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Man Who Killed Nurse Because He Thought She Put Hex On Him Scheduled For Execution
William Emmett LeCroy violently raped and killed Joann Lee Tiesler — and then claimed he did it because he thought she was his former babysitter who molested him and put a spell on him.
A former soldier who said he murdered a Georgia nurse in order to undo a spell he believed his former babysitter cast on him is set to be executed this week.
William Emmett LeCroy, 50, is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection Tuesday at a prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, according to a Department of Justice press release from July. His death would mark the sixth there this year.
LeCroy broke into the Gilmer County home of Joann Lee Tiesler, 30, in 2001 after believing that she had been his old babysitter who he claimed molested him as a child, the Associated Press reports.
“LeCroy attacked her, bound her hands behind her back, strangled her with an electrical cord, and raped her,” the press release stated. “Then he slashed her throat with a knife and stabbed her in the back five times.”
He then stole Tiesler’s vehicle and drove to the Canadian border, where he was arrested.
Before killing Tiesler, LeCroy had previously served 10 years in federal and state prison for numerous other crimes which included child molestation and statutory rape, according to the Department of Justice. He was out on supervised probation during the time of the attack, and investigators believed he had plans to escape the country. A jury found him guilty in 2004 of carjacking resulting in death. The jury unanimously recommended that he be executed.
LeCroy blamed the murder on his obsession with witchcraft, the Associated Press reports. He claimed that he killed Tiesler to reverse a hex he thought his former babysitter, whom he called Tinkerbell, cast on him. After he slashed her throat, he reportedly used her computer to look up witchcraft books. He only realized that she wasn't his former babysitter after the murder.
"You were an angel and I killed you," he wrote to her in a note investigators obtained during his arrest. "I am a vagabond and doomed to hell."
LeCroy’s lawyers have tried to appeal the execution on multiple grounds. Among their attempts, they claimed that his initial trial lawyers didn’t adequately bring forward evidence about his upbringing and mental health. All appeals have been unsuccessful.
He joined the Army at 17 but was discharged for going AWOL shortly after.
