Robert James Anderson

• 1992-06-09
• 1996 Appeal ANDERSON
• 2006-07-18
• 2006-07-20

Executed July 20, 2006 06:19 p.m. CST by Lethal Injection in Texas

30th murderer executed in U.S. in 2006
1034th murderer executed in U.S. since 1976
16th murderer executed in Texas in 2006
371st murderer executed in Texas since 1976

Summary:
One afternoon, 5 year old Audra Reeves went outside to play. As she returned home past Anderson's home, he abducted her and took her inside, where he attempted to rape her, then choked, stabbed, beat and drowned her. He then stuffed her body into a large foam cooler, pushed the cooler along the street in a grocery cart and dumped it in a trash bin, where it was discovered. Upon arrest, Anderson gave a complete confession.

Citations:
Anderson v. State, 932 S.W.2d 502(Tex.Cr.App. 1996) (Direct Appeal)

Final Meal:
Lasagna, mashed potatoes with gravy, beets, green beans, fried okra, two pints of mint chocolate chip ice cream, a fruit pie, tea and lemonade.

Final Words:
"I am sorry for the pain I have caused you. I have regretted this for a long time. I am sorry." Anderson also apologized to his family.

Inmate: Anderson, Robert James
Date of Birth: 5/29/66
TDCJ#: 999084
Date Received: 12/27/93
Education: 12 years
Occupation: security officer
Date of Offense: 6/9/92
Native County: Great Lakes, Illinois
Race: White
Gender: Male
Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Blue
Height: 6 ft 02 in
Weight: 149

Texas Department of Criminal Justice

Texas Attorney General Media Advisory

MEDIA ADVISORY - Monday, July 17, 2006 - Robert James Anderson Scheduled For Execution

AUSTIN – Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott offers the following information about Robert James Anderson, who is scheduled for execution after 6 p.m. Thursday, July 20, 2006. In 1993, Anderson was sentenced to death for the capital murder of 5-year-old Audra Ann Reeves of Amarillo.

FACTS OF THE CRIME

On June 9, 1992, Audra Reeves went outside to play. Robert James Anderson abducted Reeves as she was passing his residence and took her inside, where he attempted to rape her, then choked, stabbed, beat and drowned her. In the early afternoon of the same day, several witnesses reported seeing Anderson pushing a grocery cart up the street with a white ice chest inside. One witness reported seeing Anderson near a dumpster in an alley. One of the witnesses found the ice chest containing Audra’s body in the dumpster. The witness gave a description of Anderson to the police. Anderson was arrested later in the day after he was identified as the individual who pushed the grocery cart. Anderson gave police a written statement in which he admitted to killing Audra and stuffing her body in a white ice chest and dumping the chest in a dumpster. Anderson’s confession was corroborated by other evidence at trial.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

A Potter County grand jury indicted Anderson for the capital murder of Audra Reeves. On November 10, 1993, a jury found Anderson guilty of capital murder. The same jury sentenced him to death on November 15, 1993.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Anderson’s conviction and sentence on September 11, 1996. The U.S. Supreme Court on June 27, 1997, denied Anderson’s petition for writ of certiorari. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied Anderson’s state application for writ of habeas corpus on November 17, 1999.

A U.S. district court on March 23, 2004, denied Anderson’s federal writ of habeas corpus. After filing a notice of appeal in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Anderson, sought to waive all further federal appeals. His appellate counsel filed a motion asking the Fifth Circuit to stay all proceedings in that court and remand the case to the U.S. district court for the limited purpose of having Anderson psychologically evaluated to determine his competency to waive his appeals. The 5th Circuit Court granted Anderson’s motion and returned his case to the federal district court on July 20, 2004, to determine his mental capacity to terminate further federal habeas corpus proceedings on his behalf and seek an execution date. Anderson was evaluated on September 13, 2004, and found to be competent, and on December 7, 2004, the district court ruled that Anderson was mentally competent to make the decision to waive his appeals and to instruct his counsel to dismiss any pending federal habeas corpus appeals. On February 10, 2005, Anderson filed a motion to dismiss his appeal in the 5th Circuit Court. The court granted the motion on February 17, 2005.

PRIOR CRIMINAL HISTORY

Anderson does not have any prior convictions. However, the State presented an overwhelming amount of evidence of Anderson’s long-standing obsession with and abuse of young girls, and other antisocial acts. •

Anderson wrote a letter to another inmate admitting his long-standing desire for young girls and that he had taken his anger and desire out on the victim in this case.

