A quadruple robbery-murder at a Houston amusement center led to two executions and highlighted capital punishment applied to crimes committed by teenagers.
Key Facts
- Date of crime
- July 1, 1983
- Victims killed
- 4 people
- Amount stolen
- approximately $2,000
- Wilkerson execution date
- August 31, 1993
- Ransom execution date
- October 28, 1997
- Randle's sentence (age 16 at crime)
- Life in prison
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Three men — Kenneth Ray Ransom, James Edward Randle, and Richard James Wilkerson — planned and executed a robbery at the Malibu Grand Prix amusement center in Houston, Texas, on July 1, 1983, targeting the facility's cash and its employees.
The robbers fatally stabbed four center workers — manager Anil Varughese, Roddy Harris, and brothers Joerene and Arnold Pequeno — and fled with approximately $2,000. All three perpetrators were subsequently arrested and charged with capital murder.
Randle, who was 16 at the time, was sentenced to life in prison. Wilkerson and Ransom were convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death; Wilkerson was executed by lethal injection in 1993 and Ransom in 1997, both at the Huntsville Unit in Texas.