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Murder of Linda Reeves

In 1985, 42-year-old Bigler Jobe Stouffer II was dating Velva Ivens, the estranged wife of Douglas Ivens.

On the evening of January 24, 1985, Stouffer visited Douglas’ home and asked to borrow a gun so that he could protect Velva and her two daughters as someone was trying to break into Velva’s home.

Douglas gave Stouffer a loaded .38 caliber handgun, prioritizing his family’s safety over anything.

But according to Douglas, as soon as he handed over the gun, Stouffer turned back and shot him twice, once in the chest and once in the arm. After shooting Douglas, Stouffer turned his attention to Douglas’s girlfriend, Linda Reaves, who was also in the house.

She pleaded with him to spare her, but Stouffer shot her multiple times, first in her head, then her hand and chest, which eventually led to her death.

Once done with Linda, he turned to Douglas and shot him in the face as a final step to end his life. Stouffer fled the scene, thinking the job was finished, but he was wrong.

Although Douglas was critically injured, he still managed to survive and identified Stouffer as the attacker. He called 911 and said, “Please, I’ve been shot. Bud Stouffer shot me and one other person and I’m dying.”

Stouffer was ultimately arrested on the same evening at Velva’s residence. At first, he denied any involvement in the attack, but he changed his stance three days later and said that the whole incident was set to frame him as the killer. He said that Douglas had drawn a gun on him, which led to a fight, during which the weapon was discharged accidentally.

The police deeply analyzed this statement, and as investigators pieced together evidence from the crime scene, medical reports, and witness testimony, they realized that the statement was a lie.

Forensic analysis revealed that Linda Reaves had suffered contact with gunshot wounds, suggesting that her injuries were inflicted at a close range. This analysis showed that the claim of a firearm being accidentally discharged was false, and the attack was calculated.

Legal Proceedings

The trial for Stouffer began in 1985 and attracted a lot of media coverage. The prosecution highlighted Douglas’s testimony and used the forensic evidence against Stouffer. Douglas’s testimony said that Stouffer deliberately shot him twice before turning the weapon on Linda. The prosecution also pointed out that Stouffer exploited the trust Douglas put in him by using the same gun to attack them. The prosecution also claimed that Stouffer believed his girlfriend, Velva, would inherit $2 million if Douglas died.

The defense, on the other hand, argued that Douglas was the aggressor. Stouffer claimed that Douglas had drawn the gun first and that the shooting occurred during a fight. Stouffer also alleged that Douglas was trying to frame him so that he could get money from him.

The defense tried hard to save Stouffer, but the jury still found him guilty of first-degree murder and attempted murder. He was sentenced to life for shooting Douglas and death for killing Reaves.

Stouffer won an appeal saying his counsel was ineffective and was retried in 2003, but the outcome was the same, and he went right back to death row.

Execution

After decades of legal battles, Stouffer’s death day arrived on December 9, 2021. He refused a special last meal but ate regular prison food: a chicken burger, two pieces of bread, a chip, broccoli, mixed fruit, two biscuits, a fruit drink, and water.

Hours later, he was marched to the death chamber and strapped to a gurney. In his last moments, he declared his innocence and asked god to forgive the people executing him.

He was injected with a lethal cocktail of chemicals that stopped his heart.

At 79 years and two months old, he was the oldest person executed in Oklahoma and one of the oldest individuals to be executed in the United States as a whole since the US Supreme Court reinstated the rules regarding the death penalty in 1976.