SCHEDULED FOR EXECUTION-CONVICTED KILLER LEDELL LEE

LEDELL LEE

Sentenced to death after convicted in the February 1993for the beating to death of Debra Reese with a tire iron in Jacksonville

Scheduled for execution on April 20, 2017
Date of original condemnation: Oct. 16, 1995
County in which crime occurred: Pulaski
______

Debra Reese called her mother, who lived houses away, just minutes after a man came to her house seeking tools for a broken-down vehicle. 

Reese, who had been home alone while her truck-driver husband traveled to Dallas for a delivery, planned to leave the Jacksonville house after detailing the encounter over the phone the morning of Feb. 9, 1993, but was unable to leave in time, her mother, Katherine Williams, testified.

The man convicted in Reese's death, Ledell Lee, returned to the residence minutes later, barged inside and bludgeoned her to death with a tire iron that her husband had given her as a form of protection, prosecutors said.

At Lee's trial, Holly Lodge Meyer, senior deputy prosecuting attorney of Pulaski County at the time, described the slaying as a “fierce, barbaric and deliberate beating” that was motivated by “money and meanness.” 

On Oct. 12, 1995, a Pulaski County jury convicted Lee of capital murder in Reese’s killing after two hours of deliberation. Four days later, he was sentenced to death.

That trial came a year after a mistrial was declared in October 1994 when a single juror deadlocked the jury. The jury foreman, Bonita Willis Witherspoon, was later convicted of failing to disclose that she had personal connections to the case, including that she had previously been represented by one of Lee’s attorneys.
One of Reese’s neighbors told authorities that he had witnessed a man entering her home but stopped just short of calling 911 at the request of his wife, who advised that he not get involved what she believed to be a domestic dispute.

The neighbor, who identified Lee in a photo lineup, testified in court that he saw Reese move away from the door, at which point, the man “grabbed that front door and made a beeline inside there, just like, real fast.”

Lee was arrested within an hour of Reese's death after some of the cash taken from her wallet was used to pay a bill at a Rent-A-Center store. Defense attorney Bill Simpson argued that Lee's fingerprints were not found on the money.

A police witness at Lee's October 1995 trial acknowledged that more than 20 items in the Reeses' home were checked for fingerprints –– none of which were traced back to Lee. Nothing incriminating was found in Lee’s apartment.

Lee is also serving time for the rapes of two Jacksonville residents. Prosecutors dropped a capital murder charge against Lee involving another death after the state Supreme Court upheld his death sentence in Reese's killing.

_______

DEBRA
REESE

Reese, 26, was a newlywed with a son from a previous marriage, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.

“She told me she was scared, that she didn't know why but she didn't trust him.”

— Reese's mother, Katherine Williams, speaking on the call she got Feb. 9, 1993, from her daughter