Teresa Wooten (left) and Cathy Pirtle, sisters of Vicki Garner, show photo collages of their sister when she was little. (Staff photo by Kenneth Dean)

A North Carolina attorney has filed for a stay of execution in the case of Robert Charles Ladd, who was convicted by a Smith County jury in 1997 for the murder of 38-year-old Vicki Ann Garner the year before. 

Ladd, 57, is scheduled to be executed next Thursday in Huntsville, but attorney Brian Stull, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union Capital Punishment Project, stated in his post-conviction writ of habeas corpus that Ladd is intellectually disabled. 

Ladd was convicted of sexually assaulting, beating, strangling, and then setting fire to Garner’s body to hide the crime. A Smith County jury deliberated 18 minutes before giving him the death penalty. 

At the time of the murder, Ladd was on parole for killing a Dallas-area woman and her two small children in 1978. 

Stull writes in the writ that Ladd’s IQ when tested at age 13 was a 67. The U.S. Supreme Court’s measure for retardation is an IQ of 70.

Ladd was tested when he was in prison for the 1978 Dallas murders and the result was an IQ of 86.

Garner’s sister, Teresa Wooten, told the Tyler Morning Telegraph onThursday morning that she is upset about the latest filing. 

“I thought I was prepared for the flurry of motions,” she said. “I had been forewarned months ago by the Texas Office of the Attorney General and in November by the Smith County District Attorney’s office. Then, this morning, I got the first email informing me that a motion had been filed from an attorney in North Carolina. My reaction first was anger. And then tears. I started my work morning out sitting at my desk in my office crying.

“My reasonable side tells me this is expected and nothing of which to worry. The mental retardation issue is moot. It has already gone all the way through the judicial system. However, my emotional side is stressing. I am on edge. I cannot fathom that man receiving another stay. And, after 18-plus years, I am exhausted. That being said, I will force positive thoughts and know that Vicki’s family will see final justice next Thursday night.”