ELECTRIC CHAIR, DEATH ROW, INTERVIEWS WITH INMATES (PART 1?)
Richard Rhodes was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of Karen Nieradka.
On March 24, 1984, the body of Karen Nieradka was found in debris that had been transported to St. Petersburg from the demolition site of the Sunset Hotel in Clearwater. The hotel had been demolished on March 15, 1984. Nieradka was found to have died from manual strangulation.
Several weeks prior, on March 2, 1984, Richard Rhodes had been stopped by the Florida Highway Patrol and arrested for driving without a valid license. At the time of the arrest, Rhodes was driving a car registered to the victim, Nieradka.
The police interviewed Rhodes on March 26, 1984. Rhodes gave different stories, but continued to deny involvement in Nieradka’s death.
On April 27, 1984, Rhodes tried to make a deal with detectives saying that he would explain how Nieradka died if he would be sent to a mental health facility. Rhodes said that the victim’s death had been due to an accidental fall from the third story of the Sunset Hotel. However, during the course of the trial, three inmates from the Pinellas County Jail testified that Rhodes had confessed to murdering Nieradka.
Trial Summary:
04/27/84 Rhodes was arrested.
07/20/84 Rhodes was indicted on the following:
Count I: First-Degree Murder (Karen Nieradka)
08/16/85 Rhodes was found guilty on count I.
08/27/85 Upon advisory sentencing, the jury, by a 7 to 5 majority, voted for the death penalty.
09/12/85 Rhodes was sentenced as follows:
Count I: First-Degree Murder (Karen Nieradka) – Death
07/06/89 FSC remanded to the case to the trial court for a new sentencing hearing.
03/17/92 Upon advisory sentencing, the jury, by a 10 to 2 majority, voted for the death penalty.
03/20/92 Rhodes was sentenced as follows:
Count I: First-Degree Murder (Karen Nieradka) – Death
In December 1982, Michael Ray Lambrix was serving a sentence for violating probation when he escaped from a work release detail. Six weeks later, he and his girlfriend met Aleisha Bryant and Clarence Moore Jr. outside a bar.
Lambrix and his girlfriend invited Bryant and Moore back to their trailer. Lambrix lured Moore outside, then attacked him with a tire iron, fracturing his skull. Then he kicked Bryant in the head and strangled her.
He was sentenced to death on March 22, 1984.
