Rice v. State

The evidence supported the defendant's convictions and death sentences arising from the murders of his former employer's wife and 14-year-old son.

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A jury convicted Lawrence Rice of murdering Connie Mincher and her 14-year-old son, Ethan Mincher, and of burglary.1 The jury found multiple statutory aggravating circumstances related to each of the murders and recommended a death sentence for each of the murders, which the trial court imposed. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm.

1. Viewed in the light most favorable to the State, the evidence presented at trial showed the following. Lawrence Rice met Trevor Mincher in or around 1990, when Rice began working at a video production company under Mr. Mincher’s supervision. Shortly afterward, another man was hired at the company, and Rice resigned in anger after he came to believe that this other man was being paid more than he was. After resigning, Rice began a 13-year course of harassing Mr. Mincher and his wife, beginning with his standing around at a convenience store near Mr. Mincher’s work and then repeatedly making unwanted telephone calls. Rice also was the likely source of a Christmas card sent to Mr. Mincher that had been altered to depict an angel with a blackened eye and blood dripping from its wings, that contained feathers and Carribean coins, and that stated that the “curse of Akbar” had been placed on Mr. Mincher and his family. Rice’s motive and plan for the crimes were most clearly demonstrated in a lengthy manuscript that he had written, titled “Culture Shock,” in which he detailed his belief that Mr. Mincher had been speaking ill of him within the video production industry and thus preventing him from finding employment, his evolving financial difficulties, and his plan to murder Mr. Mincher’s family with a hatchet if his situation did not improve.

Rice v. State

The evidence supported the defendant's convictions and death sentences arising from the murders of his former employer's wife and 14-year-old son.

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