• Anderson’s older biological sister, testified that Anderson had been sent to the Methodist Children’s Home and later hospitalized for his obsession with young girls.

• Anderson’s eleven year-old niece, Charity Anderson, testified that Anderson had lived with her family for several months beginning in January, 1992. Anderson often babysat Charity, her six-year-old brother Jeremiah, and her eight-year-old sister Raven. Anderson often stared at Charity and frequently invited Raven to sit on his lap. On one occasion, Anderson picked up Jeremiah by the throat and held him for several minutes. Anderson told the boy’s parents that Jeremiah had hurt his neck with a stick.

• Rebekah Anderson, Anderson’s stepsister, testified that, when she was five years old, she was sitting on Anderson’s lap. Anderson unzipped his pants and took off Rebekah’s shorts. Their parents interrupted them before Anderson could proceed any further. When Rebekah was three, her sister, Delores Davis, witnessed Anderson with his hand beneath Rebekah’s skirt while she sat on his lap.

• Myra Jean Anderson, Anderson’s biological sister, testified that Anderson began sexually assaulting her when she was seven years old. At first, Anderson had Myra fondle him, but around the age of nine or ten years, Anderson began forcing her to engage in oral sex. When Myra was thirteen, Anderson tried to have intercourse with her, but they were caught by their parents. Anderson was also physically abusive: when Myra was seven, Anderson broke off the chain guard on her bicycle, then pushed her down a hill, causing her to fall and severely cut her leg. Also, Anderson held Myra down and repeatedly hit her on her knees with a baseball bat.

• Helena Cristina Garza, Anderson’s stepsister, testified that Anderson began fondling her when she was six years old. As Helena got older, Anderson forced her to fondle him. At the age of ten, Anderson forced her to have intercourse and continued to do so about once a week, for approximately one year. Anderson also forced Helena to perform oral sex. To gain Helena’s cooperation, Anderson struck her or threatened her with a baseball bat. When Helena was fifteen or sixteen years old, Anderson took her for a ride on his motorcycle. Once in a secluded area, Anderson raped Helena.

• Carla Rene Burch, a friend of Myra, spent the night at the Anderson home when she was twelve years old. She was awakened in the middle of the night by something touching her face. Anderson was standing in front of her with only a towel wrapped around him. Anderson had pulled the blanket off Carla and raised her nightgown; he asked her to accompany him to his room. Carla refused but Anderson persisted until Carla tried to awaken Myra.

• Anderson’s former wife, Debbie Kay Anderson – who was described as mentally handicapped with an IQ of 69 — testified that Anderson was physically abusive towards her. Debbie was seen with extensive bruising on her shoulders, arms, and face. Anderson often padlocked Debbie in their apartment when he left.

• Anderson attempted to sexually assault a two-year-old girl his wife Debbie was babysitting. Debbie heard the girl crying and walked into a room to discover that Anderson had taken off the girl’s diaper and pulled down his pants. Anderson grabbed Debbie and began choking and hitting her, telling her not to tell anyone.

• Debbie also described how Anderson frequently drove to the park and watched children or watched children from the apartment. Anderson would then go in their bathroom and masturbate.

• A forensic psychiatrist who testified for the defense diagnosed Anderson as a pedophile (the preferred choice of children as sexual partners), with some trends toward sexual sadism.

Dallas Morning News

"Killer of 5-year-old in Amarillo volunteering to die Thursday," by Michael Graczyk. (AP 07/20/06)

Child sex offender Robert Anderson voluntarily headed to the Texas death chamber Thursday evening for abducting and killing a 5-year-old girl in Amarillo 14 years ago. Anderson acknowledged the horrific slaying of Audra Reeves and asked that no new appeals be filed to try to block his execution, the 16th this year in Texas and the second in as many days.

"The only way I want this stopped is if they give a moratorium to the death penalty," Anderson, 40, said in a recent death row interview where he took sole responsibility for the girl's murder. "There was nobody else, just me," he said. "She was totally an innocent victim."

Anderson had a history of sexual offenses involving children that began as a teenager in Tulsa, Okla., and said he'd been in and out of centers "for deviant behavior," as he described them, to deal with his obsession for young girls. "My whole life is a regret," he said, adding that he looked forward to dying. "I should have been in prison when I was 15."

