Bio

Ronnie Howard was born in 1958. By 1985, he was on parole for a prior bank robbery conviction. He was associated with Dana Ricardo Weldon, with whom he committed a string of armed robberies, largely targeting Pizza Hut and Taco Bell restaurants, Howard would later confess to involvement in 72 such robberies.

Murder Story

On the night of August 29, 1985, Chinh Thi Nguyen Le disappeared while traveling home from work in Greenville, South Carolina. Court records describe her as a Vietnamese woman. Later reports described her as a 34-year-old Vietnamese refugee and mother of three.

Howard and Dana Ricardo Weldon planned to steal a car from a lone female driver. According to Howard’s confession summarized by the South Carolina Supreme Court, the two men waited in a car near Greer, South Carolina, until Weldon saw a woman driving a white Ford Granada. Howard followed the vehicle and intentionally bumped the rear of Le’s car when she stopped at a stop sign.

When Le got out of her car to inspect the damage, Howard showed a handgun and forced her back into the vehicle. Howard drove away in Le’s car while Weldon followed in the other vehicle. After driving for a period of time, Howard stopped in an isolated area, and Weldon joined him inside the victim’s car.

Le told them she was Vietnamese and appeared to have difficulty understanding English. Howard then pulled plastic over her head and held it tightly while Weldon punched her several times in the stomach. After the men believed she was dead, they removed her clothing and washed her body with soft drinks in an attempt to remove fingerprints. They later washed the body again in a mud puddle and left it in an overgrown area covered with kudzu vines.

Le’s body was found several weeks later under kudzu vines in an isolated area of Greenville County. Her white Ford Granada was later found in Columbia, South Carolina, about 100 miles away. The body was partially decomposed, and the South Carolina Supreme Court stated that the exact cause of death could not be determined from the body alone.

Howard and Weldon were tried together. On June 5, 1986, a jury found both men guilty of murder, kidnapping, armed robbery, and conspiracy. Both were sentenced to death for murder, with additional sentences of 25 years for armed robbery and five years for conspiracy.

The South Carolina Supreme Court affirmed Howard’s conviction and death sentence on February 29, 1988. The court also affirmed Weldon’s convictions but reversed Weldon’s death sentence and remanded his case for a new sentencing proceeding. The court found that the evidence supported the aggravating circumstances of armed robbery and kidnapping in Howard’s case.

Howard was also convicted in a separate murder case involving Mary Duncan in Oconee County, South Carolina. The South Carolina Supreme Court affirmed that murder conviction and life sentence on November 14, 1988. The opinion states that Howard confessed to the crime and that a codefendant testified Howard suffocated the victim.

Howard continued appealing the death sentence from Le’s murder case. In 1997, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit reviewed his federal habeas claims, including claims involving jury selection, confession evidence, and redacted statements. The Fourth Circuit affirmed the denial of habeas relief.

Ronnie Howard was executed by lethal injection at Broad River State Prison in Columbia, South Carolina, on January 8, 1999. He was pronounced dead at 6:28 p.m.