DONALD LEE GILSON | Sentenced to Death for the First Degree Child Abuse Murder of 8-Year-Old Shane Coffman | "I'm an innocent man, but I get to go to heaven, and I'll see Shane tonight.” | EXECUTED | ALS

Donald Gilson. ALS. Pmk: February 2, 2007. SEALED. Contents unknown. Pristine.

Murder

• Classification: Murderer

• Characteristics: Abuse

• Number of victims: 1

• Date of murder: August 17, 1995

• Date of arrest: February 11, 1996

• Date of birth: November 10, 1960

• Victim profile: Shane Coffman, 8 (his girlfriend’s son)

• Method of murder: Beating

• Location: Cleveland County, Oklahoma, USA

• Status: Executed by lethal injection in Oklahoma on May 14, 2009ⁱ

Four other children, along with the Shane, and another brother, thirteen (13) year old Jeremy, lived with their mother Bertha Jean Coffman, in a mobile home. During the fall of 1994, the Cleveland County (OK) Sheriff's Department received complaints of sexual abuse committed upon one of the Berti’s children by her then boyfriend (not Donny). The investigating detective visited Berti's mobile home and found the conditions deplorable and unsanitary. The children (who often smelled like urineⁱⁱ) were removed from their home until conditions improved. (In 1961 the State removed Berti and three of her siblings from her mother due to neglect. Berti was moved around from foster home to foster home; and she said that while she was in foster care she was SA’d by a foster brother and foster father and when she 18 years old she left home.ⁱⁱⁱ) It was about this time that Berti met Donny. They were both working as janitors at Little Axe Schools. All five children were forced to sleep on blankets in the living room. (They had never learned how to sleep on anything other than a blanket on the floor.^iv) They were not permitted to go outside, but had to remain inside the trailer at all times. The children were taken out of school and claimed to be homeschooled by Berti, although no evidence of homeschooling was ever found. The children were also not permitted to go to church after the church had notified the OK DOHS 4 times to report child abuse.

Four other children, aged 12, 11, 10 and 7, lived with Berti and Donny in the trailer and showed various signs of savage physical abuse. Two of the children were emaciated (“looked like Holocaust victims”) and had trouble walking. The children told police that six months earlier Donny beat Shane with a board and then placed him in a bathtub filled with cold water as punishment for going to the bathroom on the living room rug. They heard Shane screaming while in the bathroom with Donny and Berthi, who later told the children that Shane had run away.

Donny said he and Berti discussed what to do next. He said Berti was worried that the Department of Human Services (DHS) would take her kids away if the authorities found out Shane had died. So they left Shane in the bathtub, waiting until the other children had gone to sleep to remove him from the house. Donny said they carried Shane outside and placed him in the back of a truck. Then, Donny and Berti took Shane's body to a freezer located next to Berti’s trailer, put him inside and buried him in dirt. Donny said he and Berti told the other children Shane had run away. (The couple's landlord noticed the freezer on the property, broke the lock, and found the body buried inside. He called the cops.^v)

The couple gave various accounts of the killing to police. They first said he had ran away, then they said they found him dead and thought some other guy killed him. Eventually they said the death was an accident. The Inspector had his team bring in Luminol and spread it around the trailer. Luminol lights up bright blue with a black light whenever blond is present. He said that the trailer lit up a pattern resembling the Milky Way. He said he could see areas of blood splatter where the couple claimed they would make the children stand near the wall while they were getting beaten.^vi

Conclusion

Bottom line, Donny helped his girlfriend kill her 8yo son, Shane, in 1995 and hide his body in a freezer outside their abandoned trailer in Cleveland County (OK). He was convicted in 1998. The battered and decomposing body was found about 6 months later. Berti entered an Alford Plea^vii and pleaded guilty to 1st-degree murder in Shane’s death, and a judge sentenced her to LWOP plus 5 life sentences for the child abuse of her 5 other children. She testified against Donny at trial.

Donny was convicted of first-degree murder, two counts of injury to a minor child, conspiracy to unlawfully remove a dead body, and unlawful removal of a dead body, and was sentenced to death for murder and to various terms of imprisonment and fines on non-capital counts. He sentenced to Death on April 4, 1997 and Executed by Lethal Injection on May 14, 2009 at 6:14 pm after being on DR for 14 years.

Final Meal:

A cheeseburger, chili-cheese french fries and a chocolate shake from Chili's restaurant.

Final Words: Lifted his head, smiled at his family and said:

I’m an innocent man,

but I get to go to heaven,

and I’ll see Shane tonight.

It’s God’s will that this take place.

VIDEO: Another System Failure (The Shane Alan Coffman Story) | https://youtu.be/wgv6C9MQPA4

Archiving Protocol:

• Handled with White Gloves ab initio

• Photo Pages/Sheet Protectors: Heavyweight Clear Sheet Protectors, Acid Free & Archival Safe, 8.5 x 11 Inches, Top Load

• White Backing Board – Acid Free

Shipping/Packaging: Rigid Mailer 9.5 x 12.5 inches. White, self seal, stay flat, kraft cardboard, no bend. Each rigid mailer is made of heavy cardboard, which has strong resistance to bending and tearing. Thicker that the USPS mailers. Shipping cost never more than it absolutely has to be to get it from me to you.