t see my 12-gauge shotgun,” Allen said on the tape.

White testified in court that he was awakened by someone yelling at him.

White told Cooper he was awakened by someone yelling at him.

White said that after being shot in the shoulder, he began yelling and screaming in an attempt to get the shooter to run off.

After being shot in the shoulder, he began yelling and screaming in a successful attempt to get the shooter to run off.

After Allen fled, White said he walked to Palmetto Health Baptist hospital, where he was treated.

Killing of Dale Evonne Hall

On July 10, 2002, Allen killed Dale Evonne Hall, 45.

Afterward, Allen drove to a truck stop, bought a can of gasoline and returned to Oakway Drive off Two Notch Road in Northeast Richland to douse Hall’s body and set it on fire.

Texas Roadhouse confrontation and killing of Jedediah Harr

On August 8, 2002, after a confrontation about 10 p.m.

Tiffany Todd Marquis gave testimony about the sequence in the restaurant and the events that followed.

“He was trying to light my apron on fire,” she said.

She testified about calling Brian Marquis back to the restaurant.

That puzzled her, but other actions by Allen that evening led her to call Brian Marquis back to the restaurant, she said.

She testified that Harr later was shot and killed outside and that she did not see what happened when it occurred.

Tiffany Marquis was inside and didn’t see what happened when Harr later was shot and killed outside.

She said she saw emergency lights and police lights flashing everywhere.

“I look outside, and I see ambulance lights and police officer lights flashing everywhere,” she testified.
“I knew something had happened, but I didn’t know what.”

Deputy Solicitor John Meadors asked her to tell Cooper their child’s name.

“His name is Brian Jedediah Marquis,” she said.

Arsons connected to the Texas Roadhouse incidents

On August 9, 2002, about 2 a.m., Allen set fire to the car of another Texas Roadhouse worker on Parklane Road.

Killing of Richard Hawks and Robert Shane Roush — Dobson, North Carolina

On August 12, 2002, Allen fatally shot Richard Hawks, 53, of Lowgap, North Carolina, and Robert Shane Roush, 29, of Lancaster, Ohio, at a Citgo gasoline station in Dobson, North Carolina.

The circumstances were described as Allen walking in and, “without any confrontation,” shooting and killing the two.

Arrest and apprehension

On August 14, 2002, Allen was apprehended in Mitchell County, Texas.

Allen was brought back to Columbia after Mitchell County Sheriff’s Deputies captured him sleeping in a car on Interstate 20 in Colorado City, Texas, after he had been on the run for six days.

Guilty pleas and sentencing

North Carolina killings

In February 2004, Allen pleaded guilty in North Carolina to killing two men on Aug.

He was sentenced to life in prison as part of a plea bargain.

Allen was described as having pleaded guilty to several crimes that were part of a spree, including the two Richland County killings.

South Carolina killings

In a later proceeding, Allen pleaded guilty to the S.C. killings.

The jury trial was bypassed and Judge G. Thomas Cooper Jr. was to determine whether Allen would spend the rest of his life in prison or die by lethal injection.

Allen bypassed a jury trial by pleading guilty to the North Carolina case and other crimes connected to the spree.

Aggravating circumstance requirement

For Allen to be sentenced to die in South Carolina, prosecutors were described as needing to show there was an aggravating circumstance behind at least one of the killings.

Mental illness arguments in court

Defense attorneys told Cooper the evidence will show that Allen was a byproduct of physical abuse and mental disorders, including schizophrenia.

A defense attorney, Kimberly Stevens, said that over the span of about a year during the late 1990s, Allen had been in and out of psychiatric facilities six times.

Attorneys said Allen was mentally ill and should serve his life sentence in a psychiatric center.

Prosecutors argued that Allen had exaggerated some symptoms of mental illness to escape accountability and that Allen should serve his sentence in a general-population prison.

Outcome

Quincy Allen was sentenced to death in South Carolina on February 20, 2004.