Audra lived with her mother in Florida and had just arrived in Amarillo days earlier to spend the summer with her father. She was playing outside on June 9, 1992, when Anderson snatched her as she walked by his Amarillo home. "It was a messed-up day," Anderson said. "A lot of things went wrong." An argument earlier that day with his wife of about eight months set him off, he said. "The whole day revolved around the fight," he said. "She stormed out of the house and said when she returned she didn't want to find me."

According to court records and Anderson's confession, he forced the girl to accompany him into the house and tried to rape her, then choked her and beat her with a footstool. When he discovered she still was alive, he drowned her in a bathtub. He stuffed her body into a large foam cooler, pushed the cooler down the street in a grocery cart and dumped it in a trash bin. Anderson was apprehended a few blocks away as he was walking back toward home. A neighbor had discovered the body in the cooler and identified him as the man seen wheeling the shopping cart toward the garbage container. Detectives searching his home found a piece of the girl's hair barrette in a bathroom trash can. The other piece was in the ice chest.

An Amarillo jury took less than 15 minutes to return a guilty verdict and less than 30 minutes to determine Anderson should die. "By far, it was absolutely the worst thing a little girl could ever go through," Chuck Slaughter, the Potter County assistant district attorney who prosecuted Anderson, said this week. "If there's anybody out there who deserves the punishment he received from a jury, it would be Robert Anderson."

Anderson was found to be mentally competent despite having visions of what he said were angels, demons and repeated visits to his cell by his young victim on the anniversary of her death. "She showed up this year and smiled at me and told me I was coming home," he said. "That was really weird."

In 1998, Anderson survived an attack by a fellow death row inmate who stabbed him 67 times with a shank. Anderson said the attack was the result of race-related prison gang extortion efforts and not related to his crime.

ProDeathPenalty.com

On June 9, 1992, neighbors observed a man pushing a grocery cart with a styrofoam ice chest inside. Minutes later, one of the neighbors, Lewis Martin, found the ice chest in a dumpster and discovered that the ice chest contained the body of a five-year-old girl. Martin called the police, and an officer was dispatched to look for the suspect. The initial description of the suspect was that of a white male, about thirty years of age, wearing a black shirt, dark jeans, tennis shoes, and an orange baseball cap. Within ten minutes after receiving the dispatch, the officer approached Anderson, who matched the description except for the shirt. The officer asked Anderson for identification and a residential address, both of which Anderson provided.

Anderson asked why he had been stopped, and the officer replied that he was investigating an incident that occurred a few blocks away. The officer then asked Anderson where he was going and where he had been. Anderson answered that he had pushed a grocery cart back to the Homeland store on nearby Western street. At this point, the police officer asked Anderson not to say anything else and further asked Anderson if he would be willing to go back to the scene of that incident so that the witnesses could take a look at him. Anderson agreed to go, but the officer testified that he would have detained him for that purpose had he refused. Anderson sat in the back seat of the patrol car and was driven to the witnesses' location. The witnesses identified Anderson as the individual seen pushing the grocery cart containing a styrofoam ice chest. At that point, Anderson was handcuffed, advised of his constitutional rights, and transported to the Special Crimes Unit.

Upon arrival at the Special Crimes Unit, physical samples were taken from Anderson with his consent. He was also interrogated and gave both oral and written confessions, detailing how he kidnapped, sexually assaulted, choked and gagged, stabbed, beat and drowned the girl. He said he kidnapped Audra from in front of his home as she returned from playing with other children at a park. He took her inside and tried to rape her. He then beat and stabbed her. Anderson told investigators that after the brutal assault, he stuffed the girl into the cooler, but she tried to crawl out. He persuaded her to take a bath to clean the blood off her battered body. He then drowned her.

"It's scary sometimes, you know. If I was to be found innocent, it would happen again," Anderson wrote. In 2004, Anderson told a federal judge that he wanted to abandon further appeals and be executed. Anderson said he didn't want to "hurt anybody any longer" and that he believed God forgave him for abducting, sexually assaulting and killing Audra Ann Reeves. In his recommendation in 2004 to deny Anderson's initial federal appeal, US Magistrate Clinton Averitte cited the "particularly egregious" nature of the crime. "His persistence in carrying out this assault and murder over a period of at least 45 minutes, leaving no major part of her body that did not sustain wounds, and undaunted by a plea for mercy, would support a finding of sufficient aggravation, in and of itself, to support imposition of the death penalty," Averitte wrote. The appeal was denied.