David Roland Waters was convicted of murder in Illinois in 1965, and thirty-five years later he was the central defendant in the federal case over the 1995 deaths of Madalyn Murray O'Hair, Jon Garth Murray, Robin Murray O'Hair and Danny Fry. He was never convicted of those deaths. In January 2001 he pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court in Austin, Texas, to one conspiracy count and on March 30, 2001 was sentenced to 20 years. In interviews with federal agents that year he admitted killing Danny Fry; the admission led to no charge. He died in federal custody in North Carolina in January 2003.
The Illinois conviction is the only murder conviction on his record. The 1995 events were treated by prosecutors as a single conspiracy, and the only person convicted at trial in that case was Gary Paul Karr.
Waters came from Peoria, Illinois. He was 53 in September 2000, which places his birth around 1947. His record there began with a charge of criminal trespass to a vehicle in 1964. It later included convictions for murder, battery, forgery and theft. The murder conviction dates from 1965. The offense as named in the Illinois court and the sentence imposed are not on record.
Waters later lived in Florida and moved to Texas in 1991. In the mid-1980s he spent about eight months at a minimum-security institution in Illinois with Gary Karr, a man who had served more than 20 years in Illinois prisons for violent crimes and who was released in May 1995.
In 1993 and 1994 Waters worked in the Austin offices of the atheist organizations run by Madalyn Murray O'Hair. His employment ended at about the time that $54,400 disappeared from the organizations' accounts. In May 1995 he pleaded guilty to the theft. A Travis County court deferred adjudication, ordered him to repay the money and to keep clear of the O'Hair family, and set a ten-year period of good conduct. The restitution order was later reduced to $15,000.
Madalyn Murray O'Hair was 76, Jon Garth Murray was 40 and Robin Murray O'Hair was 30. The federal indictment of September 2000 alleged that Waters conspired from April to October 1995 with Gary Karr, with two other men, one of them Danny Fry, to extort money from the O'Hairs, and that their deaths resulted. The charging papers also alleged that Waters took about $500,000 in gold coins. Fry's age is not on record; he died in the same period.
Federal prosecutors described the O'Hairs' deaths and Fry's as outcomes of one scheme. Waters was not charged with Fry's death. Waters's attorney denied that he had any part in the matter, and Waters himself pleaded innocent after the indictment.
In March 1999 federal authorities charged Waters and Karr with offenses under the federal arms law. Waters was held without bail. On Thursday, May 27, 1999 he pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks to two counts under the federal arms law. Each count carried up to 10 years and a $250,000 fine. A federal affidavit made public in the same period alleged that he had planned to take at least $600,000 from the United Secularists of America and was responsible for Fry's death. These were allegations and not charges.
In August 1999 a Texas state judge, Wilford Flowers, sentenced Waters to 60 years as a habitual offender for violating the terms of his 1995 deferred adjudication; the range was 25 years to life, and his lawyer said at least 15 years would have to be served. A few days later Judge Sparks sentenced him to eight years in federal custody. The two terms were to run one after the other.
Gary Karr was tried in Austin in the spring of 2000. On June 2, 2000 the jury acquitted him of conspiracy to kidnap and convicted him on four counts: conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery and extortion, interstate travel to commit a crime of violence, conspiracy to engage in a monetary transaction in criminally derived property, and interstate transportation of stolen property. On the interstate-travel count the jury found that the offense did not result in the death of another person. On August 17, 2000 Judge Sparks sentenced Karr to life imprisonment under the federal three strikes law and to a second life term for interstate travel to commit a violent act, with two 10-year terms, all running together, and ordered restitution of $543,665.
Waters was still serving his Texas term when a federal grand jury in Austin returned a five-count indictment against him on Tuesday, September 19, 2000. The counts were conspiracy to kidnap, extort and rob the O'Hairs for financial gain, resulting in their deaths; interstate travel in aid of a racketeering enterprise; conspiracy to deal in stolen property; and a further offense under the arms law. Trial before Judge Sparks was set for January 2001. Karr had by then given a statement admitting his own role. Waters had not.
