IN LOVING MEMORY OF ANGELA CAGLE (DIED: MARCH 24, 1994) (KILLER EXECUTED ON SEPTEMBER 22, 2011 IN ALABAMA)

            Twenty years ago on this date, March 24, 1994, Angela Cagle was murdered by Derrick Mason during a convenience store robbery. Mason was executed by lethal injection in Alabama on September 22, 2011. We will post information about the family members before giving our thoughts.

Angela Cagle

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http://blog.al.com/breaking/2011/09/victims_family_says_derrick_ma.html

Victim's family says Derrick Mason's scheduled execution Thursday is justice delayed

By Keith Clines, The Huntsville Times on September 19, 2011 at 7:30 AM, updated September 19, 2011 at 8:24 AM

Ann Larrivee, the mother of Angela Cagle, a convenience store clerk who was killed at work in 1994, walks to her daughter's grave on Thursday, Sept. 15, 2011. She plans to attend the execution of her daughter's killer, Derrick Mason, on Thursday, Sept. 22, 2011. (The Huntsville Times/Eric Schultz)

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama - Anne Larrivee presses the index finger of each hand into her cheeks to point out where Derrick Mason fired two shots that killed her daughter, Angela Cagle, during a convenience store robbery in 1994.

"The bullet holes were where her dimples had been," Larrivee said. "To think of the fear and terror she felt."

Larrivee, who will watch Mason's execution by lethal injection Thursday in Holman Correctional Institute in Atmore, last week haltingly recalled how her daughter looked in the morgue.

She remembers how her daughter's face was reconstructed for the funeral, and how the family wasn't allowed to touch her face.

"I can watch Derrick Mason pay for doing that," she said.

It will have been nearly 6,400 days from when Cagle was shot twice in the face while lying naked on a table in the store's storage room and Mason's execution. Many of those have been hard days for Larrivee and others in Cagle's family.

"I lost 40 pounds," Larrivee said. "I couldn't eat. I couldn't sleep. I prayed to God to take me home so I could kiss my Angie."

She said people have told her that she needs to get over it and get on with her life.

"Those people don't have a clue what they're talking about," she said. "You'll never get over it when your child is gone."

Larrivee fought back tears as she talked about how much she misses her oldest child, and how Cagle's sister, Tammy Worsham, who is 28 but was 10 when Cagle was killed, had nightmares about her sister's death until last year.

Mason, now 37, was 19 when he killed Cagle at the EZ Serve Citgo at 1450 Sparkman Drive. A customer found her body in the early morning hours of March 27, 1994.

Mason, who confessed to killing Cagle, was convicted of capital murder in June 1995 and sentenced to death by Madison County Circuit Court Judge Loyd Little two months later.

A forensics expert testified at the trial that Cagle was not sexually assaulted. However, Scott Worsham, Cagle's brother, said Mason's pubic hair was found in her thigh area and that he had ripped the buttons off her shirt.

Worsham was at work as a dispatcher with the Madison County sheriff's office the night his sister was killed. He took the 911 call from the customer who found her.

He said it took him a few minutes to realize that the woman lying in a pool of blood was his sister. He said she normally worked at a store in Five Points but was at the Sparkman Drive store that night to train a new employee. She had to work the new employee's shift when he didn't show up, Scott Worsham said.

"After a few minutes, it dawned on me that was where she was supposed to be" that night, he said.

The police wouldn't tell him over the phone who the victim was. "That pretty much told me" it was Cagle, he said.

 

Angela Cagle, shown here in a family photo from her wedding, was 25 when she was killed.

Cagle lived in Hazel Green and attended schools there most of her life but graduated from Oakland High School in Murfreesboro, Tenn., in 1986. She had a 4.0 grade-point average at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, where she was studying foreign languages, Larrivee said. She wanted to be a Spanish language interpreter at the United Nations.

However, Cagle had to drop out of school after injuring her back and legs in a car wreck. She worked at the convenience store because she needed a job where she didn't have to stand for long periods of time, her mother said.

"She never liked to work in those (stores) because she was afraid something like that would happen," Larrivee said.

Cagle had been married five years when she was killed and had no children.

She "was just the sweetest person" and would help anybody, Larrivee said.

"She believed in people," Larrivee said. "She thought everybody had good in them if you just treated them right."

Larrivee was asked if she agreed with her daughter's optimism about people. Her thoughts immediately went to Mason. "No, I don't believe that," she said.

The family has waited impatiently through the years consumed by Mason's trial and numerous appeals, Larrivee said. She was relieved last month when the Alabama Supreme Court set Mason's execution date.

"We will finally have as much closure as we could have," Larrivee said. "We'll never have Angie back, but her killer will finally get the punishment he deserves."

It's justice delayed for 17 years, Worsham said.

