The inmates on Nebraska’s death row and their crimes
Jorge Galindo
JORGE GALINDO
Crime: The 2002 Norfolk bank robbery; he shot and killed Lola Elwood, a bank employee.
Erick F. Vela
ERICK F. VELA
Crime: 2002 Norfolk bank robbery; he shot and killed Lisa Bryant, a bank employee.
Jeffrey Hessler
JEFFREY HESSLER
Crime: kidnapping, raping and murdering Heather Guerrero, a 15-year-old Gering newspaper carrier, in 2003.
John L. Lotter
JOHN L. LOTTER
Crime: 1993 murders of Teena Brandon, 21, Lisa Lambert, 24, and Phillip DeVine, 22, in a farmhouse near Humboldt; the story of the transgender Brandon was fictionalized in the film “Boys Don’t Cry.”
Roy L. Ellis
ROY L. ELLIS
Crime: the 2005 abduction and bludgeoning death of 12-year-old Amber Harris of Omaha.
Marco E. Torres Jr.
MARCO E. TORRES JR.
Crime: the 2007 execution-style shooting deaths of two Grand Island men, Timothy Donohue and Edward Hall.
Anthony Garcia
ANTHONY GARCIA
Crime: 2008 murders of 11-year-old Thomas Hunter and 57-year-old Shirlee Sherman, and 2013 murders of 65-year-old Dr. Roger Brumback and 65-year-old Mary Brumback.
Nikko Jenkins
NIKKO JENKINS
Crime: four murders during a 2013 killing spree in Omaha.
Patrick Schroeder
Patrick Schroeder
Crime: the 2017 strangling death of his cellmate, Terry Berry, a 22-year-old inmate who was about to be released from the Tecumseh State Prison.
Aubrey Trail
Aubrey Trail
Crime: the 2017 abduction and slaying of Lincoln store clerk Sydney Loofe.
Nebraska State Patrol was made aware that the 13-year-old girl might be driving through Nebraska in a Ford F-150 with a man. Troopers quickly located the vehicle and found the girl hiding inside.
The state's Supreme Court affirmed the lower court's decision against John Lotter, finding the convicted murder's lawyers had missed their window of opportunity to claim he is intellectually incompetent.
The district court "found Trail’s act of self-harm was 'a calculating gesture,' and we will not disturb this finding on appeal," the Supreme Court said.
Solicitor General James Smith said many of the alleged errors probably should be taken up at a later post-conviction hearing, but asked for a rare opportunity to provide supplemental briefing.
Erwin Charles Simants, who shot and killed six members of a Sutherland family in 1975, will remain confined in the Lincoln Regional Center, a judge ruled Friday.
With growing understanding and evidence the death penalty is inhumane and unevenly applied, Sen. Terrell McKinney says, it's time for Nebraskans to vote again on whether to retain capital punishment.
The United States Supreme Court this week declined to take John Lotter's death penalty appeal, potentially putting him a step closer to being executed for a 1993 triple murder.
In a letter to the Journal Star last month, Aubrey Trail said: "My message to whoever is listening is simple: 'You gave me the death penalty so now use it.'"
A district judge shot down Aubrey Trail's request seeking to force the state’s hand to carry out his death sentence for the murder and dismemberment of Sydney Loofe.
"The crimes committed against Hunter, Sherman, Roger and Mary were utterly senseless and cruel," the chief justice said in the decision Friday in Anthony Garcia's case.
Aubrey Trail's new attorney takes steps toward filing a post-conviction challenge. In 2021, Trail was sentenced to death for the killing and dismemberment of Sydney Loofe.
An 85-year-old man who had been incarcerated at the Nebraska State Penitentiary for nearly 50 years died. He was convicted of second-degree murder in 1974.
Sen. Loren Lippincott’s proposal would allow Nebraska to put condemned inmates to death by forcing them to breathe pure nitrogen, essentially suffocating them.
Aubrey Trail, who chose not to go through with a Nebraska appeal of his death sentence for the killing of Sydney Loofe, has gone forward instead with a federal challenge.
Lawmakers considered one proposal Wednesday that would allow Nebraska to execute inmates by forcing them to breathe nitrogen gas — and another that calls for senators to witness executions.
An Omaha prisoner convicted in the 1967 slayings of two service station attendants has died.
The suicide deaths of two inmates at Nebraska prisons in recent years may have been avoided if NDCS had followed recommended policy changes years ago, a new report suggests.
