Bio 

Randy Winton Haight was born on July 18, 1952. Before the murders of Patricia Vance and David Omer, Haight already had a long criminal history and was in custody. Kentucky records state that he was being held in the Johnson County Jail while awaiting trial when he escaped on August 18, 1985. He escaped with his girlfriend, Mabel Music, and another male inmate.

Federal appellate records later described Haight’s defense theory at trial. He claimed that after the jail escape, he went on a drinking binge and became emotionally disturbed after Mabel Music left him. At trial, he argued that intoxication and emotional disturbance affected his actions during the shootings, but the jury rejected that defense.

By August 1985, Haight was a fugitive. The events after his escape included stolen vehicles, stolen firearms, robberies, and the deaths of Patricia Vance and David Omer. His case later went through years of appeals because he initially pleaded guilty under an agreement that called for the prosecutor to recommend life sentences, but the trial court sentenced him to death. That first judgment was later vacated, and Haight was allowed to withdraw his plea before being tried again.

Murder Story

On August 18, 1985, Randy Haight escaped from the Johnson County Jail in Kentucky with his girlfriend, Mabel Music, and another male inmate. He had been awaiting trial at the time. After the escape, Haight remained on the run for several days.

On August 22, 1985, Patricia Vance and David Omer were killed. Their bodies were later found shot to death inside Omer’s station wagon in rural Garrard County, Kentucky, near Herrington Lake. Kentucky Department of Corrections records identify both victims and state that Haight was later sentenced to death for their murders.

Federal appellate records state that police later found the victims’ property and both handguns used in the murders inside a stolen pickup truck abandoned by Haight. He was captured the next day, August 23, 1985, in a cornfield in Mercer County after a brief chase.

Haight was first involved in plea proceedings connected to the murders. He initially pleaded guilty in exchange for the prosecutor’s recommendation of life imprisonment without parole for 25 years on each murder count, along with robbery sentences to run concurrently. The trial court accepted the guilty plea but rejected the recommended sentence and imposed death. The Kentucky Supreme Court later vacated that judgment because the plea had been entered under a misunderstanding about whether the judge would follow the sentencing recommendation.

After that ruling, Haight tried to enforce the original plea agreement, but the Kentucky courts rejected that effort. He was allowed to withdraw his guilty plea, and the case proceeded to trial in Jefferson County after a change of venue from Garrard County.

At the 1994 trial, Haight admitted from the witness stand that he committed the murders. His defense argued that he was under extreme emotional disturbance and was severely intoxicated at the time. The jury rejected that argument and found him guilty of two counts of intentional murder, two counts of first-degree robbery, and one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

The penalty phase began on February 1, 1994. Haight was sentenced to death for each murder, along with concurrent 20-year prison terms for the robbery convictions and a concurrent five-year term for the firearm conviction. The Kentucky Supreme Court affirmed the convictions and death sentences in 1996.

Haight continued to challenge his conviction and death sentence through state and federal appeals. In February 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of his federal habeas petition, leaving the death sentence in place.

Randy Haight remains listed by the Kentucky Department of Corrections among death row inmates. Recent reporting also identifies him as still on death row for the 1985 murders of Patricia Vance and David Omer.