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On December 20, 1996, in Oklahoma, 21-year-old Juli Busken, a University of Oklahoma dance student and resident of Benton, Arkansas, was abducted from her apartment's parking lot and subsequently raped and murdered by an unknown assailant. The case remained unsolved for years before the killer was caught while he was in jail for burglary.

The murderer, Anthony Sanchez (November 1, 1978 – September 21, 2023), whose DNA profile matched that of the sperm on Busken's clothing, was convicted of the murder and sentenced to death in 2006. Sanchez, however, protested his innocence and claimed that his father was the real killer. Sanchez was eventually executed on September 21, 2023.

Murder

On December 20, 1996, 21-year-old dance student Jewell Jean "Juli" Busken was found murdered near the shoreline of Lake Stanley Draper after she disappeared from the parking lot of her apartment in Norman, Oklahoma.

Prior to her disappearance, Busken, who had completed her final semester in the University of Oklahoma and was set to graduate on a later date, planned to return to her parents' home in Arkansas and enrol in graduate school, and her parents were scheduled to arrive on the day of her disappearance to fetch her back home. Busken gathered with her college friends on the evening of December 19, 1996, and exchanged Christmas gifts and goodbyes. Busken spent the night with a friend named Megan Schreck at the latter's apartment in West Lindsey Street. After bringing Schreck to the Will Rogers Airport on the morning of December 20, 1996, Busken returned to her own apartment and it was the last time she was seen alive.

At around 5.30am, at the apartment of Busken, at least three witnesses heard a woman scream in terror. One of them was a police officer named William Alves, who was an off-duty security officer of the apartments. Alves heard the scream but did not witness anything suspicious. A neighbour, Jackie Evans, who lived across the parking lot from Busken's residence, testified that right after the woman's scream, she also heard a man saying "Just shut up and get in the car." A police report was filed thereafter, and police officer Kyle Harris responded to the scene, but she found nothing suspicious.

Ryan James, a close friend of Juli Busken who worked together at the OU Golf Course, had planned to meet for lunch on December 20, 1996. James, who arrived at her apartment around 11am, noticed that her car was missing. After he went to work and returned to Busken's apartment at 4pm, James found out that she never returned. Out of concern, James contacted his grandparents to inquire them about the whereabouts of Busken, who often visited them, but she had not been there either. James, joined by his grandfather, searched for her everywhere, and even drove to the airport, but they failed to locate Busken. Together, the men contacted OU Police Chief Joe Lester and filed a missing persons report, prompting a search for her.

Simultaneously, on that same day at noon, a man named Randy Lankford noticed something strange along the shoreline of Lake Stanley Draper. Lankford left the scene before he returned with his wife after nightfall to check the mysterious object, and it turned out to be the body of a woman. The couple reported the gruesome discovery to the police, who later identified the body as Juli Busken, based on her description in a missing persons report.

An autopsy report showed that Busken sustained a single gunshot wound to her head. The wound, which was located at the rear side of Busken's skull and penetrated the brain before ending at the skull's frontal side, was sufficient in the ordinary course of nature to cause death. There was forensic evidence to prove that Busken was raped before her death, based on the traces of human spermatozoa found on her vaginal area and bruises found on her face and lower part of the body.

Investigations and breakthrough

For the next eight years, the police continually investigated the case of Juli Busken's murder but failed to identify a suspect until a major breakthrough in 2004.

The police managed to extract DNA samples from the discarded underwear and leotard last worn by Busken before her death.

The inmate, Anthony Castillo Sanchez, was serving an unspecified jail term for burglary at the time when DNA tests linked him to the murder of Busken. Sanchez, who was 18 when he allegedly raped and murdered Busken,

Trial of Anthony Sanchez

On January 30, 2006, the jury selection phase of Sanchez's trial commenced.

On February 15, 2006, the jury returned with their verdict on conviction, unanimously finding Sanchez guilty of first-degree murder, rape and sodomy in Busken's death.

On February 17, 2006, the same jury recommended the death penalty for Sanchez on the charge of murdering Busken. Imprisonment terms of 40 years and 20 years were simultaneously imposed for the charges of rape and sodomy respectively.

The trial judge, Justice William C. Hetherington, formally sentenced Anthony Sanchez to death for the murder of Juli Busken on June 6, 2006, nearly ten years after the death of Busken.

Appeal process

After he was sentenced to death, Anthony Sanchez appealed against his death sentence. On December 14, 2009, Sanchez's direct appeal was rejected by the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals.

On October 3, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Sanchez's final appeal, and his death sentence was therefore confirmed. On that same day, two more condemned inmates from Oklahoma, Julius Jones and Phillip Dean Hancock, also lost their final appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court. All three of them (including Sanchez) became one of Oklahoma's 11 death row inmates eligible for execution, and the list increased to 16 as of March 2018.

A year after all his avenues of appeal were exhausted, on August 21, 2017, Sanchez's petition for a re-hearing of his case was dismissed by the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals.

By February 2020, Sanchez was one of the 26 death row prisoners in Oklahoma who were eligible to be executed after exhausting all available appeals against their respective death sentences.

Sanchez, along with 27 other death row inmates, filed a lawsuit against the state challenging Oklahoma's execution protocol. However, the lawsuit was dismissed in June 2022 when the courts determined that there was no violation of the constitution in Oklahoma's death penalty laws.

Execution of Sanchez

In August 2022, six years after depleting his appeals, Anthony Sanchez was given a death warrant with a tentative execution date set for April 6, 2023. However, in January 2023, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals issued a court order to reschedule Sanchez's execution to September 21, 2023. Additionally, the execution dates of six other death row inmates — Jemaine Cannon, Phillip Dean Hancock, James Ryder, Michael Dewayne Smith, Wade Lay, and Richard Glossip — were also postponed between 2023 and 2024.

During the final months before he was to be executed, Sanchez filed a final series of appeals to avoid the death sentence. Sanchez argued that he was innocent and the real killer was actually his father Thomas Glen Sanchez, who died in 2022.

On September 21, 2023, 44-year-old Anthony Castillo Sanchez was put to death by lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.

Prior to his execution, Sanchez ordered a last meal of chicken fried steak, fried okra, mashed potatoes and gravy, a roll, sweet iced tea and apple pie with vanilla ice cream.

Aftermath

See also

• Capital punishment in Oklahoma
• List of people executed in Oklahoma
• List of people executed in the United States in 2023

References

1. ^ Sanchez v. State , Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals (United States).
2. "US Supreme Court rejects 3 Oklahoma death row inmate appeals". Associated Press. October 3, 2016.
3. "Three more Oklahoma death row inmates lose final appeals". The Oklahoman. October 3, 2016.
4. "Three more Oklahoma death row inmates lose final appeal". The Oklahoman. October 4, 2016.
5. "Executions to be set for 16 Oklahoma murderers, if nitrogen gas method passes court scrutiny". The Oklahoman. March 18, 2018.
6. "Oklahoma Death Row: 26 inmates eligible for execution dates". The Oklahoman. February 14, 2020.
7. "28 Oklahoma death row inmates could be executed over next two years after judge's ruling". The Oklahoman. June 6, 2022.
8. "The next Oklahoma death row inmates scheduled for execution". The Oklahoman. August 25, 2022.
9. "Richard Glossip, six other Oklahoma death row inmates get new execution dates". The Oklahoman. January 24, 2023.
10. "Man executed for the 1996 killing of a University of Oklahoma dance student". Associated Press. September 21, 2023.