Cesar Barone, 49, serial killer awaiting execution since 1995, died of natural causes in prison
Hoodoo
Man had been awaiting execution since 1995
By Alan Gustafson � Statesman Journal � December 25, 2009
http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20091225/NEWS/912250323/1001/news
Serial killer Cesar Barone died of natural causes Thursday in the Oregon
State Penitentiary infirmary in Salem, prison officials said.
Barone, 49, had been awaiting execution since 1995 for the murder of
Martha Bryant, a nurse-midwife who was shot to death Oct. 9, 1992, after
her car was run off the road near Hillsboro.
Prosecutors said Bryant was driving home from her job at a hospital in
Hillsboro when Barone forced her car off the road with gunfire. He then
drove the injured woman to another location where he attempted to rape
her. He gave up the rape attempt because of her injuries and fatally
shot her.
Police found the victim's car riddled with bullet holes and discovered
her about a half mile away, shot in the head and the back. She died
several hours later.
The Washington County detective who investigated the case once described
Barone as "one of the meanest men I ever met." He said Barone killed
Bryant because he had a run-in with a police officer that night and
decided to take it out on someone.
Barone also was sentenced to death in the 1991 killings of Chantee
Woodman, who was abducted in Portland and whose body was dumped along
Sunset Highway, and Margaret Schmidt, who was strangled in her
Portland-area home.
Barone was convicted of murder and given an 89-year sentence in the
death of Betty Lou Williams, a Portland-area resident who died of a
heart attack as Barone attempted to rape her.
In January 2001, Barone was included with other inmates in an anti-death
penalty ad from the Italian clothing maker Benetton. The 100-page
supplement titled "We, On Death Row," accompanied 300,000 copies of that
month's Talk magazine.
Barone, in an Associated Press article about the ad campaign, said he
was disappointed with the photograph that appeared in the supplement,
which he inspected through the glass at the penitentiary visiting room.
"That's kind of shady," he said of the darkened, blurry picture.
Barone caused no notable problems for corrections officials during his
almost 15 years on death row at the state penitentiary.
Barone had been housed in the prison infirmary for about a week, Whitney
Dodson said. She declined to disclose any information about his medical
issues, citing confidentiality provisions in state law.
With Barone's death, 31 Oregon inmates now face execution on death row.
No executions are likely to happen soon because condemned killers have
the right to pursue multiple legal appeals.
Oregon's most recent executions by lethal injection occurred more than a
decade ago, one each in 1996 and 1997.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
--
"Think with your dipstick, Jimmy."