Ronald Gray

At the time of his arrest, he was stationed at Fort Bragg, near Fayetteville, North Carolina, holding the rank of Specialist Four (E-4) and serving as a cook assigned to 3rd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne.

During his court-martial, his mother Lizzie Hurd and sister testified that he had been abused by his stepfather as a child.

Colonel David Armitage, a military forensic psychiatrist, also testified that in Gray's early life he had experienced:

Gray's execution would be the first by the U.S. military since 1961.

Gray was born in Cochran, Georgia, but grew up in Liberty City, a public housing project in Miami.

Ronald Adrin Gray (born August 14, 1965) is an American serial killer and rapist whose convictions include four counts of murder, one count of attempted murder and eight counts of rape.

His crimes were committed when he was in the United States Army, stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

Gray was tried and convicted by a military court and sentenced to death.

He enlisted at age 18 in 1984 and was assigned to the Target Acquisition Battery, 1-39 Field Artillery Battalion.

On April 27, 1986, Gray murdered civilian Linda Jean Coats, age 24, a student at nearby Campbell University.

On December 11, 1986, Gray abducted, raped, and murdered a second civilian, Tammy Cofer Wilson, age 18.

On December 15, 1986, Gray abducted, raped, sodomized, and murdered Private Laura Lee Vickery-Clay, age 18.

She disappeared from Fort Bragg.

Two witnesses saw her at a local K-Mart with a man later identified as Gray.

Vickery-Clay's car, found the next morning a block from her home, appeared to have been driven through the woods, and the driver's seat was set back farther than necessary for Vickery-Clay to drive.

Three of Gray's fingerprints were found on the hood of the car.

The murder weapon, a .22 caliber pistol that Gray had stolen in November 1986, was found 60 feet from the victim's body.

On January 17, 1987, a soldier discovered Vickery-Clay's half-naked, decomposed body in the woods in Fort Bragg.

She had been raped, sodomized, and shot in the neck, forehead, chest, and back.

She had also suffered blunt force trauma to various parts of her body.

On January 3, 1987, he raped and attempted to murder Private Maryann Lang Nameth, age 19.

Gray entered her barracks room under the pretense of notification of a party that he did not want to leave on the barracks notification board.

Once inside, Gray grabbed Nameth, held a knife to her throat, and asked for her military field gear.

Gray tied Nameth's hands behind her, removed her underclothing, and raped her.

Gray then stabbed her repeatedly in the neck and on the side of her body, threatening to return and kill her if she screamed.

Nameth suffered a lacerated trachea and a collapsed lung but survived.

When Gray's photograph appeared in the news following his arrest for another crime, Nameth identified him as her assailant.

Three days later, on January 6, he raped, sodomized, robbed, and murdered a third civilian, Kimberly Ann Ruggles, age 23.

On the evening of January 6 Ruggles, a local cab driver was dispatched to pick up a passenger named "Ron" at Gray's address.

In the early morning of January 7, military police officers on routine patrol discovered Ruggles' empty cab parked at the edge of the woods.

Her nude body was discovered a short distance away.

She had been raped, sodomized, beaten, and stabbed seven times.

Ruggles' mouth was gagged with a cloth belt that matched a pair of black karate pants other police officers had found in Gray's possession hours earlier.

Gray's fingerprints were on the interior door handle of Ruggles' taxi, and Ruggles' fingerprints were found on money in Gray's possession.

Gray's footprints were also found at the scene of the crime.

In November 1987, Gray pleaded guilty in Cumberland County Superior Court to 22 felonies: two counts of second-degree murder (Coats and Wilson), two counts of first-degree burglary, five counts of first-degree rape, five counts of a first-degree sexual offense, one count of attempted first-degree rape, three counts of second-degree kidnapping, two counts of robbery with a dangerous weapon, and one count each of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill and inflicting serious injury.

He was sentenced to eight life sentences, including three to be served consecutively.

On November 26, 2008, a federal judge issued a stay of execution stopping the planned December 10 execution.

President George Bush authorized Gray's execution in 2008, following a Department of Justice review.

On January 26, 2012, the Army Court of Criminal Appeals denied relief in Gray's case and on November 13, 2017, the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces similarly denied an appeal for extraordinary relief.