Larrivee received some unsettling news two weeks ago that Little, who is now retired, had written a letter asking Gov. Robert Bentley to spare Mason's life. He wrote the letter at the request of Mason's appeals lawyers, who will ask Bentley to commute Mason's sentence to life in prison without parole.

"I couldn't believe it," said Larrivee, who went to Little's house after hearing about the letter.

She said she told Little that he owed her an explanation.

"He told me that my daughter's death was not that bad," Larrivee said.

"We can't figure out how much worse it could have been," Worsham said.

Little said two weeks ago that he had been on the bench six months when he presided over Mason's case. He said that subsequent capital murder cases over the years made him realize that the death sentence for Mason was not appropriate when compared to other cases in which the death penalty was imposed.

Derrick Mason was 19 when he shot Angela Cagle twice in a 1994 convenience store robbery. Now 37, Mason is scheduled to be executed Thursday at Holman Correctional Institute in Atmore. (Alabama Department of Corrections photo)

Larrivee, Worsham and other family members plan to watch Mason's execution. Larrivee said she promised herself when she saw Cagle in the mortuary that she wouldn't stop until justice was served for her daughter.

"I want to make sure he's dead," Larrivee said.

Larrivee and Worsham don't expect any last-minute apology or revelations from Mason. "He's never once apologized," she said. "I'm convinced he's not one bit sorry for what he did."

Worsham said that attending the execution of his sister's killer won't be a happy occasion. "I feel it's a duty," he said. "We owe it to her to be there. She can't stand up for herself."

Larrivee said, "As a Christian, I hate to see anybody stand before God like he's going to have to stand before God."

Madison County executions

Derrick Mason's scheduled execution Thursday at Holman Correctional Institute will be the second execution of a Madison County convict this year, but only the fifth time someone from the county has been executed by the state.

Mason is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. at the Atmore prison for the 1994 slaying of convenience store clerk Angela Cagle.

Earlier this year, Leroy White was executed for the 1988 shotgun slaying of his estranged wife, Ruby Lanier White.

Before White's execution on Jan. 13, the state had executed only three men from Madison County since taking over executions from the counties in 1927. Those three men are Walter Miller on June 19, 1936; William F. Bowen Jr. on Jan. 15, 1965; and Steven A. Thompson on May 8, 1998.

Other than Mason, there are eight people on death row who were sentenced in Madison County. They are Nick Acklin, Benito Albarran, James Barber, Anthony Tyson, Jeffery Rieber, Mohammad Sharifi, Jason Sharp and Joey Wilson.

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Summary: 25-year-old Angela Cagle worked as a clerk in a Huntsville convenience store. Mason entered the store in the early morning, directing Cagle to a backroom at gunpoint. Accordng to Mason, he was trying to force her to tell him how to turn off the camera when he ordered her to take her clothes off. He then shot her in the face twice with a handgun. Mason claimed the first shot just went off, and the second shot was to keep her from identifying him. He then opened the cash register and fled. A few days after the murder, an unidentified man later told police that Mason committed the crime. The informant described the gun used, told police that Mason was "out of control" and "trying to make a name for himself," and then led authorities to Mason's car. Inside, police found a gun later determined to be the murder weapon. After he was arrested, Mason confessed to committing the murder. The jury voted 10-2 to sentence him to death, a recommendation the trial court accepted.

Cagle's mother, Anne Larrivee, was among four members of Cagle's family who witnessed Mason's execution in Holman Correctional Institute here.

Larrivee and the family said in a written statement issued after the execution that Mason accepted the consequences of his actions after showing Cagle no mercy.

"We extend our sympathy to his family and pray his death will make others think twice before committing such a heinous crime," the statement said. "We praise God for giving justice to Angie, and a measure of closure. We will miss Angie until we see her in heaven. We are grateful for the prayers and support we have received for 17 1/2 years in dealing with having her ripped from our lives but never from our hearts."

Mason also thanked Cagle's father, Steve Worsham, for "reaching out to me" several years ago. Mason apologized to Worsham and said that he had given his life to God. Worsham replied in a letter that as a Christian he forgave Mason, but he still had to face the consequences of his actions.

"The execution was extremely difficult for us to watch," Cagle's family said in a second statement written after the execution. "Mr. Mason made an apology, the first time we have heard from him, not knowing of the communication with my ex-spouse until today. We firmly hope that he had accepted Christ and will not have to suffer for his deed any further. We certainly wish he had made a different decision on 3/27/94, then neither of our families would have had to have been here tonight."

THOUGHTS:

            We, the comrades of Unit 1012, sent our heartfelt condolences and our empathy and sympathy for Angela Cagle and her family members. We always encourage you all to remember how she lived and not how she died. Most of all, Mason knew that since he was facing death, he came to his senses and he repented of his crime. 

            We promise to remember Angela every year on March 24.