Including the surnames Tapley, Drake, Page, Harrell, Odom, Claxton, Bush, Swain, and Schwalls from the U.S. Southeast; and Ranney, Hubbard, Hesser, Carter, Schoonover, and Ozmun/Ozman/Osman from the U.S. Northeast and Midwest
On May 28, 2014, Robin Lyn Willis Matthews (1989-2014), a beautiful, young woman, a teacher, wife, daughter, sister, and friend was murdered just for trying to help someone. Someone who, unbeknownst to Robin, was a predator and should have been still in prison for his past crimes.
It was a Wednesday evening, and Robin had stopped at Walmart. Security cameras show Simon Dixon Mitchell approaching Robin in the parking lot, they exchange words, and then he climbs into her car. Turns out, Mitchell asked for a ride to the hospital. Did Robin know him from around town? We don't know if that's possible or, if he was a stranger, why she would give him a ride. However, a long time friend of Robin's described her as "the kindest and the sweetest" person. She also commented about Robin, "She would do anything for anyone."
Later that night, Robin was found dead in her car elsewhere in Vidalia. She had been stabbed multiple times.
The suspect was apprehended quickly. At his first court appearance the day after the murder, he told the presiding judge that he was as guilty as it gets.
This was a crime that was eligible for the death penalty. In order to avoid years of waiting for a trial, Robin's family agreed to a plea deal. Mitchell claims he would have preferred execution, but agreed to the deal. He was sentenced to two life sentences plus 30 years. Mitchell would "serve the first life sentence without parole, followed by five years, then the second life sentence followed by five years with an additional 20 years." That sentence doesn't make sense to me - how do you serve time AFTER a life sentence; isn't that for LIFE???!!! - but bottom line, he should never get out of prison.
That part is most important because it turns out he should not have been on the streets in the first place. He attacked a video store employee in Vidalia in 2006 and was sentenced to 15 years in prison for aggravated assault with intent to commit sodomy. He only served 8 years of that sentence and had just been released in January 2014 - a mere four months before Robin was killed.
I cannot even imagine what her family and friends went through. Her mother, Helen Anderson Willis, just passed away on March 3, 2025. (See my blog post here.) She is with her sweet daughter again.
Well, I made a "thrilling" discovery on GenealogyBank this afternoon. It is definitely worth it to search indirect family lines because you just never know what you might find!
Fred Lewis Way was my second cousin. I never paid any attention to this fact before today. He was just another name and date in my database. I never met him nor any of his immediate family. His grandfather, James L. Tapley and my grandfather, Lusion Keman Tapley, were brothers.
I was doing research on Fred's mother today and began searching GenealogyBank for Fred's father's obituary. He and Fred had the same name, so during my search, the following information popped up. Just imagine my shock.
On May 15, 2006, Fred died of a heart attack... while on death row in Florida State Prison. He was sentenced to death in 1984 for the 1st degree murder of his 15-year-old daughter on July 11, 1983 in Town 'n' Country, Florida (a suburb of Tampa). He was also sentenced to 99 years for the 2nd degree murder of his wife and 30 years for arson, all on that date in 1983.
Here is the first article I found dated June 5, 2006 from The Tampa Tribune. (I have omitted the names of his living children.)
"Fred Lewis Way: Killer Dies Awaiting His Execution: Newspaper Obituary and Death Notice
TAMPA - In March 1984, just three months into Fred Lewis Way's long wait on death row, he said he felt isolated, bored and horribly, horribly lonely.
Way also maintained he did not kill his wife, Carol, or his 15-year-old daughter, Adrienne. He said, some day, he would be vindicated.
'If I'm not,' he told a Tampa Tribune reporter back then, 'I don't intend to spend 30 or 40 years in this miserable place. This is hell, being locked up like an animal.'
He said should his death sentence stand, he would rather be executed than remain in prison.
On May 15, still awaiting appeals, Way died of an apparent heart attack. He was 61.
Way's son, ...was away from home playing basketball when his mother and older sister were killed. But 12-year-old {daughter} emerged from her bedroom and confronted her father immediately after their deaths.
Both siblings testified against their father.
Now married and living in Alabama, {living daughter} said a cousin phoned her about her father's death a couple of weeks ago.
She said she felt saddened, but not because he was gone.
'I was hoping that before he died, I'd find out why he did it,' she said. 'He never admitted to it. He just quoted a bunch of Scripture and told lies.'
During the trial, prosecutors offered a gruesome tale.
Way, 38 and an engineer for the Federal Aviation Administration, wanted to accept a transfer that would move the family to Central America. Carol Way adamantly opposed the move. Adrienne, his oldest daughter, did not want to leave her friends.
On July 11, 1983, Way and his wife argued in the garage of their Town 'N Country home. He struck her several times with a hammer. Then, he called Adrienne into the garage and struck her.
Way doused them in gasoline.
Autopsy reports suggested the 15-year-old had not yet died when she and her mother were set ablaze. {Living daughter} said she remembers playhing Parcheesi with Adrienne when her father told Adrienne to come with him into the garage. He told {living daughter} to stay in her room.
When {living daughter} heard a scream, she walked into the hall. Her father, she said, walked past her, smiled and winked. Moments later, he walked outside and started to smoke a cigarette.
When {living daughter} tried to open the door to the garage, her father told her not to. She saw smoke and asked him if he was going to call the fire department. He said nothing, and she ran to a neighbor's house.
'That night, he wasn't upset, it didn't seem,' {living daughter} said. 'He didn't show any emotion to me.'
Way's defense argued to the jury that his wife and daughter fought each other and, in the melee, accidentally spilled chemicals that caught fire.
After 11 hours of deliberations over two days, the jurors unanimously found him guilty. They recommended the death penalty by a vote of 7-5.
In 1988, a month before Way was to be executed, he received an emergency stay while the courts studied one of his many appeals. The U.S. Supreme Court eventually upheld the conviction but ordered a new sentencing hearing.
In 1990, Way again was sentenced to death. He died as his appeals continued.
Mike Benito, the former assistant state attorney who prosecuted the case, said Way got everything he deserved.
"The killing of his daughter was as cold-blooded and cowardly as it gets," he said.
Not everyone saw it that way.
Defense attorney David Rankin who learned of Way's death Thursday, said he always thought Way was innocent. There were several pieces of evidence that never quite sat right with him.
Rankin said he doubted Way could have murdered two people, spoken to his daughter, then walked outside to smoke all in a short amount of time. {Living son}, who now lives in Tennessee, said he doesn't know whether his father was guilty, but he is surprised that prosecutors managed to secure a conviction on circumstantial evidence alone.
'After years of therapy and 800 pages of depositions that I read, I think whether or not he did it, he was railroaded through the process,' {living son} said. 'I'm not professing his innocence or his guilt, I just think everyone deserves a fair shake.' {Living son} said he harbors some bad feelings about the way he says law enforcement used him and his sister in the days after they lost their mother and sibling.
Although he has not rectified the deaths in his mind, he said he eventually did learn to forgive his father.
'I guess my perspective is a Christian perspective," he said. "Whether he killed them or not, it's not my place to judge.'" Author: Thomas W. Krause Copyright (c) 2006 The Tribune Co.
Fred Lewis Way's Inmate Photo, Florida Dept of Corrections
