Harold Lamont Otey was born on August 1, 1951, in Long Branch, New Jersey. He grew up in a large family with six brothers and six sisters. When he was just four years old, he left home to live with his aunt and uncle in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. There, he attended school and did well, earning good grades.

Tragedy struck when Harold's aunt died while he was in eighth grade. After her death, he returned to Long Branch to live with his mother. This transition was challenging for him. He struggled to connect with kids his own age and found it hard to fit in.

In ninth grade, Harold got into trouble and was suspended from school. After his suspension, he took a job walking horses at a local racetrack, which marked the start of a long career in that field. He worked at racetracks on the East Coast and in the Midwest for the next eleven years. The job kept him busy and introduced him to a different lifestyle.

In the early morning hours of June 11, 1977, Harold Lamont Otey walked home in Omaha, Nebraska. He noticed Jane McManus, a 26-year-old photography student, sleeping on a sofa in her home. Otey entered through the back door, stole a stereo, and placed it behind a garage. He then went back inside to wake McManus and told her he intended to rape and rob her. During the attack, she fought back, which led Otey to cut her forehead with a knife. He raped her and forced her upstairs to get money, where he stabbed her again. Afterward, Otey hit her multiple times with a hammer and strangled her with a belt. He covered her face with a cloth before leaving the scene.

Otey was arrested on January 26, 1978, in Tampa, Florida. Two days later, he was interviewed by Omaha detectives and gave a detailed confession about the crime. However, he later claimed that his confession was coerced. He stated that detectives had pressured him and fed him information about the murder. Otey admitted to other crimes but maintained his innocence regarding McManus's murder.

On April 13, 1978, Otey was convicted of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to death on June 20, 1978. The Nebraska Supreme Court affirmed his conviction and sentence on December 18, 1979. Throughout his time in prison, Otey continued to assert his innocence. In a 1991 interview, he expressed that his confession was made out of fear of facing harsher punishment elsewhere.

Harold Lamont Otey was executed by electrocution on September 2, 1994, at the Nebraska State Penitentiary. He chose spaghetti as his last meal but refused to eat it when the time came. Otey did not make a final statement before his execution. He became the first person to be executed in Nebraska since the death penalty had been reinstated in 1976 and was the 250th person executed in the United States since then.