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Murder Spree of Paul Erza Rhodes

On March 1, 1987, the body of 21-year-old Stacy Dawn Baldwin was discovered at an archery range about five miles northwest of Blackfoot. The Red Mini Barn convenience store clerk had been working the night shift when she was abducted and shot three times.

Just over two weeks later, on March 17, 20-year-old Nolan Haddon was found critically injured in the walk-in cooler of the Idaho Falls convenience store where he worked. He was rushed to the Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center but died from his injuries hours later.

Four days after that, on March 21, the body of 34-year-old Susan Michelbacher was found in a remote lava field west of Idaho Falls. The special education teacher had been abducted from a supermarket parking lot two days earlier after dropping off lesson plans at her school.

During the abduction, she had been forced to cash two $1,000 checks at separate bank branches. Her life came to a brutal end as she was then shot nine times and then violated.

The killing spree ended when Paul Ezra Rhoades was arrested on March 27, 1987, in Wells, Nevada, on a grand larceny warrant. When the Nevada Highway Patrol confiscated his belongings, they found a handgun. It was sent over to Idaho investigators, and ballistics testing quickly proved the bullets from his weapon matched the ones used in the Blackfoot and Idaho Falls murders.

Legal Proceedings

Rhoades faced three separate trials. His first trial for Michelbacher’s murder began on January 18, 1988.

On January 27, the jury found him guilty of murder, kidnapping, and several other charges.

He was later sentenced to death for Michelbacher’s slaying and life imprisonment for the other charges.

His trial for Baldwin’s murder began on March 3, 1988. The defense argued the circumstantial evidence was weak and that Rhoades had been babysitting his sister’s children at the time of the crime.

However, the prosecution presented overwhelming evidence, including a distinctive shoe print that matched Rhoades’ unusually large foot and ballistics evidence linking his handgun to the crime. On March 12, he was again found guilty on all counts.

He later received another death sentence plus life imprisonment and 45 additional years for related charges.

For his final trial on April 25, Rhoades’ lawyers tried to disqualify Justice Larry Boyle from presiding since he had already sentenced Rhoades to death in the Michelbacher case.

When that motion was denied, Rhoades pleaded guilty to all charges related to Haddon’s murder to avoid another lengthy trial, though he maintained his innocence. He received two life sentences.

For over 23 years, Rhoades and his legal team filed numerous appeals citing legal technicalities, his abusive childhood, and objections to capital punishment. All appeals were rejected.

Execution

On November 18, 2011, his death date finally arrived. As his final meal, he had the same thing other inmates had that night: hot dogs, sauerkraut, baked beans, veggie sticks, fruit with gelatin, and strawberry ice cream cups.

Before they stuck the needle in his arm, he confessed to killing Michelbacher and apologized to her husband Bert. However, he maintained innocence in the murders of Baldwin and Haddon.

The execution was quick, and he was pronounced dead at 9:15 am.