Texas Execution Information Center

Execution Report: Ron Shamburger

Continued from Page 1

A jury convicted Shamburger of capital murder in October 1995 and sentenced him to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed his conviction and sentence in October 1998. All of his subsequent appeals in state and federal court were denied.

Prior to killing Baker, Shamburger was a former Eagle Scout, a senior at Texas A&M University, and he aspired to become a minister. In the summer of 1994, however, he found a credit card that someone left behind at the store where he worked. In a death-row interview, Shamburger said that this fateful incident started a chain of events that led up to Baker's murder. He said that he was going to report the lost credit card, but instead, he decided to take it home and buy something with it, then get rid of it.

After this successful experiment in crime, Shamburger started stealing credit cards and, later, committing burglaries -- breaking into homes in search of credit cards and money. He knew Lori Baker from school, and he had gone to her house on three previous occasions to burglarize it. On the first two visits, he ended up burglarizing her neighbors instead. On the third visit, on or about 27 September, he successfully broke into her house and stole a credit card and a pair of her panties. He bought the pistol and gasoline can used in her murder with her credit card.

Of Baker's murder, he said, "Things happened so quickly, sometimes you don't have time to think. ... It was a response, a reflex. I panicked." He said that didn't kill Kohler because "I had time to think about it, and I wasn't going to kill anyone else."

Lori's parents, Derrel and Faye Baker, doubted that burglary was Shamburger's true motive for murdering their daughter. They said that he desired a romantic relationship with her, but she was uninterested in him. They said that she turned down his requests for dates, but continued to be nice to him. His last call to her came the week before her death, when Lori told him that she was in an exclusive relationship. "My personal opinion is that he wanted her for himself, and when he thought he couldn't have her, he decided no one was going to have her," Faye Baker said.

Shamburger said he wished he could undo his actions. He apologized to the Baker family, to Victoria Kohler, and to his family. "My sin has affected other people," he said. "I understand the loss of my life is not a payment for Lori's. The loss of my life is a consequence of my actions. If I could pay with my life and bring her back, I would."

Shamburger quoted from the Bible as he was being prepared for execution. Making his last statement, he looked at the victim's family and said, "To the Bakers, I am really sorry for the pain and sorrow I caused you. I really do not know what to say, but I am sorry ... forgive me." Next, he apologized to his own parents. "Forgive me," he said. "Thank you for your love." As the deadly chemicals entered his body, Shamburger sang "How Can it Be?", an old religious hymn. He was pronounced dead at 6:17 p.m.

divider

By David Carson. Posted on 25 September 2002.
Sources: Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Texas Attorney General's Office, Associated Press, Bryan-College Station Eagle.

Privacy PolicyContactAdvertising