Execution of Dothan Man set for Thursday
Mark Randall
Eagle Staff Writer
Sunday, September 26, 2004

A Dothan man convicted of murdering his employer in the woods near Headland and using his debit card to obtain money is set to die by lethal injection Thursday after less than four years on death row.

David Kevin Hocker, who was convicted in October 2000 of capital murder and sentenced to die for the March 1998 stabbing death of Jerry Wayne Robinson, will be executed on Thursday by lethal injection at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore. Hocker waived his right to appeal his conviction in 2002 and has been waiting on death row to die for four years.

Hocker will be only the third man from Houston County executed. The last man executed from Dothan was Herbert Richardson on Aug. 18, 1989 for the pipe bombing death of Rena May Collins.

"Justice for the Robinson family is coming," said Houston County District Attorney Doug Valeska. "He did it. He wants to be held responsible. That means paying with his life."

Hocker was employed by Robinson, who owned Webb Detailing, when the murder took place. He had a history of brushes with the law. On the day of the stabbing Robinson and Hocker went to a Dothan hardware store to buy materials to build a dog pen.

Hocker lured Robinson to Headland where he planned to rob him by asking him to drive him there to pick up a microwave. Hocker was living in a downtown Dothan motel at the time and didn't have a car.

Hocker stabbed Robinson in the chest and brutally beat him. He dragged Robinson's body into a wooded area near a field in Headland and took Robinson's truck and debit card which he later used to make cash withdrawals to buy $400 worth of crack cocaine.

The investigation began after Robinson's wife, Connie, called police to report her husband missing after hadn't returned home. Robinson had last been seen in Dothan with Hocker at the building supply store.

Hocker was later observed in Dothan driving Robinson's 1996 GMC pickup truck. Mobile County sheriff's deputies found Robinson's truck abandoned in their jurisdiction and picked up Hocker two days after the murder for allegedly taking Robinson's truck.

Hocker later led investigators to Robinson's body in a wooded area in west Headland. Robinson's body was found with a knife broken off in his chest.

Investigators later learned that Hocker had planned to kill Robinson at his office that day but didn't do it because someone else was at work in the office at the time.

Hocker admitted to a Henry County judge to killing Robinson during his first appearance in court, but during his trial claimed he did it because Robinson had made sexual advances toward him. Three witnesses who testified during the trial refuted Hocker's claims about Robinson being a homosexual.

Hocker's attorney, Michael Crespi, argued against the death penalty claiming Robinson's death wasn't especially heinous or cruel compared to other death penalty cases and sought life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

Valeska pointed out that Hocker kicked Robinson in the face several times after he had broken the knife off in Robinson's body.

A presentence investigation revealed Hocker had a history of violent behavior dating back to his early childhood which was filled with physical and emotional abuse by his father, who committed suicide when Hocker was 8 years old.

As a teenager Hocker was suspended from Headland High School several times before dropping out in the 10th grade and had compiled an extensive criminal record.

Hocker's appeal was rejected in April 2002 by the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals. In a handwritten letter to Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor, Hocker confessed to the crime and apologized for his actions. He stated that the death sentence he received was warranted in his case.

"I did and still can fully appreciate the criminality of this horrendous offense that I am guilty of. I am sorry about it," Hocker wrote. "I know beyond any shadow of a doubt that this is what I was supposed to receive. There are no errors in the fact of me having a death sentence today."

Alabama Attorney General Troy King said Hocker's confession is rare in death penalty cases.

"It's remarkable," King said. "I don't know of another instance in Alabama where somebody dropped their appeals and essentially stood up and said I am prepared to accept that punishment."

Hocker also repudiated his earlier claim that Robinson had made unwanted sexual advances toward him.

"Mr. Robinson never verbally stated to me that he was attracted to me or homosexual and never propositioned me in a sexual manner," Hocker stated at his September 2002 waiver of appeals hearing.

"I'll say this about Hocker, at least he was man enough to come back in and get on the stand and tell the truth and to say that he did slander the victim's family and that there was nothing to that," Valeska said.

Since his incarceration, Hocker has made peace with God and turned his life around spiritually away from "the evil individual I had become."

"I think he has undergone a continuous evolution," Crespi said. "I don't think it is something that has happened in the last couple of months or even in the last year or two. This has been going on for quite a while."

