Idaho’s last lethal injection execution happened in 2012. Here’s a look back at the case
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IDAHO FALLS – Richard Leavitt’s face appeared relaxed, though his feet and fingers were fidgeting, as he entered the execution chamber on a gurney at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna.
It was around 10 a.m. on June 12, 2012. The 53-year-old Blackfoot man had been convicted 27 years earlier of murdering 31-year-old Danette Elg. In reports from the Associated Press, prosecutors said Leavitt stabbed Elg repeatedly at her home and then cut out her sex organs.
After years of appeals, Leavitt’s death warrant had been signed. He was now moments away from being the state’s second prisoner to be executed in seven months and the third since 1994.
Leavitt’s final appeal to stay the execution had been denied the night before, according to an old news report. His final meal consisted of baked chicken, french fries, and milk.
Now, six correctional officers, wearing surgical masks and black baseball caps, lifted Leavitt off the gurney and strapped him to the execution table.
“A few stood at attention while the others secured Leavitt to the table he would die on,” the Idaho Press Tribune reported. “He spoke to the officers as they worked, the words inaudible behind the soundproof glass, and they nodded in reply.”
Institution as Warden Randy Blades, right, stands in the observation room, in Boise. | Courtesy photo
Idaho Press Tribune reporter John Funk was one of four media representatives in attendance that day. It was the first time the media had been allowed to witness an execution in its entirety.
His account of what happened indicates a faint scent of antiseptic filled the room as the medical team prepared the lethal dosage of three drugs that would kill him. They attached a blood pressure monitor and EKG sensors to his chest and stomach. The room was silent as they inserted IV tubes into Leavitt’s arm and carried out what they’d rehearsed twice over the weekend with “military precision.”
Leavitt shook his head when asked if he wanted to make a final statement and did not ask to see a spiritual advisor.
After the warden read the death warrant aloud, the execution proceeded.
“Leavitt visibly swallowed and adjusted his head on the table. Over the next several seconds, his breathing became increasingly shallow, then stopped altogether,” the Press Tribune reported.
At 10:25 a.m., Ada County Coroner Erwin Sonnenburg officially declared Leavitt was dead.
“Justice was done today,” Bingham County Prosecutor Tom Moss, who passed away in 2018 at age 80, told reporters at the time.
“I am grateful that we have four media witnesses here to tell you what they saw. Our goal was to make this as professional as possible with dignity and respect, and I believe we met that mark,” Idaho Dept. of Corrections Director Brent Reinke added later.
This year marks the 12th anniversary of Leavitt’s death and the last time a prisoner was executed in the Gem State. It’s also the third consecutive execution involving prisoners from the eastern side of the state.
Ten months after the failed execution of Thomas Creech — Idaho’s longest-serving death row prisoner who would’ve been the state’s 30th execution to date — we thought it was worth looking back at Idaho’s most recent capital punishment case.
RELATED | Idaho prisoner Thomas Creech’s execution delayed. Federal judge says he’ll issue stay
Leavitt’s background
Stu Robinson, a retired private detective from Twin Falls was the lead investigator on this case. He was a detective with the Blackfoot Police Department at the time and tells EastIdahoNews.com Leavitt was well known to police even before the crime happened.
“He hung around here. He was a cop groupie,” Robinson explains. “His uncle was a reserve fireman. He had a tow truck and would tow cars from crash scenes. Everybody knew Rick.”
Robinson says Leavitt had a police scanner and frequently listened to scanner traffic.
As far as Robinson remembers, Leavitt had a normal upbringing. His dad, Boyd Leavitt, worked for a towing company and was pretty quiet, Robinson says. His mom, Marjorie, was the leader in the family. Both have since passed away, according to genealogical records.
Despite having a yonger brother who was normal and productive, Robinson says Leavitt was a “psychotic” individual who had a morbid curiosity with sex and death. He’s at a loss to explain where that came from.
Two witnesses, one of whom was his ex-wife, corroborated this fact during the trial.
“Leavitt’s ex-wife told the court that she witnessed Leavitt playing with the female sexual organs of a deer during a hunting trip. A former mistress of Leavitt also testified that she saw Leavitt playing with a knife while having sex with her and indicated that Leavitt did so to increase his sexual satisfaction,” one report says.