On Wednesday, January 24, 2001, days before trial, Waters reached an agreement with prosecutors. At the request of his attorneys Judge Sparks sealed the agreement and cleared the courtroom, citing "sensitive information that could jeopardize the safety of persons". A news agency and the prosecutors objected, and the agency prepared to seek the unsealing of the record. The trial was cancelled.
Waters agreed to plead guilty to one conspiracy count, to cooperate with the authorities, and to give a full statement. In return he received use immunity for what he disclosed, an agreement that the sentence would be no more than 20 years, help in seeking transfer from state to federal custody, and a recommendation that other prosecutors bring no further charges. The count to which he pleaded is described in a later court filing as the Hobbs Act count; it was one of the five.
In four days of interviews with FBI agents in early 2001, Waters gave a long statement, and the FBI later released a transcript of 321 pages. He first attributed Fry's death to Karr. Karr denied it, and when agents put this to Waters he said, "I killed Danny Fry." Agents disputed his account of the time and place. Waters was not charged with Fry's death, and Dallas County prosecutors said they would wait until the federal cases ended before deciding whether to seek murder charges against those responsible. No such charge is on record.
On Friday, March 30, 2001, Judge Sparks sentenced Waters to 20 years in federal custody. The plea agreement required that he be held in federal custody, and he had asked to serve his term in Illinois. Under the arrangement, once he had served 28 years of federal time he would begin the 60-year Texas term. He was expected to spend the rest of his life in custody.
Waters died in federal custody in North Carolina in January 2003.
In 2020 Karr's two life sentences were vacated on a federal post-conviction motion, following the Supreme Court's decision in Davis v. United States. At the resentencing in March 2021 the district court, before Judge Lee Yeakel, imposed two consecutive 240-month terms on the second and third counts and 115 months on the others, 595 months in total. The Fifth Circuit affirmed in an unpublished opinion of May 12, 2022, and Karr petitioned the Supreme Court for review in August 2022. His lawyers in that petition said that Waters had been dead for 18 years at the resentencing.
Waters's prison terms came from two court systems. In the federal system, felons are barred from possessing ammunition; each count carried up to 10 years. The federal three strikes law required a life term for a defendant with prior qualifying convictions, which is how Karr was sentenced in 2000. The count to which Waters pleaded, the Hobbs Act count, concerns interference with commerce by robbery or extortion. In Texas, deferred adjudication lets a court postpone a finding of guilt on conditions; when a defendant violates them, the court may impose a sentence within the full range, which for a habitual offender was 25 years to life.
Waters was never convicted of any of the four deaths of 1995, and he was never charged with Fry's. His admission concerning Fry was given in 2001 under a promise of immunity, and agents disputed its details. The jury in Karr's trial found that the offense on the interstate-travel count did not result in the death of another person. Waters's lawyer denied his involvement before the plea, and Waters pleaded innocent to the indictment.
1964: charged in Peoria, Illinois, with criminal trespass to a vehicle.
1965: convicted of murder in Illinois.
Mid-1980s: spends about eight months in an Illinois institution with Gary Karr.
1991: moves to Texas.
1993 to 1994: works for the O'Hair organizations in Austin.
May 1995: pleads guilty to theft of $54,400; adjudication deferred.
April to October 1995: period of the conspiracy as charged in the 2000 indictment.
March 1999: charged with offenses under the federal arms law.
May 27, 1999: pleads guilty to two such counts.
August 1999: sentenced to 60 years by a Texas state court and to eight years by a federal court.
June 2, 2000: Karr convicted on four counts.
August 17, 2000: Karr sentenced to life.
September 19, 2000: Waters indicted on five counts in Austin.
January 24, 2001: plea agreement; trial cancelled.
Early 2001: interviews with FBI agents.
March 30, 2001: sentenced to 20 years.
January 2003: dies in federal custody in North Carolina.
March 2021: Karr resentenced to 595 months.