Execution Report: Richard Foster

Richard Donald Foster, 47, was executed by lethal injection on 24 May 2000 in Huntsville, Texas for the murder of a store owner during a robbery.

At 7:30 a.m. on 5 April 1984, a gunman robbed Cox's Feed and Farm Supply store in Parker county of $250 and shot the owner, Gary Michael Cox, in the back of the head with a shotgun. Just as he fired the shot, a customer named Kenneth Davis entered the store. The robber pointed the shotgun at Davis and said, "Man, you better get the hell out of here." Davis answered, "I'm leaving" and ran away. At about the same time, Zack Leatherwood, the owner of the property, was walking up to the store from behind. He heard a gunshot and saw Gary Cox fall to the ground. Leatherwood ran back to his house, which was on the same property, to get his shotgun. There, Kenneth Davis approached him and told him what had happened. Davis then watched the robber speed away in a red two-door car with a white half-vinyl top.

Earlier that morning, at approximately 4:00 a.m., Tarrant County Sheriff's Deputy H.L. Rice had observed a parked car -- a white and red Chevrolet two-door -- with two occupants. He identified the driver as Richard D. Foster by looking at his driver's license. Rice spoke with Foster, then 31, for about three minutes, then continued his patrol. He did not identify the woman who was with Foster, but she was later identified as Vicki Easterwood.

On 28 April, a Parker County sheriff's deputy interviewed Easterwood. She led him to a stock tank located in a rural area. A scuba diver searching the tank found a satchel which contained clothing, a sawed-off 12-gauge shotgun, and a shotgun shell.

Foster was apprehended in May after holding seven employees of Citizen's National Bank hostage for 12 hours.

Zack Leatherwood and Kenneth Davis testified at Foster's trial. In addition, another feed store customer, Linda Morgan, testified that on the morning of the robbery, as she was arriving at the store, she passed a car with a "cream colored" vinyl top. She identified Foster as the driver.

Foster had a three previous convictions for a string of aggravated robberies committed in June 1976. He received an 18-year sentence. He was paroled in December 1981.

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