Man executed in deaths of Arkansas teens

McALESTER, Okla. (AP) -- A former truck driver who lured his victims by impersonating a police officer was executed Thursday for the deaths of two Arkansas teens.<br><br>George Kent Wallace, 59, was pronounced

Thursday, August 10th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

McALESTER, Okla. (AP) -- A former truck driver who lured his victims by impersonating a police officer was executed Thursday for the deaths of two Arkansas teens.

George Kent Wallace, 59, was pronounced dead at 9:27 p.m. from a lethal dose of drugs at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.

The execution marked the first in Oklahoma conducted in the evening instead of at midnight.

Wallace pleaded guilty in 1991 in the deaths of 15-year-old William Von Eric Domer of Fort Smith, Ark., and 14-year-old Mark Anthony McLaughlin of Van Buren, Ark.

The teens' bodies were discovered almost four years apart in the same pond just across the state line in Oklahoma.

Wallace also confessed to killing two men in North Carolina -- Jeffrey Lee Foster in 1976 and Thomas Stewart Reed in 1982 -- and was suspected in a third Arkansas death.

Domer's body was found Feb. 22, 1987, in a pond near Pocola in Le Flore County. McLaughlin was found there on Nov. 12, 1990. The two had been stabbed and shot.

Wallace, who had been a Fort Smith truck driver, indicated earlier he would meet with Arkansas authorities about the death of 12-year-old Alonzo Don Cade of Fort Smith. But Wallace then decided against it.

Cade's murder is unsolved. Sebastian County, Ark., Sheriff Frank Atkinson said Cade's death was similar to the others. The boy's body was found Dec. 20, 1990, in a gas well drilling pond.

Wallace was arrested shortly after he attempted to kill Ross Ferguson on Dec. 9., 1990. Ferguson was an 18-year-old supermarket employee who managed to escape after being stabbed in the back and
arm.

Ferguson, now 28, was among the expected witnesses along with members of McLaughlin's family and Domer's brother and
sister-in-law.

Atkinson also witnessed the execution.

Domer's father, Truman Domer, said earlier he could not attend because his son's loss was too great.

"I don't think I could handle it emotionally," said Domer of Tampa, Fla. "I'd want to break through that glass" in the execution chamber.

An assistant sheriff, Allen Gentry, from Forsyth County, N.C., had scheduled a Thursday visit with Wallace at Wallace's request.

Wallace confessed to Gentry about the North Carolina murders in a 1996 visit.

Outside the prison, death penalty opponents held a prayer vigil. Prayers were spoken for Wallace, Domer, McLaughlin, prison
officials carrying out the execution and for victims of violent crimes and their families.

Wallace's execution was the 11th this year in Oklahoma, the most in a year since the state executed 14 men in 1933.

The execution was the 30th since Oklahoma reinstated the death penalty in 1977 and was the 113th since 1915.

For his last meal, Wallace requested eight pieces of fried chicken, four biscuits and a pint of banana pudding flavored frozen custard. He did not list a drink, said prison spokesman Jerry Massie.