Victim’s father says wrong man executed

Though Larry “Bill” Elliott was put to death by way of the electric chair Tuesday night, the father of one of Elliott’s two victims maintains the convicted murderer was innocent.

Clayton Finch and his wife, Louise, say the mother of their grandchildren, Rebecca Gragg, is responsible. They say Gragg, an ex-stripper, has not taken an active role in raising her children since the Jan. 2, 2001, shooting death of their father, 30-year-old Robert Finch and his 25-year-old girlfriend, Dana Thrall.

“It is gut feeling,“ Clayton Finch said during a Wednesday interview in his Woodbridge apartment, one day after Elliott was executed for killing the Woodbridge couple.

Clayton Finch and his wife witnessed Elliott’s execution at the Greensville Correctional Facility in Jarratt on Tuesday night. The 60-year-old former Army intelligence officer was the oldest person on Virginia’s death row.

“There was no remorse or feeling in his face,“ said Finch. “As close as I could be in judging Elliott, he was just so tired of living, this was the best way out,“ said Finch.

During a conversation with his son’s convicted killer more than four years ago, Finch said that Elliott expressed remorse for what happened to their son, but added he was not the one who pulled the trigger.

Though during the trial Elliott admitted being outside Thrall’s home the morning of the murders, Finch believes someone else was inside Thrall’s home that day.

In a statement read by his lawyer, Tom Kelly, immediately following his execution, Elliott maintained his innocence and apologized to the victim’s families. “I am deeply sorry that someone killed your loved ones,“ he wrote.

Kelly, who declined to answer questions following the execution, again offered no comment Wednesday.

Though Gragg and Robert Finch never married, during Elliott’s 2002 murder trial she described their relationship as “tumultuous” and noted the two were going through a bitter custody dispute for their two children at the time of the murders.

Elliott met Gragg, a former stripper, on an adult Web site in the late 1990s and became infatuated with her, prosecutors said.

He spent more than $400,000 on her, paying for many of her living expenses, including the mortgage on a home she once shared with a former husband, stated court documents.

Prosecutors during the trial said a jealous Elliott went to Thrall’s Woodbridge townhome and shot and killed Thrall and Finch, after Finch threatened to call the police on Gragg for not returning their children to him following a Christmas trip to Florida. They painted Elliott as a man who saw Finch as an obstacle preventing him and Gragg from being together.

Though Elliott in 2002 was convicted of capital murder in the couple’s death, as well as first-degree murder in Finch’s death, the judge called a mistrial once it was discovered that a juror discussed trial proceedings over a lunch with her husband, who was an attorney.

Questions arose during the trial when a small drop of blood determined to be Elliott’s was found on the backyard fence at Thrall’s home, though none of his blood was found inside the home.

Investigators also determined Gragg lied on a polygraph test when asked if she had prior knowledge of the murders. Defense attorneys speculated that it wasn’t until police threatened to charge her as an accessory to the murders that she admitted she spoke to Elliott over the phone the morning the murders took place.

Investigators also found a small sample of Elliott’s blood on the seat cushion of his truck, court documents stated. Police said it was the same truck a newspaper delivery woman saw near Thrall’s townhome the morning Thrall and Finch were killed.

During the second murder trial in 2003, when Elliott was again found guilty, Clayton Finch came to Elliott’s defense, saying he could not have been the one that killed his son. It was a surprising move from a man who had lost his only son.

Thrall’s brother in 2003 told reporters Finch was arrogant to defend Elliott, and that he was sure the jury convicted the right man.

In the beginning Finch said Gragg and his son were happy together.

Robert Finch met Gragg when they both worked at a Lake Ridge restaurant, said Finch. It was a second job for Gragg, as she worked elsewhere as an exotic dancer, he said.

The two never planned to have children, but Finch said he allowed the couple to live in his home while he and his wife helped to take care of their children.

There were signs that something was seriously wrong in their relationship months before the murders, Finch said.

“He told us ‘If I wake up dead anywhere, get Rebecca,’“ said Finch. He added he did not know what led to the couple’s problems.

Gragg has one child from a previous marriage as well as another from another relationship, in addition to the children she had with Robert Finch, according to information that surfaced during the murder trials.

Gragg was not present during the execution and is believed to be living somewhere with her mother, possibly in West Virginia, said Finch. She could not be located to comment for this story.

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