THE DARK SIDE OF NEBRASKA
Donald Moore
#33029
photo courtesy NDCS
Full Name: Donald F. Moore
DOB: March 13, 1965
Charge: 2nd degree murder
County: Douglas
City: Omaha
Current Status: Community Corrections - Lincoln
Partner in crime: Carey Moore
Date of Crime: August 22, 1976 & August 26, 1979
Victim: Reuel Eugene Van Ness Jr., & Maynard Helgeland
DOB: March 13, 1965
Charge: 2nd degree murder
County: Douglas
City: Omaha
Current Status: Community Corrections - Lincoln
Partner in crime: Carey Moore
Date of Crime: August 22, 1976 & August 26, 1979
Victim: Reuel Eugene Van Ness Jr., & Maynard Helgeland
In August 1979, Carey purchased a handgun and set out to rob and kill Omaha cab drivers. He carefully planned to select older targets because he thought it would be easier for him to shoot an older male, rather than a man near his own age.
On the night prior to the first murder, Carey Moore, a 22-year old male, called several taxi companies from a phone booth and asked that they send a cab. When the cab arrived, he hid in the vicinity and tried to determine if the driver would make a suitable victim for the robbery/murder he was planning. That night, the cab driver was Reuel Eugene Van Ness, Jr., a 47-year old male. When Reuel arrived, Carey determined that he was a suitably-aged victim and along with a partner, got into the cab. Carey directed Reuel to drive them to a certain rural location. When they arrived, Carey and his partner robbed Reuel and Carey shot him three times.
Four days later, Carey saw a lone cab with an older driver. He got into the cab and directed the driver, Maynard Helgeland, a 47-year old male, on where to take him. Shortly thereafter, Carey shot Maynard four times and attempted to rob the cab but found no money. Carey's scheduled execution date is Tuesday, May 8, 2007. He is still waiting.
*
"Today," he says on June 14, "I would have been executed." When the day you are set to die comes and goes, Carey said, you are not left with a sense of invincibility. Instead, there is more time to think about the end, and the events that led him to where he is. When he was a teenager, Carey's thoughts often turned to death, too. "I thought about what it would be like to kill somebody," he said. "That sounds horrible, but it's true." These were not thoughts he shared with others. "I did not have trust for anyone."
At his sentencing hearing in 1980, three of Carey's siblings told a three-judge panel how badly his father beat him with electrical cords and leather straps as a child. He was in and out of foster homes and often in trouble in the years before he became a murderer. Carey quickly dismissed any distrust and harsh upbringing as excuses for what he did. "When I killed two men, that was my responsibility, my fault," he said. "The devil didn't make me do it. That was just me."
At 25, Carey argued that he was under the influence of tranquilizers and deserved a new trial. At 27, he tried and failed to escape death row by trading clothes with his then-incarcerated twin brother, David. Through his 30's, he challenged the language of Nebraska's statutes regarding aggravating circumstances in the capital punishment law. "I am very much tired of death-row life," he said, now 53. "I don't want anyone to think, 'Poor me.' I am guilty."
During an interview with the Journal Star, Carey was willing to answer every question asked except one. While he frequently admitted his guilt, he said often that he wished he had not involved his younger brother Donald, then 14, in the first shooting. He would not chronicle what happened. .
Carey has detailed the killings in a small pamphlet he wrote on July 4, 2007, a little over two months after the execution date he did not challenge was stayed. In the pamphlet, Carey describes how he came to believe that "God has a special work for me to do yet, before he calls me home to be with him forever."
Of his crimes, he wrote this: "A long time ago, I was two months from being 22 years old when on August 22, 1979, I brought along my 14-year old brother with me when we robbed a cab driver, as soon as this man stopped his car, I pointed my 32 automatic gun at the back of his head and said that I wanted his money. Instantly, he reached back to take the gun from me but it fired even quicker! One bullet went through his hand, another bullet near his spine, and another bullet hit his head; and then in the silence I heard his words that echo in my heart today, 'Okay, okay, I quit.'" "But it was simply too late for this man, and it was too late for us as well to turn back the clock of life; I told Donny to put his body on the parking lot ground as I busied myself wiping down the back seat area to get rid of our fingerprints; we drove off leaving him to die by himself. Today, I wonder, was Jesus there, comforting this hurt man in his last minute or two before he shut his eyes to this life for ever? This man's name is Reuel Van Ness, Jr., and my name is Carey Dean Moore. I am a murderer!"
