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Prison staff finds veins in convicted murderer who claimed he was too fat for lethal injection
By Phil Trexler
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Wednesday, Oct 15, 2008
LUCASVILLE: Twenty-five people gathered in a cramped, concrete-walled room to watch Richard Wade Cooey take his last breath.
Some 8,079 days after he raped and brutally killed two University of Akron sorority sisters, Cooey was executed Tuesday morning by the state of Ohio.
To his supporters, his death for committing one of the most heinous crimes in Akron history came too soon. To the family of one of his victims, the 22-year wait for his final 17 steps was way too long.
''It's going to happen. It's going to happen. It's going to happen,'' said Mary Ann Hackenberg, the mother of Dawn McCreery, as she entered the death-house viewing area with five other family members.
The family of Wendy Offredo declined to attend.
McCreery, 20, and Offredo, 21, were raped and then beaten to death on Sept. 1, 1986, by Cooey and his accomplice, Clint Dickens.
Although Cooey contended he was too fat to execute, it took just about five minutes for the state's execution team to pierce shunts into the 270-pound man's arms.
His image was viewed on the prison's closed-circuit TV and shown to witnesses inside the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville.
''First time we've seen him since the trial,'' Hackenberg said to her family.
As the execution team worked to find a vein, Cooey became agitated.
''I want to talk to Greg Meyers,'' Cooey yelled while lying on a table.
Meyers was one of Cooey's public defenders, who had filed appeals arguing that his obesity and poor veins made death by lethal injection problematic.
But the team soon located veins, attached the shunt and secured them with Ace bandages. Cooey then began his walk into the execution chamber.
As he approached the gurney, he glanced only briefly at McCreery's family, who sat in six chairs on the other side of a large window. Surrounding the family were reporters, victim advocates and prison officials.
Cooey's three attorneys and a spiritual adviser were seated on the opposite end of the room, separated from McCreery's family by a partition.
Cooey, 41, was compliant as prison workers placed four straps over his body and straps on each arm.
Final words
Warden Phillip Kerns then put a microphone near Cooey's mouth as the condemned man looked up at the ceiling. Kerns asked if Cooey wanted to make a statement.
''For what?'' Cooey said angrily. ''You [expletive] haven't paid attention to what I've had to say over the past 22 years. Why are you going to pay attention to what I have to say now?''
With that, at 10:20 a.m. the warden signaled the start of the flow of drugs. One put Cooey to sleep, a second paralyzed him, and a third stopped his heart. Cooey tapped his fingers on the gurney as the process unfolded.
The witness room fell silent. The only sounds were from reporters scribbling notes and the growl of empty stomachs.
By 10:28 a.m., Cooey was pronounced dead.
Hackenberg hugged her son, Robert McCreery Jr., seated to her right, and her former husband, Robert McCreery Sr., who sat to her left. The three were about 10 feet away from Cooey.
The family declined to speak afterward. Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh, who came to Lucasville for the execution, talked to the family.
Walsh said the McCreerys were disappointed that Cooey again failed to apologize or show any remorse. ''Instead, he was vulgar and hateful until the end,'' Walsh said.
Murders in 1986
Cooey was 19 and on leave from the Army when he and Dickens, 17, tossed rocks from an overpass onto Interstate 77 near Copley Road. After one of the rocks disabled Offredo's car, the two robbed, abducted, raped and then strangled and beat Offredo and McCreery to death. Cooey and Dickens carved an X into the abdomen of each woman and dumped their bodies in Norton.
Cooey was arrested within days after bragging to friends and trying to pawn the women's jewelry.
He has denied killing the women, contending it was Dickens who delivered the fatal blows.
As a juvenile, Dickens was not eligible for the death penalty. He is serving a life sentence.
Cooey had appealed his case ever since his conviction in December 1986.
