Maryland man executed in Virginia; chose electric chair

JARRATT -- Death-row inmate Larry Bill Elliott was executed tonight for the 2001 murder of Dana Thrall of Prince William County.

Elliott, 60, a former Army intelligence officer from Hanover, Md., died in the electric chair at Greensville Correctional Center, about 60 miles south of Richmond. He was pronounced dead at 9:08 p.m.

He met with his family, a spiritual advisor and his lawyers earlier today.

Elliott was the oldest person on Virginia's death row, which now includes 13 men and one woman. Beltway sniper John Allen Muhammad was executed by lethal injection last week.

In 2003, Elliott was convicted and sentenced to death for the Jan. 2, 2001, murder of Thrall.

Thrall, 25, was pistol-whipped and shot three times in the head in her Dale City town house. Robert Finch, 30, who lived with Thrall, was shot in the head, chest and back. Elliott was given a sentence of life in prison without parole for Finch's murder.

Prosecutors said Elliott murdered the couple because he viewed Finch as a threat to his "sugar daddy" relationship and obsession with Finch's former partner, Rebecca Gragg, a former stripper he had met through a Web site and on whom he had spent thousands of dollars.

"Like so many of these cases, it was tragic for everyone involved," said Prince William Commonwealth's Attorney Paul Ebert.

Police investigating the murders never found the murder weapon, but ballistic tests confirmed that the victims were killed by the same weapon. Additionally, Elliott's DNA profile was identified in blood found on the gate of the town home's privacy fence.

Ebert described Elliott as "a very intelligent person who became obsessed" with Gragg and "used his knowledge and training to execute two innocent people."

Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Elliott's application for a stay of execution. This afternoon, Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine declined to intervene in the case; in September, he had delayed Elliott's Oct. 5 execution date so his staff could review Elliott's claim of innocence and petition to commute the death sentence to a term of life in prison.

"Having carefully reviewed the petition for clemency and judicial opinions regarding this case, I find no compelling reason to set aside the sentence that was recommended by the jury and then imposed and affirmed by the courts, " Kaine said in a statement.

Anti-death-penalty advocates said Elliott had a strong claim of innocence and should not have been put to death.

"Virginia should not execute a man where so many questions about his guilt remain," wrote Beth Panilaitis of Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty on the group's Web site. The group had organized protests at courthouses throughout Virginia and was outside Greensville Correctional Center when the sentence was carried out.

Elliott was the 105th person executed in Virginia since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Since 1995, when the state began offering the option of lethal injection, there have been 76 lethal injections and five electrocutions.

Ebert, who has prosecuted at least a half-dozen death-penalty cases in his career, said he has never taken any pleasure from the process but believes it is appropriate and necessary. "It's final justice for everyone involved; just final closure and relief for everyone involved."

Contact Jim Nolan at (804) 649-6061 or .