There was pizza and ice cream for Richard Rojem Jr. before he was put to death Thursday morning. He was found guilty of raping and killing his ex-stepdaughter in 1984.
He asked Little Caesars to bring him two small double-cheese, double-pepperoni pizzas, and two cups of vanilla ice cream for his last meal. The Oklahoman says that he also asked for a bottle of Vernor’s ginger ale.
Rojem, 66, was put to death at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester by a lethal dose of three drugs. He was pronounced dead at 10:16 a.m. thanks to the drugs. He didn’t look for a place to stay at the last minute.
He was strapped to a bed and had an IV in his tattooed left arm when asked if he had any last words. “I don’t,” he said. I have said goodbye.”
The Oklahoman reports that it was Oklahoma’s second execution of 2024 and the 13th since the state brought back the death penalty in October 2021, after a break of more than six years.
Rojem had been in jail since 1985 and was the person on Oklahoma’s death row who had been there the longest.
He had said that he wasn’t responsible for killing Layla Cummings, his ex-stepdaughter. The child’s body, which had been cut up and was only partly dressed, was found in a field in rural Washita County, close to the town of Burns Flat, on July 7, 1984. She had been taken hostage, raped, and killed with a knife.
“Justice for Layla Cummings was finally served this morning with the execution of the monster responsible for her rape and murder,” Attorney General Gentner Drummond said in a statement after Rojem’s death.
“For almost 40 years, Layla’s family has been through unbearable pain.” “I pray that what happened today brings comfort to those who loved her.”
This month, Drummond asked the state pardon and parole board to say no to Rojem’s request for mercy.
Before the murder in 1984, Drummond said, Rojem had been in jail for four years for raping two teenage girls.
Prosecutors said Rojem was mad at Cummings because she told them that he sexually abused her, which caused him to lose his marriage to the girl’s mother and go back to jail for breaking his parole. They had been split up for about two months before the death.
At a clemency meeting this month, Rojem’s lawyers said that DNA evidence from the girl’s fingernails did not connect him to the crime.
“My client shouldn’t be found guilty if his DNA is not present,” said lawyer Jack Fisher.
A fingerprint was found on a cup from a bar Rojem left just before the girl was taken, which prosecutors said was proof of his crimes. The cup was found outside the girl’s apartment. Lawyers for Rojem said that a used condom found in his bedroom was linked to a condom bag that was found near the girl’s body.
An eight-person jury in Washita County found him guilty in 1985 after only 45 minutes of voting. His two earlier death sentences were thrown out by appeals courts because of mistakes made during the trials. In the end, a Custer County jury gave him his third death sentence in 2007.
According to court papers seen by The Oklahoman, Rojem married Mindy Cummings, the victim’s mother, while he was in jail for raping the two girls. He was 26 years old at the time. He shared a cell with her sister, and after getting out of jail in 1982, Rojem moved to Oklahoma.
Drummond read a statement from Layla’s mother, Mindy Lynn Cummings, after her death. It said, “We remember, honor, and hold her forever in our hearts as the sweet and precious 7-year-old she was.”
“Today marks the final chapter of justice determined by three separate juries for Richard Rojem’s heinous acts nearly 40 years ago when he stole her away like the monster he was.”
The Oklahoman cited a packet of information that Rojem’s lawyers gave to the parole board that said he became a Zen Buddhist in jail and was known as Daiji by other followers.
At a parole board meeting earlier this month, Rojem said, “I wasn’t a good person for the first part of my life, and I don’t deny that.”
“But I was locked up.” I left all of that behind after learning my lesson.
