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Tony Leslie FRY
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics:
Robbery
Number of victims: 1
Date of murder:
February 21,
1994
Date of birth: 1975
Victim profile: Leland A. Jacobs, 42 (car salesman)
Method of murder:
Shooting (.22-caliber
handgun)
Location: Chesterfield County, Virginia, USA
Status: Executed
by lethal injection in Virginia on February 4,
1999
On February 21, 1994 Tony Fry
and his accomplice, 17-year-old Bradford Hinson, used a .22 caliber
weapon to shoot and kill Leland Jacobs, a Chesterfield County 42-year-old
car salesman. Fry had lured Jacobs from his Ford dealership under
the ruse that Fry's grandmother wanted to buy a 1994 Ford Explorer.
Leland Jacobs was robbed, shot
eleven times, tied to the rear bumper of the Explorer with his
necktie and dragged down a dirt road 777 feet into the woods while
still alive.
About 15 minutes after the
murder, a police officer who had a warrant for Fry's arrest for
another crime had a tip that Fry frequented the area where Jacobs
was killed and came upon Fry and Hinson as they were leaving the
scene of the murder. Fry confessed when he was arrested.
Tony Fry and his
accomplice, 17-year-old Bradford Hinson used a .22 caliber weapon to
shoot and kill Leland Jacobs, a 42-year-old car salesman whom Fry
had lured from his Ford dealership with the ruse that Fry's
grandmother wanted to buy a 1994 Ford Explorer and lived in southern
Chesterfield.
Leland was robbed,
shot eleven times, tied to the rear bumper of the Explorer with his
necktie and dragged down a dirt road 777 feet into the woods while
still alive.
About 15 minutes
after the murder, a police officer who had a warrant for Fry's
arrest for another crime had a tip that Fry frequented the area
where Jacobs was killed and came upon Fry and Hinson as they were
leaving the scene of the murder.
Fry confessed when
he was arrested. In addition to the death penalty, Fry also
received a 50 year sentence for the robbery and an eight year
sentence for 2 counts of use of a firearm related to Jacobs' death.
Hinson was
convicted of the 1st-degree murder of Jacobs, robbery and 2 counts
of use of a firearm and received an 88 year sentence.
Fry also gave a
confession detailing a long series of robberies, arson of churches
and houses, burglaries and grave robbing.
Chesterfield police
testified at Fry's sentencing that when Fry was arrested shortly
after Jacobs' murder, he admitted robbing 3 churches in the Matoaca
area, including Greenwood Presbyterian Church, of which he was a
member.
He also confessed
to torching 2 vacant homes in Chesterfield and pulling fire alarms
at various local facilities.
Fry also admitted
robbing a grave off Reedy Branch Road and stealing parts of a man's
skull. He left a jawbone in a friend's apartment, where it was
found by police.
In 1995, Fry waived
all further appeals but in 1996 changed his mind.
In Richmond, a man scheduled
to be executed Thursday for murdering a Chesterfield County car
salesman lost his last appeal Monday to the U.S. Supreme Court.
By a 7-2 vote, the court
rejected Tony Fry's emergency request and formal appeal.
Fry's lawyers have said he
does not plan to ask Gov. Jim Gilmore for clemency. That would mean
he has no appeal options left before his execution.
Fry, 23, pleaded guilty to
capital murder in the February 1994 robbery and shooting death of
Leland A. Jacobs, a car salesman who was accompanying Fry on a test
drive. Fry shot Jacobs 11 times, then helped a companion tie Jacobs
to the back of a vehicle and drag his body down a dirt road.
A medical examiner testified
that Jacobs probably was still alive when he was dragged.
(source:
Associated Press)
Virginia execution
Feb. 3, 1999
After a plea from Pope John
Paul II last week, Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan spared the life of a
triple murderer facing execution -- but Virginia death row inmate
Tony Leslie Fry says he has no illusions that Gov. Jim Gilmore will
spare his.
"I honestly feel that he
wouldn't grant the clemency petition and that's why I didn't file
one," said Fry, 23, who was reached by telephone in the death house
of the Greensville Correctional Center yesterday.
He said that since he went on
death row in January 1995, 36 inmates have been executed and two
have received commutations. "I didn't think there'd be no chance,"
he said. The 2, Joseph Payne and William Saunders, are now serving
life sentences.
Fry is scheduled to die by
injection tomorrow for the 1994 slaying of a car salesman. The U.S.
Supreme Court has turned him down and Gilmore is his last hope. Yet
Fry is the 2nd Virginia condemned man in recent months to refuse to
ask Gilmore for mercy.
Last December, Kevin Dwayne
Cardwell did not seek clemency because his lawyer said Cardwell "did
not think it would succeed and that, as he put it, (he) wanted to
depart with a sense of dignity."
