Man admits he was ‘the brains behind’ Missouri jail escape that put another on death row
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Death penalty in Missouri
Missouri executed four people in 2023. Amber McLaughlin, Michael Tisius, Johnny Johnson and Leonard Taylor, who maintained that he was innocent, all died by lethal injection. The state is one of five in the country that carried out executions last year.
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While Michael Tisius’ June 6 execution is on hold after a federal judge issued a temporary stay, his two co-defendants shared their accounts of what led to the double homicide that left Tisius sentenced to death.
Tisius, 42, was given the death penalty after he shot and killed two jailers in Randolph County during a botched escape attempt in 2000. Co-defendants Roy Vance, 50, and Tracie Bulington, 50, are serving out two life sentences each.
Vance said he met Tisius, who was 19 at the time, in the Randolph County jail.
“He looked up to me,” Vance said in a video released by Tisius’ legal team to support his clemency case.
He described Tisius as “a kid in a grown man’s body and I knew I could manipulate him into what I wanted him to do.”
Vance hatched a plan to get Bulington, his then-girlfriend, and Tisius to help him escape after Tisius was freed from jail.
“I’m the brains behind it. It was my idea, my suggestions,” Vance said.
“There’s no way he would have came up with that.”
In the clemency video, Bulington said Vance also intentionally formed a relationship with her “to get what he needed out of me.”
“In my opinion, he became what Michael needed just like he became what I needed,” she said.
Bulington and Tisius went to the jail, a converted house, planning on getting the keys from the guards and locking them in a holding cell. But Tisius ended up shooting Jason Acton and Leon Egley during the encounter.
Bulington said Tisius had not gone there with the intent to shoot anyone and was upset.
All three were convicted in the double murder.
Vance said he has been sober since 2012.
“I have enough regrets to build a house with, probably, and so I’m trying to ease my mind and my conscience, I guess,” he said. “I’m dealing with as much stuff as I can, like talking about Mike, that was my fault, I’m the one who talked him into that.”
Bulington said she was relieved that Vance has taken responsibility.
“But yet at the same time, I’m mad about it because he could have saved a lot of time and a lot of hurt and Mike maybe wouldn’t be where he’s at now,” she said.
On Wednesday, a judge ordered a temporary halt to Tisius’ June 6 execution after lawyers discovered one of the jurors had been unable to read or write, a requirement to sit on a jury.
The Missouri Attorney General’s Office has filed an appeal on the stay of execution, which calls for an evidentiary hearing on the juror issue.
Tisius’ legal team has also applied for clemency through Gov. Mike Parson’s office, arguing Tisius’ life should be spared because of his age at the time of the shooting, a history of abuse and his remorse. Parson has not granted clemency in a death penalty case.
This story was originally published June 1, 2023 at 3:24 PM.
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