Man executed for 1985 grocery store murders

McALESTER, Okla. (AP) _ A man who orchestrated a murderous robbery at an Edmond grocery store where he once worked followed his accomplice into the death chamber Thursday night. <br><br>Billy Ray Fox,

Thursday, January 25th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

McALESTER, Okla. (AP) _ A man who orchestrated a murderous robbery at an Edmond grocery store where he once worked followed his accomplice into the death chamber Thursday night.

Billy Ray Fox, 35, was executed by injection for the July 3, 1985, murders of three night employees at Wynn's IGA. He was pronounced dead at 9:06 p.m.

Mark Andrew Fowler, who helped carry out the murders, was executed Tuesday night at Oklahoma State Penitentiary.

When asked if he had last words, Fox said, ``No.'' He smiled, keeping his lips closed.

As the execution began, he lifted his head straight up and smiled at relatives. Seconds later, his eyes went glassy and looked to the ceiling and his head slowly fell.

With his neck bulging, Fox blew out a large breath and fell silent, his head cocked to the right. When a time of death was announced, his aunt sobbed loudly and said, ``Oh my Bill.''

Fox and Fowler were convicted of the murders of Chumpon Chaowasin, 44, Rick Cast, 33, and John Barrier, 27.

Although Fowler, 35, claimed to be just a lookout, officials determined one man could not have committed the murders alone.

Fox did not request a clemency hearing and filed no emergency appeals to try to halt his execution.

Fox was the sixth inmate executed in Oklahoma this month, with four more scheduled to die in the next six weeks. It is the fastest execution pace in state history, and has drawn national attention from death penalty opponents.

About three dozen people, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson, have been arrested in anti-death penalty demonstrations in Oklahoma in January.

Gordon Wynn, owner of Wynn's IGA, knew Fox and his three victims, each of whom was attending college at the University of Central Oklahoma when they were killed.

``They were just great guys, going to college to try to make better lives for themselves,'' Wynn said of the victims.

Wynn described Cast as a golfer and amateur photographer, while Barrier was an avid bowler. Chaowasin was a Taiwan native working toward a master's degree.

Wynn also remembered Fox, a kid from a good family who worked his way up to assistant manager until his work began to slack. He was fired about six months before the robbery.

``I don't know what happened, but he started messing up and we had to let him go,'' Wynn said.

Acquaintances said that two days before the murders, Fox approached Fowler about robbing the grocery store, to which he still had keys to the door, the cash register and a safe.

Armed with shotguns they took from their roommates, the two shot to death Chaowasin and Cast. Barrier was stabbed nine times and bludgeoned with a shotgun.

A 16-year-old girl who worked at the store found the bodies of the victims lying side-by-side in a large pool of blood in a back room of the store.

Fox and Fowler got away with $1,200 in cash. The afternoon following the murder, Fowler paid off some debts and threw a party for some friends, serving steaks and food he took from the store. Fox bought clothes and jewelry at an Oklahoma City mall. Both were arrested that night.

Fox spent the hours before his execution visiting with family members through thick glass.

Although he at first did not request a special last meal, he changed his mind and was served steak and chicken fajitas at noon.

Fox went on a weeklong hunger strike earlier this month to protest the death penalty, Corrections Department spokesman Jerry Massie said.

Three of Cast's family members were at the prison to witness the execution, along with Barrier's sister, Linda Barrier, her friend and three Edmond police officers.

The same family members watched Fowler die Tuesday.

Cast's brother, Frank Cast, called Fowler and Fox ``mad dogs'' and said their execution was the end of 15 1/2 years of grief and pain.

``I request all people of good conscience to pray for the souls of the three victims and deceased members of all the families of this tragedy, as well as pray that the souls of these two killers be sent directly to Hell,'' Cast wrote in a statement.