The Criminal Court of Appeals upheld the death sentence of a Kentucky escapee whose 1986 crime spree included the slaying of a nuclear engineer from Utah.
Wayne Lee Bates was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of Julia Guida, a nuclear engineer from Salt Lake City who was working near Manchester at the time of death. Bates was sentenced to death.In his opinion, Judge Gary Wade wrote that Bates knowingly and voluntarily entered his guilty plea, that he received effective legal rep-re-sen-ta-tion and that the state's failure to share the results of a witness' lie detector test had no adverse effect on his case.
Bates has asked that he be executed and no appeals be pursued in his behalf, but his attorneys do not believe Bates is competent to make that decision. They are pursuing the case.
Bates' troubled childhood led to him being placed in a juvenile detention home at age 11. He's spent most of his life in and out of jails, and psychiatrists have diagnosed him as anti-social, paranoid and depressed.
It was while serving a time in Kentucky for car theft that Bates escaped guards while attending a church service.
He broke into a home in Franklin County, Ky., and stole a .410-gauge shotgun. He sawed off the barrel and stock.
He traveled to Manchester where he killed Guida, who was jogging near her hotel. He forced her into a wooded area and tied her to a tree using her shoestrings and the headphone cord from her Walkman radio. He gagged her with her socks.
He then shot her in the back of the head. He untied her, covered her body in the woods and buried the Walkman and gun.
Bates then took her rental car and traveler's checks and drove to Bristol where he picked up two hitchhikers, Francine Kelman and Marvin Littleton.
Bates had Kelman forge and use some of the traveler's checks en route to Baltimore.
He was stopped by a Baltimore police officer. He tried to flee in the stolen vehicle and crashed.