EXECUTION #34

John Fautenberry
Executed July 14, 2009 10:37 a.m. by Lethal Injection in Ohio
34th murderer executed in U.S. in 2009
1170th murderer executed in U.S. since 1976
2nd murderer executed in Ohio in 2009
30th murderer executed in Ohio since 1976
Summary:
Fautenberry, a former Oregon truck driver, was hitchhiking near Cincinnati when he was picked up by truck driver Joseph Daron Jr., 46, of Milford, on February 17, 1991. After driving to a nearby restaurant, as Fautenberry was getting out, he reached back in and shot Daron with a .22 caliber pistol. Fautenberry then drove the truck to a wooded area near the Ohio River, dumped the body, then used the truck and credit cards to return to Oregon. Fautenberry pleaded no contest on July 23, 1992, to two counts each of aggravated murder and grand theft and one count of aggravated robbery. Fautenberry confessed to killing a total of five people in four states — Alaska, Oregon, Ohio and New Jersey — during a five-month period in late 1990 and early 1991. After his arrest in Alaska, Fautenberry confessed to the Cincinnati murder.
Final/Special Meal:
Two eggs sunny-side up, fried potatoes, two pieces of fried bologna, four pieces of wheat bread, two pieces of wheat toast with butter, four slices of tomato, a side of lettuce and mayonnaise, two Three Musketeers candy bars and two packages of Reese's peanut butter cups.
Final Words:
None.
The Execution
He fell asleep around 11:30 p.m. and slept until he was awakened by prison execution staff at 6 a.m. "Wake up Asshole...it's time to die" His only visitors were his attorney and a Catholic priest with whom he spent several hours. Outside the cramped, dimly lit Death House on Tuesday, an undertaker sat in a black hearse, parked inside the barbed wire fence at Southern Ohio Correctional Facility. Less than an hour later, the 46-year-old body of serial killer John Fautenberry was wheeled out – executed by the state of Ohio.
It took about 31 minutes from the time prison staff began hooking Fautenberry to intravenous tubes to when he was pronounced dead at 10:37 a.m. Three IV drugs knocked him out, stopped his breathing and his heart. The injection of lethal fluids took about 13 minutes.
Fautenberry wore navy blue pants with orange stripes. His head was shaved and he wore black eyeglasses, black boots and a white T-shirt. Twenty eyewitnesses, including family of victims, defense attorneys, a prosecutor, pastor, news reporters and prison workers, witnesses the execution. Seven prison officers who volunteered for the duty, and the warden, oversaw his execution. Fautenberry died silently without looking up. Andrea Carson, a prison spokeswoman, said Fautenberry asked for and got some sedatives Monday night and Tuesday. He appeared very calm before the injection.