In 2003, he was within 12 hours of being executed before a federal judge granted him a stay. Dana Cole, a UA law professor and one of Cooey's attorneys who witnessed the death, said Cooey came to terms with his inevitable execution Monday night, after the U.S. Supreme Court denied his appeal.
Cooey slept less than 90 minutes overnight, awakening about 5:20 a.m. and showering. He declined breakfast and visited with his attorneys.
Cooey's body will be cremated and Cole, Cole's brother James, and attorney Eric Allen intend to take the ashes to Ireland, as Cooey requested.
Cole criticized Ohio's use of the death penalty, saying Cooey had changed and was loved by his family, friends and lawyers.
''The crimes that Rick committed, he committed as an immature 19-year-old influenced by drugs and alcohol,'' Dana Cole said. ''We like to pretend that we're somehow better than Rick. But what we witnessed here today was a killing that was planned and funded for more than 22 years. The man killed was not the same man who committed these crimes.''
Read stories from 1986 to 2008 chronicling the murder of two University of Akron students to the execution of one of their killers here.
Phil Trexler can be reached at 330-996-3717 or ptrexler@thebeaconjournal.com.
LUCASVILLE: Twenty-five people gathered in a cramped, concrete-walled room to watch Richard Wade Cooey take his last breath.
Get the full article here.
Comments
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WADSWORTH, OH
Posted 05:00 AM, 10/15/2008
17 years later,its sleepytime...night night stupid!
Anti-Politically Correct & Anti-GOP, OH
Posted 05:44 AM, 10/15/2008
Can this be the LAST story that the Beacon runs on this cr@p??
Posted 06:17 AM, 10/15/2008
Welcome to Hell,Loser!
Posted 06:19 AM, 10/15/2008
Yeah,they need to take his ashes & flush them down the toilet
Posted 06:20 AM, 10/15/2008
Take his ashes & flush them down the toilet!
Posted 06:21 AM, 10/15/2008
bye fatty fat fatty, enjoy the very warm weather where you are going
Posted 06:27 AM, 10/15/2008
To those thinking that Cooey was not the man that he was when he committed the crimes, he had the same DNA. I do feel badly for Cooey. I would love to hear a comment from someone that knew him.
Posted 06:35 AM, 10/15/2008
"The man killed was not the same man who committed these crimes."
If this were true, why did he never show remorse and sorrow for what he did? He never apologized to the families. He never seemed to have a change of heart.
Posted 06:41 AM, 10/15/2008
The actual crime has been sanitized to remove the true attrocities.....Dana Cole lost a major part of her income defending this animal.Thats why she cries
Posted 06:58 AM, 10/15/2008
I am relieved he finally got his just reward.I pray the families will find closure now.
Akron, OH
Posted 07:19 AM, 10/15/2008
Thank goodness that's finally over.
Cuyahoga Falls, Oh
Posted 07:36 AM, 10/15/2008
Finally the end to a nightmare. My heart goes out to the girls families. May peace be with all of you now. Amen.
Tallmadge, OH
Posted 07:38 AM, 10/15/2008
I hope Cooey is enjoying the eternal fires of hell this morning !!!!
akron, oh
Posted 07:45 AM, 10/15/2008
To his supporters, his death for committing one of the most heinous crimes in Akron history came too soon.
His lawyers were his only supporters.. They even got his ashes.
I hope all the support they gave him was just an act. Part of the job etc. If not they are nuts.
Prisons are full of people that are not the same person that committed a crime years ago.
That doesnt mean we should let them off before they serve the time for what they did. When the were the person that committed the crime.
AKRON, OH
Posted 08:05 AM, 10/15/2008
THIS SCUMBAG IS DEAD - ANY FRIGGEN CHANCE THESE STORIES COULD FOLLOW SUIT ? MAYBE DENNIS J. WILLARD COULD DO A FOLLOW UP AND MAKE IT LOOK RACIST.
