Where is Ronald Lee White now? His prison life
Ronald Lee White’s crimes and conviction feature on Homicide Hunter: Devil in the Mountains. The synopsis states: “A man found stabbed and burned launches Lt. Joe Kenda on a manhunt; when the trail goes cold, Kenda connects the dots among a string of otherwise-unrelated heartless murders, leading him into hos first and only search for a serial killer.”
White’s claimed three victims between late 1987 and early 1988. He started by killing his roommate Paul Vosika and dismembering his body. White later stabbed Victor Lee Woods to death before burning the body. His last confirmed victim was Raymond Garcia, a night clerk whom White shot during a bungled robbery.
Ronald Lee White remains incarcerated in a Colorado prison
The police arrested Ronald Lee White after a woman claiming to be his girlfriend reported him. During the interrogation, White realized the police had enough forensic and circumstantial evidence to secure a death sentence.
Therefore, he pleaded guilty to the first-degree murders of Victor Woods and Raymond Garcia, earning two concurrent life sentences. White was eligible for parole after 40 years.
According to court documents, White confessed to murdering Paul Vosika, waived a jury trial, and requested the death penalty. The district court imposed the death sentence and stated that White’s sentence would be reviewed by the Colorado Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court found that the district court erred by excluding relevant evidence. White’s attorneys proved that the prosecution violated the law by failing to provide them with important Sheriff’s records. Furthermore, the higher court found that the judge erred by considering the post-death abuse of Vosika’s body as evidence of a heinous killing.
Colorado’s Supreme Court concluded that the errors contributed to Ronald’s death sentence. It declared the sentence invalid and referred the defendant back to the trial court to be sentenced to life.
White remains incarcerated in a Colorado prison. White had stated in court that he couldn’t live in prison with abusive prison guards. However, it seems like the killer adapted to life in prison.
Ronald had stated that the only way he could avoid killing a prison officer was if the court sent him to death row. White testified:
“I know that the only way to change is to go to death row so I’m isolated so they don’t have to write lies and discriminate against me and keep me down there, and you know and I know that I couldn’t fight the temptation of killing one of the guards. I’ll definitely kill one of those guards.”
White is suspected of killing more than three people
Ronald White is suspected of killing more than three people. However, he only confessed to murdering three people, which was enough to send him to prison for life.
White and Paul Vosika were friends involved in the drug business. Ronald claimed Vosika was a thief who stole $1,500 and two ounces of cocaine from his wallet. When White confronted Vosika, Paul promised to pay him back after executing a robbery at a truck stop in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
White told investigators that Vosika reneged on the plan after seeing a security guard. Consequently, White executed Paul by shooting him in the back of the head. Ronald said that Paul begged for his life for half an hour before the murder. Several days later, White dismembered Paul’s body and scattered the parts across Pueblo.
In late January 1988, Victor Lee Woods asked White for a ride home from a bar. White claimed that Woods invited him inside for a beer. Ronald contended that the host made sexual advances toward him while wielding a knife.
White reportedly disarmed Woods, but Victor attacked again. Ronald stabbed Woods repeatedly, killing him. White set the house on fire and left.
Several weeks later, White attempted to rob the Hampton Inn in Pueblo. During the robbery, he fatally shot Raymond Garcia, the night clerk, in the back of the head. Ronald also shot Robert Martinez in the jaw; Martinez survived.