You wouldn’t like them when they’re angry.
Posted on 11/14/2007 1:20:15 PM PST by jim_trent
ABBEVILLE — Rita Bixby made one final statement to Judge Alexander Macaulay Friday before being sentenced to life in prison for conspiring with her son to kill two law officers in relation to a strip of land the state wanted to take for a highway project.
In the time she had to plea for the judge’s mercy, Bixby asked her attorney to say something on her behalf.
“She still feels she’s not guilty, your honor,” said her attorney, Jeffrey Bloom.
That was it. Any chance that the grieving family members of State Constable Donnie Ouzts or Abbeville County Sheriff’s Sgt. Danny Wilson had to hear a heartfelt sorry or see a look of remorse on Bixby’s face was gone.
“It’s sad that she couldn’t even stand up there and tell us that she was sorry,” said Sgt. Wilson’s cousin, Cynthia Kennedy. “She doesn’t even have a conscience.”
Rita Bixby has been jailed on charges of conspiracy and accessory to murder since Mr. Ouzts and Mr. Wilson were killed in the midst of a violent firefight outside the Bixby home on Dec. 8, 2003.
The Bixbys were angry with state transportation officials who were starting work on the widening of S.C. 72 in front the Bixbys’ Abbeville home.
Throughout her three-day trial, Bixby never looked at Mr. Ouzts’ or Mr. Wilson’s family. Like her son Steven in his trial, she carried a blank expression for most of hers. She let out a small chuckle when during closing arguments her attorney called her cantankerous.
On Friday, she showed the same blank face — until she was found guilty. When she was marched back into the courtroom for her sentencing, she wore an angry frown.
A jury of nine men and three women reached their unanimous verdict in less than two hours of deliberation. Those men and women, all from Lancaster County, have been sequestered in the small town of Abbeville since Monday. In those days, they listened to 33 witnesses.
They learned of how Mr. Wilson was shot in his side as he knocked on the Bixbys’ front door on the morning of Dec. 8, 2003. They heard testimony regarding how Mr. Ouzts was shot in the back as he responded to the house to see if he could help.
They heard a taped conversation from that day in which Bixby said she was proud of her son for defending his rights.
They listened to readings of e-mails that state agents pulled from the Bixbys’ computer after the shootings. The messages were written a month before the standoff. In them, Bixby wrote that she had warned utility workers of the impending “war” and warned them to “get out of the line of fire.”
It seems it was that taped conversation and those e-mails — words from Rita Bixby herself — were the deciding factor in the verdict.
Once in their deliberations, jurors asked a question. They wanted to hear the tape one more time and listen to the testimony about the e-mails. Ten minutes later, they reached their verdict.
That verdict was read in a silent, carefully guarded courtroom. About 20 officers stood around the room to make sure the proceedings remained civil. And despite Bixby’s last minute plea of innocence, Judge Macaulay was unmoved.
Thirty minutes after he read the jurors’ verdict, the judge served Bixby with the harshest penalty he could. He sentenced her to life without the possibility of parole — a move that then gave the Wilson and Ouzts families some sense of relief.
“I’d hate for her to get off, because she’s evil,” said Mr. Ouzts’ son, Chris. “After that lawyer gets up and talks about her age, I was afraid that the jury would go back and feel sympathy for her and not see the evilness in that woman.
“Now, she’s no longer on the easy road in the jailhouse. She’s going straight to prison.”
Steven Bixby was sentenced to death in February for shooting Mr. Wilson and Mr. Ouzts.
His 78-year-old father, Arthur, is charged with two counts of murder and is awaiting trial.
You wouldn’t like them when they’re angry.
Sadly there are a cabal of such Ruby Ridge-obsessed idiots on FR.
Based solely on this story, anyway, I fail to see anything remotely redeeming in these murders. The land was being taken for what is unquestionably a public purpose, namely a larger road. (This isn’t a case, for example, of the use of eminent domain to permit the building of a private commercial endeavor, a matter with which the US Supreme Court recently dealt.) Rather, the article describes what occurred as cold-blooded and premeditated murder.
Thanks for the update. I understand why people get upset when their land is taken by eminent domain, but that doesn’t excuse shooting a couple of cops who were only doing their job.
Sound like she got what she deserved.
I have a good friend who is a Constable and I hold my breath every time I hear him on my Police scanner asking for Local Police backup when he has to serve a warrant. Bad thing is, he usually only asks for backup if the person has a previous violent record.
“Sound like she got what she deserved.”
She will pass on some day and then she will get what she deserves. In the meantime prison is where she belongs, to contemplate her future.
I hope their original supporters here have reconsidered their initial position.
Thanks for posting.
“they did not own property they were “defending” by shooting cops (one in the back). It had been sold to the DOT in 1960 by a previous property owner.
There was no eminent domain in this case although they might have felt like it. Don’t feel bad, I have had to return some of my 8th grade certificates.
I probably would qualify as a Ruby Ridge-obessed idiot (I once spent an evening with Randy Weaver) and based on what I read here I would not consider this incident even remotely comparable to Ruby Ridge.
The second worst thing about what this woman did (the first of course being the killing of the cops) is giving a black eye to legitimate critics of eminent domain abuse.
Yes, I read that. But the discussion was about Freeper reactions to earlier posts, which did not give that detail.
That’s why I was thanking him for the update.
Agreed.
She is 75. Her husband has not gone to trial yet (he is 78) since he is claiming he is suffering from Altzheimers (sp?). However, he did not have that trouble while shooting at the police.
I guess the point of the article is that the entire family still thinks they have a right to kill people for any reason that they think. They are all still a danger to everyone who is sane.
> “We do a LOT of “drive by” posting here at FR.”
Yes, we do. I was involved deeply in the MnDOT bridge discussions here and I think we had the events pretty well fleshed out even though the complete story has not yet been released.
The Bixby’s bothered me more than most drive-by’s, though. I am involved in Civil Engineering of streets, highways, sanitary and storm sewers. I have NEVER been involved in any one of those projects that did not involve eminent domain, condemnation, etc. in some manner.
Still, I think some of the original posters went over the line in advocating this kind of behavior. If going right to murder, without even trying the courts to find justice, is acceptable, we are not civilized. That was not a mugger, house invader, or something sudden or unplanned. It had been in on a wish list for 40 years. It had been planned, written about, letters sent out, and ROW Agents had contacted people (including the Bixby’s) months to years in advance. This was not a surprise to them. What they decided to do was kill.
I agree with you murdoog. I don’t see any resemblance to Ruby Ridge which was a crime committed against the Weaver family. I’m curious how wideawake defends the government position.
Exactly how often do you spend your evenings with crazed neo-Nazis?
based on what I read here I would not consider this incident even remotely comparable to Ruby Ridge
I don't see why it is considered wrong to murder a peace officer who is responding to one complaint and somehow right to murder a peace officer who is responding to another complaint.
Unless the standard is something as childish as: "Squatters aren't cool but Nazis are totally cool!"
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