Bio 

Scotty Lee Moore was born in 1956. At the time of the murder in November 1983, he was about 27 years old. Before the crime, Moore had worked at the Airline Motel in Oklahoma City. The victim, Alex Fernandez, was a desk clerk or night manager at the motel and had fired Moore about one month before the killing. This prior employment connection became an important part of the case because prosecutors argued that Moore knew the motel and targeted Fernandez during the robbery.

Moore was also connected to Vicki Caster, who was described in court records as his cousin and girlfriend. She was with him at the time of the crime and later gave incriminating testimony against him after receiving immunity.

Murder Story

On November 18, 1983, Scotty Lee Moore went to the Airline Motel in Oklahoma City with Vicki Caster. Alex Fernandez, a 42-year-old motel clerk and Moore’s former supervisor, was working at the motel that night. Fernandez had fired Moore about a month earlier.

According to the prosecution’s case, Moore and Caster robbed Fernandez. During the robbery, Fernandez was taken into a back room. Moore shot him with a .22-caliber rifle while Caster removed money from the motel. Fernandez was later found face down on the floor in a pool of blood. Reports stated that he had been shot five times in the back of the head.

Caster later became a key witness for the State. Court records state that she gave incriminating evidence against Moore after being granted immunity. The prosecution used her testimony, along with other evidence, to connect Moore to the robbery and killing. Moore was tried in Oklahoma County District Court. After a five-day jury trial, he was convicted of first-degree felony murder on October 19, 1984, and sentenced to death.

Moore appealed his conviction and sentence. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and death sentence in 1987. Later federal habeas appeals were also denied. Moore’s final legal challenges included claims about sentencing issues, attorney performance, and death-row conditions, but the courts did not stop the execution.

Before his execution, Moore also became known for challenging conditions on Oklahoma’s death row, including the use of isolation cells before execution. Amnesty International reported that Moore had written about his confinement in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary’s H-Unit and thanked supporters who had opposed his execution. These prison-condition issues did not change the murder conviction or sentence.

Scotty Lee Moore was executed by lethal injection shortly after midnight on June 3, 1999, at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. He was 42 years old. Alex Fernandez was survived by his wife and two sons.