On this
date, February 26, 1995, Richard Yost was murdered in Oklahoma. Let us not
forget him. We are glad that double justice was served when three of the four
killers had been already put to death.
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Richard Yost
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Darwin Demond Brown
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INTERNET SOURCE: http://www.clarkprosecutor.org/html/death/US/brown1140.htm
Darwin Demond Brown's codefendant Michael Wilson, 19, was employed at the
QuikTrip convenience store located on North Garnett Road in Tulsa, Oklahoma,
where Richard Yost also worked. Brown, 18, and three codefendants came into the
store during the early morning hours of February 26 and waited for the most
opportune time to accost Yost. The QuikTrip surveillance camera captured the
events as they unfolded. The video of the events is quite telling. Yost was
cleaning the windows on the coolers with all of the defendants surrounding him.
As Yost was walking near a passage-way to the back room, all four defendants
attacked him and dragged him to the back room. One of the defendants, Billy
Alverson, came back out and picked up some items that were knocked from the
shelves. He also kept watch for customers. A few moments later, Alverson and
16-year-old Richard Harjo walked out the front door of the store. While they
were going out, Yost was yelling and screaming for help, possibly thinking that
a customer had entered the store. Alverson and Harjo re-entered the store with
Harjo carrying a black aluminum baseball bat. He carried the bat to where Yost
had been taken. The surveillance camera picked up the sounds of the bat
striking Yost. Circumstantial evidence showed that the baseball bat struck the
handcuffs on Yost's wrists which Yost was holding above his head to ward off
the blows. As the blows were being struck, Wilson walked from the back room,
checked his hands, put on a QuikTrip jacket, got behind the counter and tried
to move the safe. While Wilson was behind the counter, several customers came
in. Wilson greeted them with a friendly greeting, sold them merchandise, then
said "thank you, come again" or "have a nice day." All this
time Wilson continued to try and pull the safe from underneath the counter. He
took money from the cash drawer and pulled money out of the currency change
machine. At some point after this, Wilson left the counter area and the video
went blank as the video was taken from the recorder. Brown was never seen
exiting the back room between the times Yost was dragged into the room until
the video recorder was stopped. The defendants then loaded two safes into
Wilson's car using a dolly from QuikTrip. Yost's body was discovered by
customer Larry Wiseman at about 6:00 a.m. Yost was laying on the floor in a
pool of blood, milk and beer. Yost's ankles were taped together with duct tape.
One handcuff was found near Yost's body. The other cuff was missing from the
scene. Detectives learned that Wilson was at the store between the hours of
4:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. Wilson failed to show up for work at the scheduled time
of 3:00 p.m. on the same day. Officer Allen set up surveillance on Wilson's
house, and shortly thereafter he spotted Wilson get into a gray vehicle. The
vehicle was stopped. All four defendants were taken into custody. A large
number of five dollar bills was recovered from Harjo at the site of the stop.
Brown was a passenger in the vehicle occupied by all of the codefendants. At
that time Brown was removed from the car, handcuffed and taken to the Tulsa
Police Department where he made a statement. Later, at the police station,
money was recovered from all of the defendants except Wilson. Officers searched
Alverson's residence where they discovered the drop safe, the dolly, QuikTrip
glass cleaner, money tubes and the store surveillance videotape. A search was
conducted of Wilson's house but nothing of value was discovered. The next day
Wilson's mother called Officer Makinson to come to her house. Once there, the
detectives found several items of evidence on the front porch, including the
baseball bat, a bloody QuikTrip jacket with Yost's name on it, Wilson's Nike
jacket matching the one worn in the store video and the other cuff of the set
of handcuffs. Billy Don Alverson was executed in January 2011.
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Billy Don Alverson
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INTERNET SOURCE: http://www.clarkprosecutor.org/html/death/US/alverson1235.htm
Billy Don Alverson's co-defendant, Michael Wilson, worked at the QuikTrip
convenience store on N. Garnett Road in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Wilson,
Alverson, and two of their friends, Richard Harjo and Darwin Brown, went
to the QuikTrip during the early morning hours of February 26, 1995. They
chatted with Richard Yost, the night clerk, until the most opportune time arose
for them to accost him and force him into the back cooler. They handcuffed him and
tied his legs with duct tape. Alverson and Harjo went outside and returned with
Harjo carrying a baseball bat. Yost was found beaten to death in a pool of
blood, beer and milk. Part of a broken set of handcuffs was found near his
right hip. The medical examiner found a pin from these handcuffs embedded in
Yost's skull during the autopsy. Two safes containing over $30,000 were stolen,
as well as all the money from the cash register and the store's surveillance
videotape. All four defendants were arrested later that same day wearing new
tennis shoes and carrying wads of cash. The stolen drop safe and the store
surveillance videotape, as well as other damaging evidence, was found in a
search of Alverson's home. The baseball bat, the victim's bloody QuikTrip
jacket, the other cuff from the set of broken handcuffs, and Wilson's Nike
jacket which matched the one he wore on the surveillance tape were taken from
Wilson's home. Darwin Brown was executed for this crime in January
2009. UPDATE: Members of Yost's family and the president and CEO of
Yost's former employer submitted letters to the board asking that it deny
clemency. Angela Houser-Yost, the victim's widow, wrote that her husband's
murder had a devastating impact on her and the couple's two sons, who were 8
and 2 when their father was killed. “Anxiety plays a major role in my life
now,” Houser-Yost said. “I can also sense when the anniversary of Richard's
death is without looking at a calendar. I start shutting down inside and avoid
talking with family and friends.” Chester Cadieux III, president and CEO of
QuickTrip Corporation, wrote that Yost's brutal murder had a “devastating
effect” on the company's 5,000 employees, “who were all thinking, ‘it could
have been me.’” Cadieux said more than 400 employees sought counseling. “These
despicable criminals all agreed and planned to commit this crime for money,”
Cadieux wrote. “They each bought new tennis shoes with the cash stolen from the
register. . How sad that to Billy Don Alverson, a life is only worth a new pair
of Nikes.”
QUOTE: “This is the final step to
closing everything,” Yost’s widow, Angie Houser-Yost, said. “They have caused a lot of pain for a lot of people, not only
for my family and his family but for the people who walked in and found
Richard, their visions, what they will live with now.”
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Michael L. Wilson
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INTERNET SOURCE: http://www.clarkprosecutor.org/html/death/US/wilson1361.htm
QUOTE: Yost's
family denied an interview request but issued a statement noting the third of
three executions was behind them.
'Closure will be not hearing this on the
news and reading about it in the paper,' the family said in a statement issued by Angela
Houser-Yost, Yost's widow. 'That is my closure - not to
relive his death over and over but to remember the good times.'
AUTHOR: Angie Houser-Yost is the widow of Richard Yost who was murdered by Darwin Demond Brown on February 26, 1995. He was executed by lethal injection in the State of Oklahoma on January 22, 2009. Accomplice Billy Don Alverson was executed on January 6, 2011. Accomplice Michael L. Wilson was executed by lethal injection on January 9, 2014. Accomplice Richard J. Harjo is serving a life sentence without parole.
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