"Five nights later on the 27th, I had to foolishly prove to myself that I could take man's life all by myself; I entered another cab, and when he stopped at my destination I shot three bullets into this second man, right in his head. His name is Maynard Helgeland. On the 29th, Donny was apprehended later; a couple hours later, so was I!"
On the night prior to the first murder, Carey Moore, a 22-year old male, called several taxi companies from a phone booth and asked that they send a cab. When the cab arrived, he hid in the vicinity and tried to determine if the driver would make a suitable victim for the robbery/murder he was planning. That night, the cab driver was Reuel Eugene Van Ness, Jr., a 47-year old male. When Reuel arrived, Carey determined that he was a suitably-aged victim and along with a partner, got into the cab. Carey directed Reuel to drive them to a certain rural location. When they arrived, Carey and his partner robbed Reuel and Carey shot him three times.
Four days later, Carey saw a lone cab with an older driver. He got into the cab and directed the driver, Maynard Helgeland, a 47-year old male, on where to take him. Shortly thereafter, Carey shot Maynard four times and attempted to rob the cab but found no money. Carey's scheduled execution date is Tuesday, May 8, 2007. He is still waiting.
*
"Today," he says on June 14, "I would have been executed." When the day you are set to die comes and goes, Carey said, you are not left with a sense of invincibility. Instead, there is more time to think about the end, and the events that led him to where he is. When he was a teenager, Carey's thoughts often turned to death, too. "I thought about what it would be like to kill somebody," he said. "That sounds horrible, but it's true." These were not thoughts he shared with others. "I did not have trust for anyone."
At his sentencing hearing in 1980, three of Carey's siblings told a three-judge panel how badly his father beat him with electrical cords and leather straps as a child. He was in and out of foster homes and often in trouble in the years before he became a murderer. Carey quickly dismissed any distrust and harsh upbringing as excuses for what he did. "When I killed two men, that was my responsibility, my fault," he said. "The devil didn't make me do it. That was just me."
At 25, Carey argued that he was under the influence of tranquilizers and deserved a new trial. At 27, he tried and failed to escape death row by trading clothes with his then-incarcerated twin brother, David. Through his 30's, he challenged the language of Nebraska's statutes regarding aggravating circumstances in the capital punishment law. "I am very much tired of death-row life," he said, now 53. "I don't want anyone to think, 'Poor me.' I am guilty."
During an interview with the Journal Star, Carey was willing to answer every question asked except one. While he frequently admitted his guilt, he said often that he wished he had not involved his younger brother Donald, then 14, in the first shooting. He would not chronicle what happened. .
Carey has detailed the killings in a small pamphlet he wrote on July 4, 2007, a little over two months after the execution date he did not challenge was stayed. In the pamphlet, Carey describes how he came to believe that "God has a special work for me to do yet, before he calls me home to be with him forever."
Of his crimes, he wrote this: "A long time ago, I was two months from being 22 years old when on August 22, 1979, I brought along my 14-year old brother with me when we robbed a cab driver, as soon as this man stopped his car, I pointed my 32 automatic gun at the back of his head and said that I wanted his money. Instantly, he reached back to take the gun from me but it fired even quicker! One bullet went through his hand, another bullet near his spine, and another bullet hit his head; and then in the silence I heard his words that echo in my heart today, 'Okay, okay, I quit.'" "But it was simply too late for this man, and it was too late for us as well to turn back the clock of life; I told Donny to put his body on the parking lot ground as I busied myself wiping down the back seat area to get rid of our fingerprints; we drove off leaving him to die by himself. Today, I wonder, was Jesus there, comforting this hurt man in his last minute or two before he shut his eyes to this life for ever? This man's name is Reuel Van Ness, Jr., and my name is Carey Dean Moore. I am a murderer!"
"Five nights later on the 27th, I had to foolishly prove to myself that I could take man's life all by myself; I entered another cab, and when he stopped at my destination I shot three bullets into this second man, right in his head. His name is Maynard Helgeland. On the 29th, Donny was apprehended later; a couple hours later, so was I!"