Crespi, an opponent of the death penalty, advised Hocker against dropping his appeals, but said he wasn't surprised he did because Hocker never wanted an attorney from the beginning, he said.

"For whatever reason, that was his decision he reached," Crespi said. "I felt there were issues that might have gotten him a new trial and issues that could have been beneficial to other inmates in the same situation."

King said the Robinson family and the state of Alabama will finally be getting justice. Cases like Hocker's only serve to strengthen his conviction that the death penalty is a just punishment.

"There are some offenses that are just so evil and so mean spirited and gruesome that nothing else but death in my view satisfies." King said.

Mother finds she can accept son's date with executioner


Wednesday, September 29, 2004 CARLA CROWDER
News staff writer
GORDON - An odd mix of keepsakes covers the mother's kitchen counter: newspaper clippings of her little blond son modeling'80s clothes, police reports from the times he stole her checks and jewelry, a receipt from a psychologist, his letters from Death Row.

This sad paper trail is all Patricia Yeomans will have left of her son after Thursday. That's when David Kevin Hocker, 33, is scheduled to be executed for killing his boss, Jerry Robinson, then stealing the man's truck and bingeing on crack cocaine.

Yeomans lives at the southeastern tip of Alabama near Dothan, on land dotted with miniature horses. They are squat, cute, almost comical. Doctors suggested anti-depressants for her. She chose horses instead, and has found them more predictable and manageable than children. Her daughter is a successful speech pathologist, her son a killer.

These are just all my kids," she said, cuddling a horse shorter than a Doberman. "And I can just love'em, love'em, love'em, and they don't care about all our problems."

All week, she'd been calling funeral homes to take care of her son's body.

Hocker worked for Robinson in his steel detailing business. In March 1998, he lured Robinson to a rural area under the guise of picking up a microwave. Hocker then beat his boss before stabbing him to death and stealing his truck. He initially told police Robinson made sexual advances toward him, and that's why he killed him. But he later admitted that was a lie, said Doug Valeska, district attorney in Henry County.

Robinson's family declined to be interviewed.

"Mr. Robinson was a very devout Christian; that's why he gave this kid a chance," Valeska said.

He called Hocker a vicious person with a lengthy criminal record.

More than anyone else, Yeomans can connect the dots that led her bright-eyed child-model down such a horrific path. She tells the story not to save her son from the needle; he's ready to die and has waived appeals that could extend his life.

But maybe, she says, she'll reach other parents.

"The prisons are full of guys like Kevin," Yeomans said. "Had I been real well-heeled, I could have accomplished more, so I just feel like a failure."

A pre-sentence report, prepared by the Department of Pardons and Paroles for the trial judge, sheds light on the beginnings of Hocker's problems. His father was committed to a state hospital and diagnosed with manic depression as a teen. He committed suicide at 37, when Hocker was 8.

"I was hoping so much that Kevin wouldn't take after his dad. But he did," Yeomans said.

His father was an electrical engineer at a Florida television station. Smart but tormented, she said, he dominated and abused his family.

Yeomans' daughter, Kim Osborn, the speech pathologist who lives in Georgia, said she's in treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder because of her father's violence.

Her brother took things harder. He was a failure at school and uncontrollable at home. Yeomans remarried, and Osborn remembers their stepfather being especially tough on her brother.

"There were times he was kicked out and had nowhere to go," Osborn said.



Record started at 16:

Hocker began smoking marijuana in his early teens. He lived with his grandmother in Florida, and a neighbor he considered a role model introduced him to pot.

After he moved back in with his mother and stepfather, the drug use intensified. He'd grow listless, then angry.

At 16, he racked up the first set of many charges: burglary, criminal mischief, harassment, possession of marijuana, theft of a firearm and theft of checks from his mother. He was committed to the Alabama Department of Youth Services' Mount Meigs lockup for boys.

Yeomans sent her son to a psychologist. Turned out he had the same manic depression, now called bipolar disorder, that had plagued his father.

The diagnosis helped Yeomans understand his drug use, but she couldn't force him into treatment.

"His mental illness, ... that messed him up. But self-medicating that illness with street drugs is what destroyed him," she said. "It just did."

Hocker continued to steal from his mother and threaten her. Much of his criminal record stems from her turning him in to the police.

