Good Evening everyone! Welcome to a new episode of Love and Murder – the weekly true crime podcast discussing relationships gone terribly wrong. Where our new motto is that you’re either someone’s last love or their first murder.
I am your host Ky along with my co-host the new, but not improved – is that wrong to say – Rick.
Our show discusses true crime cases told in the form of a story with mystery, suspense, and just a little bit of humor sprinkled on top – but never at the expense of the victim.
In tonight’s episode, we’re talking about a guy whose alcohol use prompted malicious murder and you won’t be surprised about the lack luster justice that was served. Or will you?
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Randy William Gay was born on September 1, 1958 in Garland County, Arkansas. My daughter REFUSES to say Arkansas. She says that that’s not how it’s spelled and she will say it how it’s spelled. Truthfully, I was exactly the same way when I was in highschool. Anyway, His father’s name was Glen Harold Gay, I couldn’t find his mother’s name, but he also had some sisters.
When Randy’s mother was pregnant with him, she’d planned on having an abortion, but failed in her attempt. So, because she couldn’t get rid of him, she abandoned her children.
After their mother left, their father became abusive. According to reports from his older sister, Gloria Lindsey, their father tried his best to raise then, but he had anger issues. This is not an excuse to be abusive to your kids. I think she’s trying to ive him an excuse.
He was strict and hard on his kids. According to the children, his abuse was both verbal and sometimes even physical towards Randy.
Not only did Randy hae to deal with that, but when he was around 6 years old, he was also sexually abused by some older boys. What…the….hell?
Gloria got tired of everything going on and wanted an out. She got married at 15 and moved out.
Not too long after, Glen got remarried but the relationship wasn’t great. Glen treated her just like he treated his children and Randy would usually try to protect her.
When Randy was a teen, he met a girl another teen named Sherry Buford. They fell in love and got married.
On August 12, 1978, Randy, Sherry, and her father 41 year old James Kelly were at their home. Some type of dispute occurred and Randy went out to his car, got a shotgun, and shot James in his chest. Police were called and Randy claimed that James had threatened to kill him so he killed him first in self-defense. He was arrested and during trial, prosecutors arranged a plea agreement for 2nd degree murder. Randy was sentenced to 10 years in prision with 5 years suspended – but get this – he was paroled after only 9 months. What in the world?!
However, as could be expected, he violated his parole SEV-ER-AL times. He had a charge for battery, he had a charge for DUI, and so much more. So they sent him back to prison for – how long do you think? Less than a year.
By the way, while he was in prison, Sherry visited him and asked him why he killed her husband. He told her that he didn’t know.
Of course she divorced him.
When Randy got out of prison, he met a nurse named Janice Cochran. After some time, they got married.
On May 4, 1991 Randy and his wife decided to go camping near the Ouachita River in the Ouachita National Forest.The Ouachita National Forest is around 1.8 million acres of forest and is located in central Arkansas and southeastern Oklahoma.
While they were campling, Randy’s father, Glen came on over to go fishing with his son. While they were away from the camp site, Janice heard yelling and cursing. Suddenly, Randy came back to the campsite and started loading his shotgun, but when Janice asked him was was going on, he grabbed her and locked her in the camping bus they’d been staying in. Janice started banging on the door and yelling to Randy to let her out. That’s when she heard a gunshot. After a short time, she heard the door unlock. Janice went outside and she ran to where Glen was laying on the ground. He had one gunshot to the head and he was still moaning. She tried to help him, but Randy pulled her away. He then made her help him load Glenn into their boat and rode down river back to where the cars were. Randy then put his father’s body back in his truck, then they went to their own car and drove off.
When they got home, Janice said “he was real hyper and started drinking more.” They stayed, holed up in their house for about two weeks before they went to Glen’s house. When they got there, police were at the house and they asked if they knew where Glen was. Both of them said no.
Later, they turned themselves in. Initially, Janice told police that she was the one who shot Glen because he was trying to hurt her, but later she told the truth. Both of them were arrested for murder.
