Bio 

Carey Dean Moore was born on October 26, 1957, in Nebraska. At the time of the murders in August 1979, Moore was 21 years old. Moore lived in the Omaha area and was familiar with the city’s taxi system. His younger brother, Donald, was also involved in the first cab robbery and killing. Later court records noted that Moore had a disadvantaged family background, but the sentencing court found that this did not outweigh the aggravating factors in the murders.

Before the killings, Moore obtained a handgun and planned to rob cab drivers. According to court records, he selected cab drivers he believed would be easier targets. He later told police that he preferred older drivers because he believed it would be easier for him to shoot an older man than someone closer to his own age.

Murder Story

In August 1979, Carey Dean Moore planned a series of robberies targeting Omaha cab drivers. According to court records, Moore called cabs, hid nearby, and watched the drivers arrive. If the driver appeared too young, he did not come forward as the passenger. Moore later told police he wanted an older driver because he believed such a victim would be easier to shoot.

On August 22, 1979, Moore called a cab from the Smoke Pit restaurant in Omaha. Reuel Eugene Van Ness Jr. responded to the call. Moore decided Van Ness would be his target because he was not too young. Witnesses later identified Moore and his younger brother as two people who entered Van Ness’s cab that morning. Fishermen also identified Moore as being inside the cab near Dam Site 16 before the killing. Van Ness’s body was later found at Dam Site 16 near Omaha.

Five days later, on August 27, 1979, Maynard D. Helgeland was also killed during a cab robbery. Court records state that Moore used a similar plan. He found a lone cab with an older driver near the Greyhound bus depot at 18th and Farnam Streets in Omaha and directed the driver toward the Benson area. Moore later admitted that he had planned to rob and shoot whichever cab driver he selected. Helgeland’s body was found in his cab at about 7:30 a.m. on August 27, 1979.

Moore confessed to police that he killed both cab drivers so they could not identify him as the robber. The handgun used in both killings was later found in Moore’s possession when he was arrested in Iowa on August 29, 1979, in a stolen vehicle. Expert witnesses identified the weapon as the gun used in the two murders.

Moore was charged with two counts of first-degree murder. He waived his right to a jury trial and was tried before a judge. He was convicted on both counts. On June 20, 1980, a three-judge sentencing panel sentenced him to death for each murder. The Nebraska Supreme Court reviewed the case and affirmed the convictions and death sentences in 1982.

Moore’s death sentence was later challenged in federal court. In 1990, the Eighth Circuit upheld a federal ruling that granted habeas relief because one of the aggravating factors used in sentencing, “exceptional depravity,” had been applied in an unconstitutionally vague way. The ruling affected the death sentence, not the murder convictions.

Nebraska later pursued resentencing. A new three-judge panel was convened, and in April 1995 Moore was again sentenced to death. Later appeals continued, but Moore eventually stopped contesting his execution. A planned 2007 execution by electric chair was stayed, and Nebraska later changed its execution method to lethal injection.

Carey Dean Moore was executed at the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln on August 14, 2018. He was pronounced dead at 10:47 a.m. His execution was Nebraska’s first since 1997, the state’s first by lethal injection, and the first U.S. execution to use fentanyl as part of the lethal injection drug combination.