Posted 08:11 AM, 10/15/2008
I can understand an attoney taking on a case if they are against the death penalty but when we start hearing commnets like he's not a monster, he was just as immature kid and he's changed, lawyer Dana Covey needs a reality check. She is pathethic. And ashes in Ireland? How awful to spread that evil in such a beatiful country.
Posted 09:10 AM, 10/15/2008
A person like Cooey doesn't change. To do the things he and his friend did tells us all that. My thoughts and prayers are with Dawn and Wendy's familys. I hope this brings some kind of closure for all of you. God Bless you.
Posted 09:17 AM, 10/15/2008
If Cooey had changed and was loved by family and friends, why is it that his lawyers are the ones carrying out his last wishes for his ashes?
Posted 09:24 AM, 10/15/2008
"The crimes that Rick committed, he committed as an immature 19-year-old influenced by drugs and alcohol" said the lawyer.
Gee. With all the frivolous motions you filed for your client, I am surprised you didn't start filing suit against the liquor/beer companies and everyone down the chain responsible for selling it.
Sorry attorney, your "reasoning" is flawed. He was sentenced and executed based on crimes he committed WHILE HE WAS THE IMMATURE person.
I also question whether this guy really had any friends. After all, the night before he attempted to make a final phone call to a friend. To no avail. How funny is that?
Attorney Cole -- your scumbag client is dead. Thank God.
Posted 09:29 AM, 10/15/2008
I'm sure the man killed yesterday was not the same man that committed the crimes. I'm sure he was changed. Who doesn't. That's why they should have executed his worthless self way back when he did it instead of letting the taxpayers pay for his safe keeping for 20 years.
Posted 09:42 AM, 10/15/2008
Dana Cole is a male. Just FYI.
Posted 09:53 AM, 10/15/2008
I'm glad he's dead and Dana Cole what a statement he's not the same person he was then - who cares he stilled killed those poor girls.
Posted 10:25 AM, 10/15/2008
The attorneys involved have nothing to do with the heinous acts of their client. They are merely doing their job, and regardless of who the client is, that client is entitled to representation (it's Un-American to suggest otherwise).
Dana's a close friend of mine. He's also a professor at the University of Akron School of Law and an instructor with the Trial Lawyers College. He is a compassionate, caring individual.
Folks here should think before they post, rather than being rampant trolls. You never know when you might upset a friend, neighbor, customer, teacher, employer, or even someone who might have to get you out of jail someday.
Posted 10:25 AM, 10/15/2008
He may not have been the "same person" ....unfortunately our system sucks and he had 22 years to change.. That doesn't mean he still didn't deserve his punishment.
And if he honestly was a changed man, why not say anything to the family....He only said he didn't do the final blow, but he admitted being there. He didn't even apologize for the things he admitted to!!!!!!!!
Fat Bas#$%d finallly got what he deserved..
I really hope the families of the true victims can heal.. So sorry these animals took away something so precious.
Akron, OH
Posted 10:40 AM, 10/15/2008
Do you think ireland is glad to have him comehome least he will not be torrmenting his own countrymen sorry america he did not like us enough not to kill americans but wait he served his country but served some sorry thoughts twisted and weak for a solider i camehome from iraq and i am not tempted to be like that.a simple thought changed everything the mind in somepeople is a terrible thing.
Posted 11:17 AM, 10/15/2008
I heard a reporter on a local radio station,who was at the execution, say Cooey let go with a long string of foul language not just this one phrase the beacon reported.
Tallmadge , OH
Posted 11:34 AM, 10/15/2008
I am not a rampant troll, but if I saw Dana Cole on the street, I would give him a ear full. He is an idiot, plain and simple. It's amazing how a very educated man can make himself look like a idiot by opening his mouth.
Posted 12:21 PM, 10/15/2008
Hey Carly...your "friend", Dana Cole, can do his job and defend Cooey, but he doesn't have to make deplorable statements to the media after the execution. For this, he should get pummeled with verbal assaults and losses of clients...but when you represent bad people, I guess you'll never go out of business.
