Elliott executed in 2001 slayings of Woodbridge couple

JARRATT, VA. -- Larry “Bill” Elliott died in Virginia’s electric chair Tuesday night, nearly nine years after the murders that landed him on death row.

The 60-year-old was strapped into the chair at 9 p.m. at the Greensville Correctional Facility in Jarratt, Va., where he was administered two lethal applications of electricity each lasting one and a half minutes. Elliott chose electrocution over lethal injection.

He was pronounced dead at 9:08 p.m., said Virginia Department of Corrections spokesman Larry Traylor. Elliott said in the death chamber that he had prepared a final statement for his attorneys to read after the execution. In the typed statement, Elliott maintained his innocence.

"The very system that I spent a lifetime defending has failed me," the statement said.ution.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to consider his appeal. On Tuesday afternoon, Gov. Tim Kaine – who had previously delayed the execution to consider clemency – said he would not intervene.

Elliott’s death comes a week after Beltway sniper John Allen Muhammad was put to death in the same facility by way of lethal injection. Muhammad's family held a funeral Tuesday in Baton Rouge, La.

Elliott, a former Army intelligence officer from Maryland, was convicted of capital murder in the slayings of 25-year-old Dana Thrall and 30-year-old Robert Finch. Both were killed inside Thrall’s Woodbridge townhouse on Jan. 2, 2001.

During the trial, a Manassas jury also convicted Elliott of first-degree murder in Finch’s death.

Elliott was involved in a romantic relationship with a former stripper, Rebecca Gragg, who shared two children with Finch. The two met on an adult Web site, according to court records.

Gragg was looking for someone to fund a new line of clothing tailored to strippers in an attempt to begin a new life, according to the records.

On New Year’s Day of that year, Gragg took the children to Florida and experienced car problems that prevented her from returning the children to Virginia, as was required in the couple’s visitation agreement.

At the time, Gragg and Finch were in the middle of a bitter custody dispute, according to court documents. Finch threatened to call the police on Gragg when she called to report that she wouldn’t be able to return the children that day, court records show.

Elliott killed Finch and Thrall the following day.

Four months after the slayings, investigators told Gragg that the results of a second polygraph test she took in connection with the case showed she was lying about her knowledge of the crimes.

After consulting with her attorney, she told investigators she received a telephone call from Elliott the morning of the murders, in which he told her he would put an end to the problems between her and Finch, according to court documents.

Elliott selected his last meal Tuesday, but as in the case of Muhammad, declined to say what he chose.

Elliott’s attorneys again on Tuesday offered no comment about their client. A representative from their respective law offices said they were at the correctional facility with their client.

Elliott is the 105th inmate to be put to death in the commonwealth since a national moratorium on executions ended in 1976.

In total, he is the 341st inmate to die by electrocution in the state since Virginia began using the method to carry out capital punishment sentences in 1908, according to information from the Virginia Department of Corrections.

Elliott was moved from Virginia’s death row, located at Sussex I State Prison in Waverly Va., to the Greensville Correctional Center, where the death chamber is located.

The chamber has been located at the facility since 1991.

Staff writer Uriah A. Kiser can be reached at 703-878-8065.