The Execution of Ronald Dale Yeatts

"The Last of Her Generation"

By Robert A. Waters

Seventy-year-old Ruby Meeks Dodson lived life on her own terms. She stayed alone, in her remote country home near Ringgold, Virginia. An avid reader and introvert, she retired after working many decades as a sales clerk at Belk-Leggett, a department store. Her husband, Alexander, had died five years earlier. She had no children and the local newspaper called her "the last of her generation." Her poodle, Benji, kept her company.

Although she was not one to join clubs or just call and chat, Ruby had a small circle of friends and relatives. Because of arthritis, she could barely walk so friends would often drive her to the grocery store or to run errands. According to the Danville Register and Bee, the teenagers at the "Ringgold Baptist Church sort of adopted Dodson. The Sunday before Dodson died, the group brought her a sunshine basket." The teens also regularly mowed her lawn.

Two middle-aged men, Charles Michael Vernon and Ronnie Dale Yeatts, lived vastly different lives than Ruby. They existed only for the next high. They'd both been arrested numerous times on charges including illegal drug possession, burglary, writing bad checks, and other such crimes. Yeatts had recently been accused of at least one rape, although he hadn't yet been charged.

September 23, 1989 was a typical day for the friends. Court documents state that they spent the morning drinking beer and smoking marijuana and crack cocaine. In the afternoon, Yeatts noticed their stash was quickly becoming depleted and asked Vernon if he knew anybody who had money.

Vernon never hesitated. He said he and his father had once installed a water filter for an old lady named Ruby. He noticed she paid them in cash. "She's got lots of money in her home," he said. 

They wasted no time driving there. During the trip, Vernon handed Yeatts a pocketknife with a three-inch blade. Pulling into Ruby's driveway, they raised the hood of Vernon's 1981 Plymouth. It took a few minutes, but Ruby hobbled outside.

Court documents describe what happened next: "Ms. Dodson 'stepped out' and asked what the two men wanted. Yeatts told her they were having car trouble and asked 'something about the phone.' Yeatts then requested a glass of water, and when Ms. Dodson brought it to him, he handed it to Vernon, who poured it out. Yeatts asked for another glass of water, and, as Ms. Dodson stepped inside to get it, Yeatts followed her into the house. Vernon also entered the house and went directly to the bedroom, where he 'assumed [Ms. Dodson] kept her money,' and began searching through drawers but found nothing."

As Vernon searched the bedroom, Yeatts guided Ruth into the kitchen. Vernon, who later  claimed he didn't know Yeatts had murdered the widow, grabbed Ruth's purse. After a short time, he and Yeatts left. Vernon told investigators that "when we got in the car, I noticed that there was blood on Ronnie. And I said, 'Did you kill her?' He said, 'She's dead. Don't worry about it.'"

For the two losers, it was a huge score--$1400 in cash. The thieves casually split the money, then threw away the purse and bloody knife. Vernon later said Yeatts told her he had to kill Ruby because she could identify him. 

In typical fashion, they immediately drove to the "projects" and spent all the money buying more drugs.

Jean Wright, a friend, discovered Ruby's body. The Bee and Register reported that "Wright had come over to give Dodson her mail that Saturday." After discovering her friend's bloody remains on the kitchen floor, Wright called police.

An autopsy established that Ruth had been stabbed 13 times and her throat cut.  

It didn't take cops long to figure out who committed the murder.

Yeatts (pictured) eventually confessed. He was tried, convicted and sentenced to death. Because Vernon testified against his cohort, he received a life sentence with the possibility of being released after twenty years.

On April 19, 1999, Yeatts received a cocktail of drugs and casually drifted off to his eternal sleep. It was certainly not as painful as the torture he inflicted on Ruby Meeks Dodson. 

Was justice served?

Career Burglar Taken Down in Overbrook

 Ashley Mundy

Machete-carrying Home Invader Shot

By Robert A. Waters

The weather in Overbrook, Kansas was mild on October 8, 2015, in the 40s that night. Shortly after midnight, Ashley Mundy lay asleep in her bedroom when she heard glass breaking. She later testified in court, saying, "Oh my gosh. There's someone in my house. Like, I could hear shuffling in the basement. I sat up listening. Then I jumped up and grabbed my phone and my gun."

Her four-year-old son, Braedyn, lay sleeping on the bed next to her.

Mundy owned a 9mm semiautomatic pistol. She loaded it and "went down the hallway to see if I could see anything. I got my gun ready to shoot and then saw a stranger walking from the dining room to the living room."

At first, he had his back to her and was fumbling with her home security system. She said she thought he was trying to disable it.

Then, about four feet away, he turned toward her. As soon as she saw his face, she fired. She knew she had hit him. "When I shot...blood's going everywhere [and] he threw his hands in the air," she testified. She yelled at the stranger to leave and "he ran screaming through my house. Once he was out of the house, I secured the door and called 9-1-1."

As Ashley waited, police and paramedics arrived. Overbrook Police chief Terry Hollingsworth testified that he "saw a male subject laying in the road and EMS was working on him." The wounded man, whom the chief recognized as Bruce Jolly (pictured), a forty-nine-year-old frequent visitor to the local courts, had wounds to his left wrist and abdomen.

Jolly had also called 9-1-1, reporting that he had been shot. He was transported to Stormont Vail Hospital and released two weeks later.

Jolly lived near Mundy, and police quickly obtained a search warrant for his home. Officers testified that they found large quantities of blood in the residence. "The safe had blood all over it," Investigator Bryan Johnson told the court. A bloody knife was also found in the safe.

The Osage County News reported that "Johnson testified that Mundy had told him the intruder was holding a red object when he was at her house and had a handled object his his waistband. The investigator said he collected a machete from Jolly's home, which matched the victim's description of the object in his waistband. He said a weed-eater that matched the description of Mundy's was also recovered from the Jolly's garage."

Investigators learned that Jolly had run home after being shot and attempted to hide the objects he was carrying. Then he ran out to the street and called for assistance.

Jolly was tried a year later and sentenced to four years and nine months in the state prison.

Before breaking into Mundy's home, he'd had numerous convictions for offenses such as aggravated burglary, narcotics possession, criminal possession of a firearm, criminal use of a financial card, 11 convictions for vehicle burglary, and others.

"I was there alone with my child," Ashley said. "My dad encouraged me to get a conceal and carry, and I just felt that was the right thing to do at that moment."

"[Jolly] had meth in his system," Ashley said. "At the time, everyone was like, how did he survive that? I think, at the time, the drugs were what allowed him to survive the shot because [the bullet] was a hollow tip."

Ashley said, "I think when something like this happens, you think the worst. I worry about Braedyn every day and with that situation, I can't imagine what he could have witnessed."

Ashley, who felt unable to continue living in her home, packed up and moved to a new place.