Bio

Edward Dean Horsley Jr., known as "Ed Dean," was born on August 25, 1957. As a teenager, he was convicted of armed robbery, an offense during which a police officer was shot and was serving time for it at a juvenile detention facility in western North Carolina alongside 18-year-old Brian Keith Baldwin, who was there for stealing a car.

Murder Story

On the night of March 12, 1977, Naomi Rolon left her home in Hudson, North Carolina, to visit her father, who was in a hospital. She was driving her mother’s 1970 Chevrolet Impala. That same day, Edward Dean Horsley Jr. and Brian Keith Baldwin had escaped from a North Carolina prison camp. The two men seized Naomi’s car and forced her to travel with them.

Horsley and Baldwin first drove Naomi to Charlotte, North Carolina. Court records state that they choked her, attempted to rape her, stripped her of her clothing, stabbed her in different parts of her body, and locked her in the trunk of the car. The abuse continued as they drove through South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama.

The ordeal lasted about 40 hours. On Monday afternoon, March 14, 1977, the two men reached Alabama. Baldwin stole an El Camino pickup truck in Camden, Alabama. From there, Baldwin drove the stolen truck while Horsley drove Naomi’s car, with Naomi still in the trunk. They eventually drove into a secluded wooded area in Monroe County.

At the wooded location, Naomi was removed from the trunk. According to the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals, Baldwin told Horsley to back over her with the car. Horsley tried to run over her, but Naomi moved away. He tried again, but the vehicle became stuck. Baldwin then used a hatchet from the stolen truck and struck Naomi in the neck. The court record states that the fatal wound was a large gaping wound at the base of her neck.

After Naomi was killed, Horsley and Baldwin attempted to cover her body with brush and pine tops. They left her mother’s car in the woods and drove north in the stolen truck. At about 3:00 a.m. on March 15, 1977, they were apprehended by police in Lanett, Alabama. The license plate from Naomi’s car was found inside the stolen truck.

Horsley and Baldwin were jointly indicted for the capital offense of robbery in which the victim was intentionally killed. The cases were tried separately. Alabama prosecutors argued that the robbery and killing were part of one continuous offense that began in North Carolina and ended in Alabama. Horsley challenged Alabama’s jurisdiction because the taking of Naomi’s car began outside Alabama, but the appellate court rejected that argument.

A jury found Horsley guilty and fixed his punishment at death by electrocution. After the jury verdict, the trial court held a sentencing hearing. The court found four aggravating circumstances: the crime was committed while Horsley was under a sentence of imprisonment after escaping; he had a prior robbery conviction connected to a police officer being shot; the capital felony was committed during robbery or flight after robbery; and the crime was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel.

The court found only one statutory mitigating circumstance: Horsley’s age, 19, at the time of the crime. On December 16, 1977, the trial court accepted the death penalty and ordered that Horsley be executed by electrocution at Alabama’s Holman Unit.

Horsley’s conviction and sentence went through years of appeal and collateral review. In 1983, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals again affirmed the death sentence after reviewing whether lesser-offense instructions were required. The court held that the evidence did not support a lesser offense and that the death sentence was not imposed under passion, prejudice, or another arbitrary factor.

In 1995, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the denial of federal habeas relief. The court reviewed claims involving mitigation evidence and counsel’s performance during sentencing. The court noted that Horsley’s guilt was not disputed and that both Horsley and Baldwin had confessed.

Shortly before the scheduled execution, Amnesty International reported concerns raised by Horsley’s attorneys about the all-white jury and about mitigating evidence they said had not been adequately presented at trial. Amnesty also reported that the prosecutor had used peremptory challenges to exclude prospective Black jurors. These issues were raised in legal and clemency efforts but did not stop the execution.

Edward Dean Horsley Jr. was executed by electrocution in Alabama on February 16, 1996. Death Penalty Information Center records list him as the 320th person executed in the United States after the reinstatement of the death penalty and identify the method as electrocution.