Bio

Horace Edward Kelly was born in 1959. He was a native of New Jersey and had worked as a security guard in California for about two years before the murders. By 1984, Kelly was living or working in Southern California. He was 25 years old when the murders occurred. The later legal record shows that his mental condition became a major issue both before and after conviction. During later proceedings, experts and prison officials described him as severely mentally ill, and Amnesty International reported that he had a documented history of mental illness by the time of his 1984 arrest. Amnesty also reported that his condition deteriorated after he entered death row and that he was diagnosed with chronic schizophrenia in 1993.

Kelly’s crimes occurred over a short period in November 1984 and involved three victims in San Bernardino and Riverside counties. The San Bernardino case involved the rape or attempted rape of two adult women, Sonia Reed and Ursula Houser, who were shot with the same type of weapon. The Riverside case involved the attempted abduction of a 13-year-old girl and the fatal shooting of 11-year-old Daniel Osentkowski, who intervened to help her escape.

After his convictions, Kelly became one of California’s most controversial condemned prisoners because of questions about whether he was mentally competent to be executed. In 1998, prison officials and mental-health professionals raised concerns about his ability to understand his execution and the reason for it. A Marin County jury ultimately found him legally competent under the narrow execution-competency standard, but his execution was not carried out.

Murder Story

On November 16, 1984, police in San Bernardino, California, were called after a woman’s body was found at a local cemetery. The victim was Sonia Reed. Court records state that Kelly was later found to have murdered and attempted to rape Reed that day. The uploaded case material states that Reed had been shot in the chest and neck with a .357 Magnum revolver and had been sexually assaulted or attacked before death.

The next day, November 17, 1984, 42-year-old Ursula Houser was found dead in a San Bernardino alley about two miles from the Reed murder scene. The California Supreme Court stated that the jury found Kelly murdered, raped, and robbed Houser. The uploaded case material states that Houser was shot from behind with a .357 Magnum, dragged from the scene, and sexually assaulted after death. Ballistics evidence connected the two San Bernardino shootings.

Several days later, Kelly attacked again in Riverside County. Daniel Osentkowski, age 11, was walking with his 13-year-old cousin when they were confronted by a man with a gun. The attacker tried to force the girl toward a van. Daniel intervened, kicking the attacker and helping his cousin break free. The attacker then opened fire, fatally wounding Daniel before fleeing. The surviving girl gave police a description of the attacker and the vehicle.

That evening, police stopped Kelly in a light green van. Officers found a recently fired .357 Magnum revolver in the vehicle. Kelly initially denied involvement, but the surviving victim identified him, and he later confessed. He was prosecuted in Riverside County for Daniel Osentkowski’s murder and in San Bernardino County for the murders of Sonia Reed and Ursula Houser.

Kelly was convicted of murder and attempted murder in the Riverside case involving Daniel Osentkowski and was sentenced to death. He was later convicted of two additional murders in San Bernardino County and received another death judgment. California Supreme Court records confirm that his Riverside conviction and death sentence were affirmed in 1990 and that his San Bernardino death judgment was affirmed in 1992.

In 1998, Kelly came close to execution, but the case was delayed after prison officials and psychiatrists questioned whether he was legally competent to be executed. The competency hearing drew national attention because multiple experts described serious mental illness and impaired functioning. A Marin County jury voted 9–3 that Kelly was legally aware of his execution and the reason for it, which made him competent under California’s execution standard at that time.

Despite that ruling, Kelly was not executed. California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation records from 2019 listed Horace Kelly as a condemned inmate with death judgments from Riverside and San Bernardino counties.