Bio 

Yokamon Laneal Hearn was born on November 6, 1978, in Dallas County, Texas. Texas Department of Criminal Justice records list him as a Black male from Dallas, Texas, with 10 years of education and no prior prison record before the capital murder conviction. Hearn was 19 years old at the time of the murder of Frank Meziere. He was known to some people by the nickname “Yogi.”

During the punishment phase of his trial, prosecutors presented evidence that Hearn had been involved in prior offenses before the capital murder. These included burglaries, arson, aggravated robbery, aggravated assault, sexual assault, terroristic threat combined with unlawful carrying of a weapon, criminal trespass to steal a bicycle, and a schoolyard assault over another bicycle.

The case later became known not only because of the robbery and murder, but also because of Hearn’s appeals. His lawyers argued that he had intellectual disability or mental impairment that should have made him ineligible for execution. Courts reviewed those claims, but they did not stop the execution.

Hearn was also the first person executed in Texas under the state’s one-drug lethal injection protocol using pentobarbital alone.

Murder Story

On the night of March 25, 1998, Yokamon Laneal Hearn and three other people drove to North Dallas. The group included Delvin Diles, Dwight Burley, and Teresa Shirley. According to the Texas Attorney General’s summary, they went there with the purpose of making money and carried several weapons, including shotguns, a .22-caliber pistol, and a Tec-9.

At about 10:30 p.m., the group saw Frank Meziere at a coin-operated car wash. Meziere, a 23-year-old stockbroker from Plano, was cleaning his 1994 Mustang after spending the evening out with a friend. Hearn and Diles approached Meziere at gunpoint. They forced him into his own car and drove him away from the car wash. Burley and Shirley followed in another vehicle. The group took Meziere to a secluded area in Dallas County.

At the secluded location, Hearn shot Meziere at close range with the Tec-9. Diles also fired shots. Reports differ on the exact number of wounds, with some describing 10 shots to the head and others describing 12 gunshot wounds to the head and upper body. Meziere died from the shooting.

After the murder, Hearn and the others took Meziere’s wallet, personal items, and Mustang. Hearn drove away in Meziere’s car while looking for a place to dispose of or sell the stolen vehicle. Meziere’s body was discovered the next morning in a roadside field near an industrial area. His Mustang was found later in a shopping center parking lot.

Investigators linked Hearn and the others to the crime through evidence that included surveillance footage from a convenience store near the car wash. Teresa Shirley later testified as an eyewitness and accomplice. Hearn and Delvin Diles were arrested in late March 1998 after police received a tip. They were found at a room in the Delux Inn. On March 31, 1998, Hearn was indicted in the 282nd District Court of Dallas County for the capital murder of Frank Meziere.

In December 1998, Hearn was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. The Texas Attorney General’s case summary gives the death-sentence date as December 11, 1998. Texas Department of Criminal Justice records show that Hearn was received on death row on December 31, 1998.

Hearn appealed his conviction and death sentence. On October 3, 2001, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed his conviction and sentence. The United States Supreme Court denied review in 2002. His later state and federal habeas petitions were also denied.

In 2004, Hearn received a stay of execution while his lawyers pursued a claim under Atkins v. Virginia, arguing that he was intellectually disabled and could not constitutionally be executed. In 2010, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals dismissed his Atkins claim, holding that he had failed to establish intellectual disability under the legal standard then applied by Texas courts. In 2012, the Fifth Circuit also denied relief.

On July 18, 2012, the United States Supreme Court rejected Hearn’s final appeals shortly before the execution. He was executed by lethal injection at the Huntsville Unit in Texas. He was pronounced dead at 6:37 p.m.