Robinson says Leavitt raped multiple women before murdering Elg. The cases never went to trial because Leavitt threatened the victims. Police also believed he was responsible for killing a baby at one point.
A murder with no motive
Available information about Elg’s murder indicates she was an acquaintance of Leavitt’s, and there was no motive behind her death.
On July 16, 1984, Elg reportedly called police after an intruder tried to break into her home. The intruder, which she believed was Leavitt, cut the window screen on her door.
Two days later, while Elg was asleep in her bedroom, 25-year-old Leavitt entered her house and stabbed her 15 times. The stab wounds were particularly heinous, according to the medical report.
“One of the stab wounds penetrated Elg’s right lung, another went through the right side of her heart, and a third cut through her left lung,” the report says. “The other wounds also penetrated her stomach, chest cavity, and neck. One of the knife wounds was so deep that it went through Elg’s eye and reached her brain.”
After Elg was dead or nearly dead, Leavitt then sexually mutilated her.
Three days later, Robinson and his wife were on their way to see “Conan the Barbarian,” when he got a call about the homicide.
He recalls it being a “horrific” scene when he got there.
“She (Elg) had been sleeping in a water bed (when the attack happened),” Robinson says. “The water bed had been cut, so her body was laying in water, which made it even worse.”
It was Leavitt who initially reported the murder under a different name, according to historical records. To try and cover his tracks, he reported to law enforcement that she was missing.
“He claimed that co-workers and Elg’s employer had contacted him after she did not show up for work, but no records showed that these callers had contacted Leavitt. After the murder, Blackfoot police received two phone calls from someone sharing information believed to be known only to the murderer. Leavitt was the one who made these phone calls, but he identified himself as ‘Mike Jenkins.’ The police were unable to trace any individual with this name,” a record of the case says.
Robinson doesn’t remember how long the investigation lasted, but according to KTVB, it lasted for months.
Robinson recalls being under lots of pressure to solve the crime.
“People were pretty upset,” he says. “Blackfoot was a lot smaller back then. This was a really bad murder and people were concerned. They wanted someone arrested.”
Eventually, Leavitt was linked as a suspect and taken into custody.
The trial got underway in July 1985.
At one point, Robinson says they had DNA evidence linking Leavitt to the crime scene. His blood was on a pair of shorts in her room.
“He claimed he had been at her house for another reason and that his nose was bleeding,” says Robinson.
Robinson remembers telling Leavitt to push for a close investigation of the evidence to help clear his name, but he wouldn’t agree to it.
“Rick was in an interview with his attorneys and his mom. It got so heated, you could hear Rick screaming at his mom. He wanted to take the deal. He said, ‘Mom, if I don’t take this deal, they’re going to kill me.’ She didn’t want him to take it, so he didn’t.”
He later changed his story and said he cut his finger on a fan, according to court records.
On Sept. 25, 1985, a jury found Leavitt guilty of first-degree murder. Three months later, on Dec. 19, District Judge H. Reynold George sentenced him to death.
His execution was originally scheduled for March 28, 1986, but was postponed. Leavitt spent the next 23 years appealing his sentence. His death penalty was overturned more than once.
The U.S. Supreme Court turned down his final appeal on June 11, 2012 — the night before his execution.
The aftermath
Decades later, the murder of Danette Elg remains one of the worst crimes to happen in Blackfoot. In 2012, Prosecutor Tom Moss told KTVB it was “the ugliest crime” he had ever seen and that “what Leavitt did to Danette Elg is an image” he will never forget.
Elg’s neighbor, Joyce Brown, said it struck fear in the community and she called it a “tragic situation.”
In a press conference following Leavitt’s execution, Funk noted Elg’s sister, Valynn Mathie, witnessed the death and nodded silently after it had been carried out.
“I don’t know what she was thinking, but I kind of interpreted that as kind of a solemn approval for what was going on,” Funk said.
Mathie and her family issued a statement that day, expressing gratitude that justice had been served so that closure could finally take place.
“We express thanks to everyone who has labored faithfully to uphold the laws of Idaho so that justice and retribution may be served. Closure is now possible for those of us who have lived with the horror of Danette’s murder constantly overshadowing the joyful memories of her life. As family and friends of Danette, we never have to think of Richard Leavitt again. Our memories can now focus on the brief time she was here sharing our lives and the joy of loving her.”
