LaFAYETTE — For a mother, the death penalty reversal for the man convicted of killing her 23-year-old pregnant daughter, Nikia Gilbreath, is a hard blow.

“The three judges sit on their thrones and come up with an overturn of a death penalty,” said Linda Tucker, Gilbreath’s mother. “Obviously it’s never happened to them — that’s all I can say.”

The judges she’s referring to are the three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit of Appeals in Atlanta that recently reversed James Ward’s death sentence but upheld his conviction.

On July 12, 1991, two days before what would have been Nikia’s 25th birthday, Ward was convicted in Walker County Superior Court for the murder of Nikia and her unborn son. Nikia was five months pregnant.

The death sentence was recently overturned because of “improper bailiff-jury communication.” One of the jurors reportedly asked a bailiff if a life sentence without parole was an option, and the bailiff responded that it wasn’t.

The court has concluded that this exchange might have affected Ward’s constitutional right to a fair sentence.

Tucker doesn’t think so.

“There’s nobody any more straight-laced or firm (as the bailiffs),” she said. “They didn’t do anything, and anybody that knows them knows that. I have a hard time believing anything went wrong there.”

Life without parole was not a sentencing option until 1995, she said, and every jury is notified of sentencing choices for each trial.

The sentence reversal is on appeal now. If the sentence reversal is overturned in the appeals process, Ward will undergo another sentencing.

Ward is still in jail on death row, pending further legal decisions — much to the relief of Linda.

Victim remembered

Tucker said her daughter, known to her family and friends as “Niki,” was a sweet, caring person.

“She was trusting, and that had a lot to do, I’m sure, (with what happened),” she said.

Tucker and Gilbreath had been planning a trip to Florida for Gilbreath’s daughter, Amber, then almost 2 years old, to see the beach for the first time before her little brother, Garrett, was born. They had planned to leave for the trip after work on Thursday, Aug. 17, 1989.

But earlier that morning Ward had apparently hidden in Gilbreath’s house in Villanow until her husband, Joe, left for work. Ward kidnapped Gilbreath using her car.

Joe Gilbreath came home from work to find Amber alone in the home and his wife’s car missing.

“We knew immediately something was wrong,” Tucker said.

She contacted her brother-in-law, who was Walker County Superior Court Judge Joe B. Tucker. Search parties were mobilized late that evening. Al Millard, who was the Walker County sheriff at the time, visited the home that night.

They used infrared sensors in helicopters to search a 50-mile radius. But it was a man picking up cans who found her body days later at an illegal dumpsite, a place where a lot people discarded a lot of garbage, Linda said. The site was located in Walker County on the way from Villanow to LaFayette.

‘Trophies’ help lead to arrest

Some of the evidence used in the trial were items taken from Gilbreath’s house. In addition to Nikia’s car, a quilted bedspread, a drawer full of the woman’s underwear, and one part of a bathing suit that Tucker bought for her daughter were missing.

Tucker explained these are what authorities call “trophies” taken by Ward. She made sure the detectives had photos of these items.

Months later, those photos paid off. A detective recognized the quilted bedspread at Ward’s house. He was there on another case out of Rome. The bedspread had been used to smother a brush fire and had been stuffed into Ward’s truck, where investigators found it.

The detectives also collected a pile of clothing from Ward’s house that Tucker was asked to look through to identify anything that might belong to Nikia. She found part of the bathing suit, which she had bought at Hilton Head.

Tucker visited a woman in Rome and learned that Ward had kidnapped her and forced her to wear some of the trophies from previous victims. The woman’s small daughter had also been left at home alone.

In the Rome case, the woman did what she was forced to do and was returned home. Nikia, Tucker said, fought back.

Nikia’s death was caused by asphyxiation when Ward held her down with something blocking her airway, according to court testimony.

Ward met Nikia when he was helping well workers on the Gilbreath’s 40 acres of farmland. Tucker said her daughter even told her family about Ward coming by one day to check on the job, making sure the well was in working order.

Little clues were noticed

Tucker said so many aspects about the case were miraculous — the blanket not burning up, Ward taking half of a bathing suit, and the detective recognizing the bedspread.

Tucker herself also found Nikia’s car on a dirt road on the way from her home to her daughter’s the morning after she was abducted.

“We never dreamed anything like this would happen to us,” said Tucker.

Amber, who is now 22 years old, was married on Christmas Eve last year.