IN LOVING MEMORY OF LORETTA MAE FOSTER (LAWRENCE REYNOLD JR. EXECUTED IN OHIO ON 16 MARCH 2010)

            On this date, 16 March 2010, Lawrence Reynold Jr was executed by lethal injection in Ohio for the 11 January 1994 murder of Loretta Mae Foster.

Loretta Mae Foster

ProDeathPenalty.Com

In early January 1994, Loretta Mae Foster, 67, complained to her son Michael that a neighbor, Lawrence Raymond Reynolds, Jr., had been knocking on her door after dark. Reynolds had recently painted Loretta's basement and claimed that he needed to put a paint can in the basement. Loretta told her son that she was scared of Reynolds. 

On January 11, Loretta's sister-in-law Norma took her to a doctor's appointment and Loretta told Norma that a neighbor had been acting "weird"; that is he would knock on the door, hide, and then jump out at her. Loretta told her doctor and her doctor's office manager about Reynolds in an effort to explain why her blood pressure was elevated. After the visit to the doctor, Loretta stopped at her credit union and withdrew $50. Norma dropped Loretta off at home around 3 pm. 

In the late afternoon or early evening of January 11, 1994, Lawrence Reynolds assaulted, robbed, and killed his neighbor, Loretta Foster, in her home. He took $40 in cash and a blank check from her purse, and left her almost-nude body lying on the living room floor. Around 7:30 that evening, Reynolds and his brother Jason went to a bowling alley to shoot pool with some friends. Upon arriving, Reynolds told two friends, Brian and Jim, that this would be his last night to party with them because he had killed someone and was leaving town the next day. Reynolds told them that he had knocked on Loretta's door and told her that he had a letter to give her from his sister, showing her an envelope. He had rope and a tent pole with him. Loretta Foster opened the door and Reynolds forced his way in and a struggle began. Reynolds hit Loretta and she fell to the floor. A clump of hair was ripped from Loretta's head. He began to rummage through her purse. When he realized she was attempting to reach for the phone, he cut the phone line, tied her up, and hit her once or twice with the tent pole. He tried to strangle her with his hands but was unsuccessful. At some point during the struggle, Reynolds received a rope burn on his hand, which he showed his listeners. 

Reynolds told them he had left Foster lying naked in the living room and that he had taken $40 in cash and a blank check from her checkbook before leaving through a back door. The group proceeded to the Rainbow Bar where Reynolds continued to discuss how he had killed Loretta. Uncertain whether to believe him, the two friends left the bar and went to Loretta’s home, looked through the living-room window, and saw Loretta's nude body lying on the floor. Reynolds and his brother Jason also went to Loretta's house after leaving the Rainbow Bar. Jason was stunned to see Loretta's body. Reynolds picked up a glove and a tent stake that he had left and attempted to brush off the purse. A milk jug of water was used to rinse the blood from the area around the body. Then they returned to their home. 

Brian and Jim went to a friend's house because they knew that his father was a police officer. They told the officer what Reynolds had told them and described what they had seen at Loretta's house. They later went to the police station and made a statement. Police officers were dispatched to investigate. They found Loretta's body in her living room. She had been beaten about the head and strangled. Her bra was cut in the front and the bra and her t-shirt were above her breasts. Her pants and pantyhose were laying near the body, in a rolled down position. By the rear door of the house, there was a quantity of blood and a large clump of hair. Broken eye glasses and one earring were found in the kitchen and the other earring and Loretta's purse were found in the dining room as was her checkbook which was removed from her purse. 

After finding Loretta's body, the police initiated a homicide investigation and obtained an arrest warrant for Lawrence Reynolds, Jr. They went to the Reynolds home and arrested Reynolds. While they were there, Lawrence Reynolds, Sr., Reynold’s father, consented, verbally and in writing, to a search of the house, and specifically to his son’s bedroom and the basement. (Reynolds was twenty-seven years old at the time of his acts, and continued to live at home.) The search revealed several items of physical evidence later used against Reynolds at trial: (1) gloves and a camouflage jumpsuit, both smeared with blood of the same type as Loretta’s and containing fibers matching those from a red jacket found in her bedroom; (2) a piece of rope identical to that used on Loretta, stained with blood of her type and containing human hair matching her own; (3) a section of a tent pole, in keeping with what Reynolds had told his friends he brought to Loretta’s house; and (4) a blank check drawn on Loretta’s account. 

An autopsy concluded that Loretta had died from strangulation. She had also been subjected to blunt force trauma. Based on the color of the bruises on her wrists, the coroner testified that Loretta had been alive when tied up. The coroner was unable to find any physical evidence of sexual conduct. 

While in jail, Reynolds told a fellow inmate essentially the same story as he had told his friends, but with more, at times conflicting, details. For example, Reynolds stated to the inmate that he had taken off Loretta's blouse to enable him to see her hands at all times. The inmate asked him about news reports that the victim was found with her pants off. Initially, Reynolds claimed that her pants had come off in the struggle, but he later told the inmate that he had “tried to stick his meat in her,” and yet when the inmate questioned Reynolds specifically on the matter, he denied trying to rape her. 

During the trial, Jason Reynolds avoided eye contact with his brother as he told the jury how he went to the Foster home with his brother about 1:30 a.m. Jan. 12 to check out the story his brother had told during a night of drinking. "I went in, me and my brother," Jason Reynolds said. "I saw her lying there. That's all I needed to see." 

An Ohio jury needed only an hour and a half to decide that Reynolds was guilty of aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary, kidnapping, and attempted rape, as well as aggravated murder (of the felony-murder type) with four death penalty specifications attached. He was sentenced to 38-to-90 years’ imprisonment and death. While confined on death row, he sent a letter threatening sexual violence and murder if his demands for naked pictures were unmet. A separate obscene letter was sent to the victim of his prior telephone harassment similarly requesting naked photographs. 

Kelly Redfern, Dona Papp, Patty Solomon and Gail Hand, great-nieces and granddaughters of Loretta Foster, testified at a clemency hearing for Reynolds. Each shared their memories of Loretta Foster and the exceptional kindness and generosity she shared with both family and neighbors. Each was nurtured by Loretta Foster and attribute to her many positive influences that have shaped their lives and the lives of their children. Dona Papp said, ''That was 15 years ago. He is still guilty. My aunt is still dead." The parole board declined to recommend clemency for Reynolds by a vote of 6 to 0. Reynolds originally had an execution date set for March 9, 2010 however he attempted to kill himself by overdosing on prescription medication so the execution was delayed by one week. 

Patty Solomon

QUOTE: Patty Solomon, Foster's granddaughter, read a statement afterward that said, in part, "The law has been upheld and justice has been served. ... It is time to put this behind us and move on with our lives. It is now our time to heal."

AUTHOR: Patty Solomon is the granddaughter of Loretta Mae Foster who was murdered by Lawrence Reynold Jr on January 1994. He was executed by the state of Ohio on 16 March 2010.