Including the recent
commutation of Darrell Mease's death sentence in Missouri, there
have been 38 death sentence commutations across the nation since
1976, when the U.S. Supreme Court permitted capital punishment to
resume, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
More than 500 executions have
taken place during the same period.
Of the 38 commutations, three
were by then-Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder and 2 by then-Gov.
George Allen. Gilmore, once a prosecutor and now more than a year in
office, has yet to commute a death sentence.
Fry admits to killing Leland
A. Jacobs, 42, a car salesman with Bennett Ford, on Feb. 21, 1994.
He and an accomplice, Bradford
A. Hinson, took Jacobs on a test drive. Jacobs was shot 11 times and
then, while still alive, was tied to the rear bumper with his tie
and dragged more than 700 feet.
Hinson is serving an 88-year
sentence after being convicted of the 1st-degree murder of Jacobs,
robbery and 2 counts of using a firearm in the commission of a
felony.
Fry said he is sorry for what
he has done. He said that several weeks ago he wrote the family of
his victim to tell them "I was sorry that it happened and that I
wish that I could go back and change what happened."
He said he hopes to visit with
his grandmother, 2 aunts, lawyers and clergy tomorrow.
Fry said, "Since I've been on
death row I've seen all these people that I've known, and even
people that I haven't known, personally, I've seen them executed."
He said, "I see the reality of
this....I'm prepared to die. I've been preparing for a while now.
"The United States Supreme
Court turned me down Monday. So, I know now that nothing can
basically stop this execution and I know now that Thursday night at
9 o'clock I'm going to be executed," he said.
David Botkins, spokesman for
Attorney General Mark L. Early, said, "Of all the murderers on
Virginia's death row, Tony Fry's crime was one the most predatory,
horrific and brutal. It was cold-blooded and calculating."
(source:
Richmond Times-Dispatch)
Virginia execution
Feb. 4, 1999
In Jarratt, a man convicted of
killing a car salesman whose bullet-riddled body was tied to a truck
bumper and dragged down a dirt road was executed by injection
Thursday night.
Tony Leslie Fry, 23, pleaded
guilty to murder and robbery in the February 1994, slaying of Leland
A. Jacobs, who worked for a Richmond-area Ford dealership.
In a final statement, Fry said
he was "sorry for what I've done, and I have made peace with
myself."
Jacobs was shot 11 times with
a .22-caliber handgun. His necktie was tied to the rear bumper of
the Explorer. A medical examiner testified that Jacobs probably was
still alive when he was dragged.
A police officer who had a
warrant for Fry's arrest in an unrelated case spotted Fry and an
accomplice, then 17-year-old Bradford A. Hinson, leaving the scene
and stopped them. Fry confessed to the killing when he was arrested.
Hinson was convicted of
1st-degree murder and robbery and is serving an 88-year sentence
Fry becomes the 2nd condemned
inmate to be put to death in Virginia this year, and the 61st
overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1982. Only
Texas, with 167 executions (also since 1982), has executed more
people.
Fry also becomes the 13th
condemned prisoner to be executed this year in the USA, and the
513th overall since America resumed executions on Jan. 17, 1977.
(sources: Associated Press and Rick Halperin)
Tony Leslie Fry
On October
3, 1994 Tony Leslie Fry pled guilty to the murder of Leland A.
Jacobs. Fry was 19 years old at the time when the crime was
committed. During the sentencing part of the trial, Fry presented a
large amount of mitigating evidence. He claimed his age, his
attitude toward police and the crime, his family background and the
fact that he did not supply the murder weapon were all factors which
displayed that the death penalty was not a suitable sentence.
Fry was
abandoned by both of his parents as a child and had been raised by
his maternal great-grandmother. As a young boy Fry frequented
church and was a member of the choir but did not have a lot of
friends. During high school Fry was placed in a special education
class which could handle his emotional disturbance. He was
considered a below average student and had trouble with schoolwork
in the low-level classes.
Two mental
health experts testified on Fry's behalf. One psychologists stated
that Fry's intelligence was below average, and could only read at a
fifth grade level. The psychologist went on to testify that Fry was
ôsuffering from a dependent personality disorder and stated that Fry
presented some features of void and schizoid personality disorders,
but that Fry does not suffer from a mental illness."
The second
psychological expert testified "Fry's personality disorders and
retarded social development resulted from his abandonment by his
mother and the peculiarities of his great-grandparents' household."
However, he concurred with the psychologist that Fry did not have a
mental health disorder. Fry threatened suicide twice during his
arrest.
Both the
police and Fry's former employer testified that he was "polite and
respectful" with the police continuing on to say that Fry was
"forthright about his involvement in Jacobs' murder and the other
criminal activities." The testimony of a fellow inmate of Hinson
(who was present at the time of the murder) and Fry stated that
"Hinson was the leader of [Fry]."
However,
despite all of the mitigating evidence, the punishment was still
fixed as death.