They were tried together, and during the trial, Janice testified that Glen usually made sexual advances towards her and this made Randy angry. She also testified that Randy and his dad were “too much alike” where they were both alcoholics and pushed each other’s buttons. As you can imagine, this made their relationship volatile and unstable.
Janice was convicted of manslaughter and served eight months in prison. In 1992, Randy was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to 20 years in prison. However, he was paroled in 2000 after only serving 8 years.
Janice and Randy divorced soon after.
Gloria, his sister, said that she didn’t blame Randy for killing their father. “Of all the things I had experienced and seen. I of all people can understand how it happened.”
Randy ended up getting married AGAIN. This time to a woman named Debra Anne Powell. In this relationship he’d started drinking even more. He would spend money on alcohol instead of using it to pay the bills. He also started cheating and being violent towards his 3rd wife.
After some time, this wife divorced him as well.
After this, Gloria said that Randy’s drinking escalated. “He gave up on a lot of things in life.”
In 2006, Randy met a store owner named John Ward. John felt bad for Randy and started paying him to come and clean his store and sweep the parking lot. However, Randy’s alcoholism became a problem and after some time, John asked him to stop coming to the store. This made Randy angry and he started threatening John saying that he and his friends would kill him.
In 2008, Randy was convicted of making terroristic threats and given a 12 year suspended sentence.
I mean, he’s already killed 2 people in cold blood. Do you think these are just threats? What were they thinking not just putting him in jail?!
Speaking of being a cold blooded murderer, on May 10, 2011, Randy gave a random woman, 49 year old Connie Ann Snow, a ride in his truck. They began origin and Randy told her to get out of his truck. Connie said no so Randy got out, went to the back of the truck, got his shot gun and ordered Connie to get out again. While she was trying to get out, he shot her in the face and killed her. I mean damn! He then put her body back into his truck, drove to Ouachita National Forest, and dumped her body there.
“According to the witnesses in the affidavit, Gay and a woman had driven up into the wooded area around 6:29pm on Tuesday, May 10th, [2011]. The witnesses say they [were] working on logging equipment at the time when Gay stopped his truck near them. They say a woman got out of the truck and began arguing with Gay. Gay then took a “bolt action long gun” out of his toolbox and went to the back of his truck and continued arguing with the woman. That is when witnesses say Gay fired his weapon and the woman fell to the ground.
The next day, he was arrested and charged with capital murder.”
During the trial, prosecutors sought the death sentence. Randy pled what? NOT GUILTY
In 2013, the case resulted in a mistrial because of juror misconduct.
In March 2015, Randy was retried and found guilty. During sentencing, on Wednesday March 13, 2015, prosecutor Terri Harris discussed Randy’s first two murder convictions in her closing arguments for the death sentence. Prosecutor Terri argued that although Randy had gone to prison twice before, he hadn’t even tried to grow and become a better person. She also pled to the jury that giving Randy a life sentence would only be “sending him home.”
On the other hand, Randy’s lawyer, Public Defender Mark Fraiser, told the jury of Randy’s childhood and said that he was more than capable of functioning in a controlled environment. “Glen Gay got beaten up in court and was not here to defend himself. Are we supposed to turn a blind eye to a second murder?” After talking about the abuse at the hands of his father, prosecutor Terri rebuffed that other children had been treated much worse and didn’t turn into murderers.
On Tuesday, March 19, 2015, after only 3 hours of deliberation, the jury recommended the death sentence for Randy. On Wednesday, March 20, the judge sentence Randy to death. After sentencing, Randy to the just “Take care, judge” and the judge answered “You too”
It’s interesting to note that no one had been sentenced to death in Garland County since the 1950s.
He’s currently imprisoned at Varner Unit for the past 7 years. Hopefully they don’t cut this sentence short.
What did yall think about this episode? Why do you think he was let out of prison early so many times? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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