"He just cleaned us out," she said. "He kept pawnshops in business all over the Wiregrass."

Hocker once made a weak suicide attempt, slitting his wrist outside a Dothan hospital.

Yeomans went to the police for help, to the probate court and psychologists. But no one thought his problems were serious enough because he could calm down and act intelligent at times, she found.

Throughout the 1990s, he was in and out of jails and prison. A Department of Corrections doctor again diagnosed him with manic depression. But Hocker stopped taking his regimen of lithium, Depakote and Haldol because he did not think it was making a difference, according to the pre-sentence report.

He was released from prison at 25, and his family set him up in a lawn-care business. But he didn't stick with it and, eventually, began using crack cocaine. Yeomans knew he needed intensive drug treatment, but she didn't think she could afford it. "I'm just this pathetic mother out there trying to do something with nothing," she said.



Legal suicide?:

The week before he killed Robinson, Hocker was in court again for stealing from his mother. This time he faced a life sentence as a habitual offender. But he had a terrible fear of being in general population in prison, and Death Row prisoners live in one-man cells.

"When Kevin committed his crime, he has told me and my mother that he was suicidal. He set the crime scene up to make sure he would get a capital murder sentence and there would be no chance he'd just get life in prison," Osborn said.

Her brother is looking forward to dying, she said. He's adopted a cultish Christianity that's led him to believe he'll be a leader in the afterlife. It also led him to castrate himself in his prison cell to control sexual urges, she said.

"If that's not strong crazy feelings, I don't know what is," Osborn said. "Knowing all the background, it's hard for me to see this happen. It feels like legal suicide."



Uneasy peace:

Yeomans has reached an uneasy peace about her son's fate.

She dreads Thursday. But she can talk about it without breaking down. She's bolstered by his seeming so fearless, so religious. He writes Bible lessons for prison publications. He gives his possessions to other inmates. He won't eat pork because of something he read in the Bible.

"He has a positive attitude now," Yeomans said. "Whereas he used to be so negative and rough on me, he's done all anybody could do in his situation to lift me up and make me not feel guilty."

She still feels deep sorrow for what happened to the Robinson family. Her son's victim left a wife and two daughters. Yeomans apologized profusely during the trial. "I wanted to give the children a horse or two. That's something I could do," she said. They lost touch, and she didn't get the chance.

Her son has told her that he wouldn't appeal his conviction because he didn't want to burden the system and waste taxpayers' money. After the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed his conviction - the first state-mandated appeal - Hocker waived other appeals.

Valeska, the prosecutor, said Hocker could delay his death for years through court-mandated appeals. Alabama death penalty cases take an average of 13 years to work through the system.

Valeska said he did nothing to encourage Hocker's decision. "I'm trying to kill him. I believe in the death penalty, but, you know, I want to make sure his constitutional rights are protected," Valeska said.

Hocker told a judge he was ready to die and had made peace with the Lord.

But Hocker's family wishes he would hang on.

"My Kevin is dead already. I've seen him die in prison. The Kevin that I used to have is not there anymore. I have the most virtuous, kind-hearted son," his mother said.

On holidays and birthdays, he draws elaborate colored-pencil pictures - horses, wildlife scenes, flowers - on greeting cards for her. He addresses them in fancy curlicue script.

"I get the prettiest mail in Gordon," Yeomans said.

I will pray for all involved.

that was about the saddist thing i have read in a long time.

Denise

*ugh* It breaks my heart every time.

Mentally ill man executed for 1998 killing


Friday, October 01, 2004 CARLA CROWDER
News staff writer
ATMORE - David Kevin Hocker, a mentally ill 33-year-old who refused to fight his 1998 capital murder conviction, was executed Thursday in Alabama's death chamber.

His final words were a prayer. "I swear by you, Lord Jesus Christ, my savior, that my time shall be no longer. The mystery of life shall be finished. Amen," Hocker read into a microphone just before the lethal injection began.

His mother, Patricia Yeomans, sobbed as he closed his eyes for the last time, then doubled over in her chair. She grew shaky and had to leave the witness room for a restroom, where her husband consoled her.

Her son was pronounced dead at 6:24 p.m.

Yeomans returned to the room and asked reporters: "You don't think he felt anything, do you? It seemed like he didn't."

