In the winter of 1996, a week-long crime spree orchestrated by Kenneth Earl Fults culminated in the tragic death of 19-year-old Cathy Bonds, a White female from Spalding, Georgia. Fults had been committing a series of burglaries to acquire firearms with the intention of killing his former girlfriend's new boyfriend. On the morning of January 30, after the man who lived with Bonds had left for work, Fults forced his way into their home.
Inside, he confronted the young woman. Despite her pleas for her life and her offer of the rings she was wearing, Fults proceeded to bind her. He wrapped more than six feet of electrical tape around her head, covering her eyes. He then forced her into a bedroom, placed her face-down on the bed, covered her head with a pillow, and shot her five times in the back of the head. Investigators later found a letter Fults had written in which he described the murder.
Following the discovery of Bonds's body, law enforcement began their investigation. A search of Fults's nearby trailer uncovered items from his previous burglaries, shell casings from the murder weapon, and the incriminating letter. When confronted with the evidence, Fults confessed to the killing. The. 22-caliber handgun used in the murder was found hidden under his trailer.
Kenneth Earl Fults pleaded guilty to malice murder, kidnapping with bodily injury, burglary, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime. In May 1997, a jury sentenced him to death for the murder of Cathy Bonds. Over the following years, Fults appealed his sentence, with his lawyers arguing that he was intellectually disabled and that his trial had been tainted by a racially biased juror. These appeals were ultimately unsuccessful. On April 12, 2016, Kenneth Earl Fults was executed by lethal injection for the murder of Cathy Bonds.