Posted 12:35 PM, 10/15/2008
Please, no more. It's time for closure for Wendy and Dawn's family. May God help you heal.
Akron, Oh
Posted 12:50 PM, 10/15/2008
I am responding to those who wonder about Cooey when he was a child. I knew him as a teenager and he was a miserable mean person. If we were in the house hanging out with his sister he would always walk through the room and randomly say something crude and/or hateful. You could see the devil in his eyes! My guess is that this is the result of a very mean father and possibly some mental illness. I only met the father once and he seemed pretty miserable too. Not polite, nor welcoming. He never wanted anyone in the house and eventually we stopped going over. We really got the feeling it was not a "good" place to be! This is a lesson to those who have children. You dont beat your kids, you dont scream at them and treat them like animals or you will have a Ricky Cooey to deal with.
Posted 12:59 PM, 10/15/2008
bye ,bye ,so long ,farewell i won't see you in september i won't see you anymore i hope it's warm in hell
Posted 02:23 PM, 10/15/2008
I'M A CHRISTIAN, BUT HE DESERVES ALL THAT HE GOT. HE DIDN'T GIVE THOSE TWO YOUNG WOMEN A CHANCE TO LIVE THEIR LIFE OUT. AND IF THERE'S ANY MORE LEFT ON DEATHROW FOR OVER 22YRS. THEY SHOULD DIE ALSO AND QUIT WASTING OUR MONEY TO TAKE CARE OF THOSE WHO HAS TAKEN OTHER PEOPLE LIVES. THEY'RE LIVING BETTER THAN THE FAMILIES, THEY'VE CAUSED SO MUCH PAIN TO. CLEAN OUT DEATH ROW AND GET IT DONE.
Posted 02:58 PM, 10/15/2008
He may have been a changed man who was faced with the thought of his execution, but the two young women that were killed can not change. They're dead. They didn't have a chance to make mistakes, get married, have children. Their families didn't have a chance to see them become wifes, mothers, have grand children for their parents, become aunts or sister-in-laws. their lives ended at the hands of two individuals that came up with a devilish plot to damage someone's car and hurt them...i must admit that i am not a fan of the death penalty, but i do believe that if there is a choice then they should spend the rest of their lives in one our worst prisons. but this is the u.s. and when you commit a heinous crime like this one....then accept the fact that you can and will be put to death.
Posted 03:56 PM, 10/15/2008
Sorry Carly, but I think I speak for many readers in saying I have absolutely no respect for anyone who defends a piece of trash like this guy.
My only question is, if a person can be guilty for helping conceal/lie about a drug deal, then why can't a lawyer go to prison for lying about and attempting to cover up the heinous act of their client?
Posted 03:59 PM, 10/15/2008
My only regret with this guy is that we didn't force him into slave labor for the last 10 years he was in prison so that he could pay us all back for the tax money we paid to keep him alive the first 10.
Posted 04:05 PM, 10/15/2008
THANK THE LORD THAT THIS MAGGOT IS GONE. TOOK TOO LONG TO DO IT, BUT IT'DONE.
Tallmadge, Oh
Posted 06:19 PM, 10/15/2008
Dearest Ethan,
It's impossible for someone to have the same DNA as another person; it's what makes us unique.
Posted 06:10 AM, 10/16/2008
"The man killed was not the same man who committed these crimes.''
---Yeah, there's something about being held accountable for your actions that sort of "matures" an individual. At least they caught and killed him before he procreated another dumb, ugly, violent turd.
Cuyahoga Falls, OH
Posted 10:39 AM, 10/16/2008
"We like to pretend that we're somehow better than Rick." Well I don't know about anyone else here, but I haven't disabled any womens' cars with a chunk of cement... not now, not twenty years ago, not ever. Much less have I raped or killed anyone. We're all sinners to be sure, but I think that actually DOES make me better than Cooey.
