Robbie Lyons

Robbie James Lyons (10 July 1972 – 5 December 2003) was convicted of the 1993 murder of Stephen Wilson Stafford and in 2003 was executed at Central Prison in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Prior arrests

A series of arrests and releases in 1993 preceded the murder for which Lyons was later executed. Convicted on 16 April 1993 on multiple charges of larceny and forgery, Lyons was sentenced to 17 months in prison; however, he served only a month of this sentence and was released on 17 May 1993. He was arrested again a month later on charges of armed robbery, for which he received three years probation on a plea bargain; he used an alias, and even though his real name was known, his prior arrest and improper release were overlooked. Finally, four days before the murder of Stephen Stafford, Lyons was arrested a third time for failure to appear in court, for which he was released on a $50 bond.

Crime

The murder of Stephen Wilson Stafford occurred on 25 September 1993, apparently as part of an attempted robbery. Stafford was the owner of a small store in Forsyth County, North Carolina. According to the testimony of Derick Hall, an alleged accomplice who was in the store with Lyons at the time of the murder, Lyons chose to rob the store on the spur of the moment because he was out of money. Hall claimed not to have participated directly in the robbery, but that he heard Lyons fire five shots at Stafford and disappear; Hall turned himself into police custody on the following day. Victoria Lytle, a witness who had just left Stafford's store, also claimed that she heard gunshots and saw Lyons leave the store with a gun in hand shortly afterwards.