Going For His Murder Badge

Ronda Hatton was born in 1967 and grew up in Petal, Mississippi, an only child. She went to the University of Southern Mississippi and made the Dean's List in 1988, but she was pregnant by then and left before finishing her degree, three years in. She married David Griffis, and their son Justin was born in 1988; Jeffrey followed in 1990. The family lived in a trailer in Petal. David ran a landscaping business, Southern Landscape, hiring mostly college students; Ronda stayed home with the boys, was a member of the parent-teacher organisation and a homeroom mother at the elementary school, and was a well-known member of Christview Baptist Church. Her mother, Nancy Hatton, lived in the trailer next door, 150 to 175 feet away.

this part of the story is covered for now He was the first Eagle Scout at his school, well liked by teachers, and had stepped up when his father had a heart attack, working nights and weekends and handing his pay to his family. David wrote him a letter of recommendation on Southern Landscape letterhead calling him a morally conscious young man. In July 1995 David fired him after a woman complained that he had followed her on a walking track and frightened her. details of the account remain covered until revealed He was due to leave for the Navy in late October 1995.

On 14 October 1995 Nancy Hatton helped Justin and Jeffrey, then seven and five, put up Halloween decorations in the yard; Ronda had a sinus headache and stayed inside. That afternoon Nancy was in her front yard when she heard a scream and a thud from her daughter's trailer. She went into her own trailer and telephoned next door; the phone rang four or five times and nobody answered, and the same happened on a second call. She walked over. As she approached, David's pickup came up the drive with the boys; he had been hauling pine straw and this was his last load. Nancy also noticed a blue pickup parked in the vacant lot beside the trailer.

She went in through the kitchen and dining area and called for Ronda. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it Jeffrey came in behind his father, and Nancy grabbed the children and ran them to her own trailer, locked them in the bathroom and called 911 at 5.01 p.m. She was put on hold because David was already on the line from next door.

this part of the story is covered for now He asked what he was doing in his house. details of the account remain covered until revealed David called 911, and while on the phone he wrestled the club away. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it Only then did David look around the room, and he found Ronda on the floor of the living room beside the couch in a large pool of blood. She was wearing a T-shirt and a sock on her left foot. He called 911 again at 5.05 and deputies and paramedics arrived.

Ronda had several gashes to the back of her head, injuries to her head, back and chest, a deep laceration and three or four hesitation marks on her neck, and defensive wounds on her hands, arms and elbows, and she had been sexually assaulted with the club, an axe-handle-like implement. The cause of death was cerebral trauma from blunt force. The wooden club was found just outside the trailer.

this part of the story is covered for now He had slept the first night between hay bales in a field and the second in the loft of a barn, stuffed cotton in his boots to keep warm and eaten roots, and told a deputy he was an Eagle Scout. He complained to his mother that it was a lot of law enforcement for someone who had committed burglary. In a duffel bag at the house police found items taken from the trailer, including a pair of coveralls.

Interviewed at the Forrest County Sheriff's Office between 5 and 6 p.m. on 16 October after being read his rights, he denied killing anyone, saying he had gone there to burgle the place for money to pay a truck note, and asked for a lawyer when the questioning turned to the killing. Later, after speaking to his lawyer, he gave a different account: he had been driving past, decided on impulse to rob the house, put on his coveralls and parked in the vacant lot; Ronda let him in, they talked, he saw an axe handle on the living-room floor, they began kissing, and he was acting out a fantasy of undressing her while he stayed clothed when Nancy approached. Ronda, he said, ran to the bedroom and told him to get rid of her mother, so he picked up the stick to scare the woman away. details of the account remain covered until revealed He also claimed a previous affair with Ronda around May 1995. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it

this part of the story is covered for now The venue was moved to Biloxi. details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it Nancy Hatton, David and the boys testified. this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed

the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it He also argued that the sexual assault could not be an aggravator because there was no seminal fluid, which the court rejected: the statute prohibits inserting an object without consent whether or not the attacker was gratified. this part of the story is covered for now

details of the account remain covered until revealed He said he had not seen footage of the World Trade Center coming down until 2003. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed He wore glasses into the chamber, looked at the ceiling, said no when asked for final words, took several deep breaths and was pronounced dead at 6.18 p.m. on 20 March 2010. His mother Mary said the treatment had been unfair from the start. Ronda's parents, Cecil and Nancy Hatton, watched; Nancy said she knew for a fact that he murdered her daughter because she was there, and that there would never be closure for them.