Hocker was sentenced to death for the March 1998 murder of his boss, Jerry Robinson, 47. Hocker lured Robinson into a rural area outside Dothan, then stabbed him to death, stole his truck and binged on crack cocaine before turning himself in to south Alabama authorities.

No one from Robinson's family attended the execution

Hocker's death marks the first time someone has been executed by the state without the Alabama Supreme Court reviewing the case, said Bryan Stevenson, director of the Equal Justice Initiative, which represents poor people on Death Row. It's just the second time Alabama has executed someone without post-conviction court reviews to determine such things as whether the defendant was competent and had adequate legal representation, and whether prosecutors followed the law, Stevenson said.

But Hocker resisted attorneys' efforts to save his life. His mother and sister say he has been suicidal for years, which, combined with a religious fervor adopted on Death Row, led to his refusal to appeal his case.

Hocker had a lengthy criminal record before he killed Robinson, much of it for drug use and stealing things from his mother. Over the years, she turned him in to police seeking help for his mental illness - bipolar disorder - but Hocker denied he was sick.



`He's fine' now:

Yeomans visited with her son three days this week, including Thursday morning.

"God didn't answer my prayers the way I had wanted. But he did answer them," she said in a written statement. "Once Kevin started reading the Bible, his anger just disappeared. He became positive about his life. It now had meaning. And he often would say to me, `I had to lose my life to save my soul.' He's fine."

Prison officials described Hocker as antsy but upbeat the day of his death. He asked a lot of questions about the execution procedure and talked about his religious beliefs.

Hocker had no breakfast or lunch Thursday. He requested a last meal of frankfurters, French fries, American cheese and chocolate cake, but he did not eat it, prison spokesman Brian Corbett said.

Yeomans will claim his body. Her son left her some of his belongings: food items and a check for 87 cents - what was left of his prisoner account. He left his radio and headset to fellow Death Row prisoner Rayford Hagood.

Hocker's conviction received the mandatory review by the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals, but he waived the remainder of his constitutionally guaranteed appeals. His decision saved the state money and sped his death by several years.

"I don't want to make him out to be a hero, he's not. ... The best way I can describe him is he's a man, he stood up and he's going to take his punishment," said Henry County District Attorney Doug Valeska.



Set limits for his trial:

A review of the trial transcript troubled Stevenson, of the Equal Justice Initiative. The trial, which Stevenson called "outrageous," lasted one day, and defense lawyer Michael Crespi called no witnesses on Hocker's behalf.

Crespi, who has known the family since Hocker was a teenager, said Hocker did not want anything about his background presented because he wished to spare his family pain and embarrassment.

"I didn't have any mitigating witnesses," Crespi said. "He forbade it."

Crespi said he tried to find a way to get around Hocker's wishes, even consulting with outside experts. Everyone told him he had to abide by his client's request.

That meant jurors never heard about the history of mental illness and domestic abuse in Hocker's childhood. Hocker's father also was bipolar and killed himself when Hocker was 8.

"I have never seen or heard of such a thoroughgoing regime of terror as existed in that household," said Crespi, who has 30 years' experience as a lawyer and judge.

Stevenson visited with Hocker on Death Row and said Hocker's mental illness was apparent. "Since Mr. Hocker has been on Death Row, he has demonstrated blatantly that he is seriously mentally ill, most significantly mutilating himself and removing his testicles," Stevenson said.

"Even if Mr. Hocker asserts that he wants to be executed, ... Alabama can take no pride in executing someone who is too unstable or too poor to protect themselves."

Wow.... that is really sad and tragic all around. May he rest in peace.

Office of the Governor


BOB RILEY
Governor





Press Office


eptember 30, 2004


Governor Riley Issues Statement on Scheduled Execution


MONTGOMERY - Governor Bob Riley on Thursday issued the following statement on the scheduled execution of David Kevin Hocker by the State of Alabama:



"Mr. Hocker pleaded guilty to the heinous crime he committed and waived his appeals. I have not been asked to intervene in this case, there are no legal challenges to this scheduled execution, and I expect the court-ordered sentence to be carried out."



Hocker was convicted in October 2000 and sentenced to death for the March 1998 murder of Jerry Wayne Robinson.

May his soul be at peace.This is very sad for all involved.I can see no good that came of this execution.