A longtime Nebraska death row inmate died Saturday, according to prison records. Arthur L. Gales was 55.
Arthur Gales
In 2003, he was sentenced to death for the first-degree murder of two children, 13-year-old Latara Chandler and 7-year-old Tramar Chandler, in Omaha in 2001.
Gales got another 50 years for the attempted murder of their mother, whom he'd severely beaten.
Only two men on death row had been there longer — John Lotter and Raymond Mata.
Gales was said to have had cancer. A grand jury will be called to review his death, as is done by state law whenever an inmate dies in state custody.Â
DEATH ROW INMATES:
Nebraska's 11 death row inmates
Jose Sandoval
Jose Sandoval, Jan. 31, 2005, Madison County. Sandoval was convicted with Jorge Galindo and Erick Vela of shooting and killing Lisa Bryant, 29, Lola Elwood, 43, Samuel Sun, 50, all Norfolk, Jo Mausbach, 42, Humphrey, and Evonne Tuttle, 37, of Stanton, in a botched attempted bank robbery.
Nikko Jenkins
* Nikko Jenkins, May 30, 2017, Douglas County. Eleven days after his release from prison, where he had been for 10 years for two carjackings, Jenkins shot and killed Juan Uribe-Pena and Jorge Cajiga-Ruizon on Aug. 11, 2013. Eight days later, Jenkins killed Curtis Bradford, a one-time prison acquaintance. Then, on Aug. 21, he pulled Andrea Kruger from her SUV as she drove home from work and shot her four times before speeding off in her vehicle.
Carey Dean Moore
* Carey Dean Moore, June 20, 1980, Douglas County. Moore killed two Omaha cab drivers five days apart, Reuel Van Ness Jr. and Maynard Helgeland. Van Ness was shot during a robbery, with Moore’s younger brother along, and Helgeland was shot three times, Moore has said, just to prove he could take a man's life all by himself.
John Lotter
* John L. Lotter, Feb. 21, 1996, Richardson County. Lotter and Marvin Nissen were convicted of killing Teena Brandon, 21, of Lincoln, a transgender male. They killed Brandon in 1993 to silence him after he told police they had raped him. They also killed Lisa Lambert, 24, and Phillip DeVine, 22, who lived in the same house as Brandon and witnessed the killing. Lotter has maintained his innocence.
Raymond Mata
* Raymond Mata, June 1, 2000, Scotts Bluff. Mata was convicted of killing and dismembering 3-year-old Adam Gomez, his former girlfriend’s son, in 1999. Prosecutors said Mata fed parts of the boy's body to a dog, and kept some of his remains in the home to intimidate the boy’s mother.
Arthur Gales
* Arthur L. Gales, Nov. 6, 2001, Douglas County. Gales was convicted of attempted murder in the severe beating of Judy Chandler, and of raping and murdering her 13-year-old daughter, Latara Chandler, by strangling her, and killing her 7-year-old son Tramar by drowning and strangling him. He killed them because he knew they could identify him as being with their mother that day.
Jorge Galindo
* Jorge Galindo, Nov. 10, 2004, Madison County. Convicted with Jose Sandoval and Erick F. Vela for shooting and killing Lisa Bryant, 29, Lola Elwood, 43, Samuel Sun, 50, all Norfolk, Jo Mausbach, 42, Humphrey, and Evonne Tuttle, 37, of Stanton, in a botched attempted bank robbery.
Erick Vela
* Erick F. Vela, 34, Jan. 12, 2007, Madison County. Convicted with Jose Sandoval and Jorge Galindo for shooting and killing Lisa Bryant, 29, Lola Elwood, 43, Samuel Sun, 50, all Norfolk, Jo Mausbach, 42, Humphrey, and Evonne Tuttle, 37, of Stanton, in a botched attempted bank robbery.
Jeffrey Hessler
* Jeffrey Hessler, May 18, 2005, Scotts Bluff County. In 2003, Hessler kidnapped, raped and murdered 15-year-old newspaper carrier Heather Guerrero.
Roy Ellis
* Roy L. Ellis, Feb. 6, 2009, Douglas County. Ellis abducted, sexually assaulted and killed 12-year-old Amber Harris, who died of at least two blows to the head. Ellis has said he used a hammer, and he may also have strangled her.
Marco Torres
* Marco E. Torres, Jan. 29, 2010, Hall County. In 2007, he tortured and killed Edward Hall, 60, binding him with an electrical cord, gagging him with a bathrobe belt and shooting him three times. He then shot and killed Timothy Donohue, 48, who lived in a room upstairs in Hall's home. The men were killed to conceal a robbery.
Patrick Schroeder
* Patrick Schroeder, Aug. 31, 2006, Johnson County. Schroeder was convicted of strangling his cellmate, Terry Berry, at Tecumseh State Correctional Institution in April 2017. At the time, Schroeder was serving a life sentence for beating Pawnee City farmer Kenny Albers to death and dumping his body in a well in 2006.
Anthony Garcia
Anthony Garcia, a former doctor convicted of killing four people connected to Creighton Medical Center, was sentenced to death Sept. 14, 2017.
