Serial Murderer? Florida Police Track Convicted Killer In Oregon

When he was just a boy, Adolph James Rode began showing signs of the kind of man he would become.

He stole toys from nursery school. He was expelled from kindergarten. During his youth in Fort Lauderdale, he constantly fought with other children, threatened them with knives and poked cigarettes at their eyes.

As a teen he broke into homes, abused drugs, attacked elderly women, went to prison. Police said he tried to strangle his stepmother.

In prison, he talked with serial killer Ted Bundy. Rode proudly told other inmates about their association.

Rode (pronounced Roh-dee) eventually moved to the West Coast, changed his name to Cesar Francesco Barone and began a new life. He worked as a cabinetmaker, joined the elite Army Rangers and later became a nursing assistant.

Police say that during those years, Barone also had a secret life - as a serial killer.

Authorities say Barone murdered his first victim in Fort Lauderdale at age 19, then continued killing in the Pacific Northwest until he got caught last year.

Cesar Barone, now 34, was convicted of murder and sentenced to death on Jan. 30 for the murder of Martha B. Bryant, a nurse-midwife. Barone killed Bryant in October 1992, and dumped her body on a rural Oregon road.

Barone still faces trial on charges he killed three other women in Washington County, Ore., and another in Fort Lauderdale. In addition, he was convicted in Oregon last year on several burglary and sexual-assault charges involving older women.

"He has never indicated any remorse whatsoever," said Mike O'Connell, a homicide detective with the Washington County (Ore.) Sheriff's Department and member of a task force that investigated the Oregon killings. "He has never admitted any responsibility."

Broward County, Fla., prosecutors plan to bring Barone back to Fort Lauderdale to face charges in the killing of Alice Stock, 73, in 1979. Stock was a retired schoolteacher who lived across the street from Barone in the city's southwest section.

If Barone is convicted and sentenced to death in Florida for Stock's murder, it appears more likely he could be executed here. No one has been put to death in Oregon since 1962. The death penalty in Oregon was revoked in 1964 and reinstated in 1984. Including Barone, there are now 18 people on death row there.

By contrast, Florida reinstated the death penalty in 1976 and has executed 33 inmates since then. Currently there are 356 inmates on death row.

The early years

During his childhood in Fort Lauderdale, friends and family called Barone Jimmy.

Jimmy was raised by his father, Adolph, and stepmother, Stella Hall, in a modest home in southwest Fort Lauderdale. Hall married Adolph Rode when Jimmy was 6 or 7, after Rode's wife left him for another man.

O'Connell said there is no evidence Jimmy was ever physically or emotionally abused by his parents.

"I guess some people would just call him a bad seed," O'Connell said.

A friend who lived down the street said Barone frequently skipped school, took drugs, terrorized other kids and burglarized homes to steal beer, cigarettes and money for drugs.

When he was 15, Barone broke into a neighbor's home and tried to rape her at knifepoint, police said. That neighbor, Alice Stock, would later become what police called his first murder victim. Barone spent two months in a juvenile facility for the attack on Stock.

When he was 17, Barone was convicted of burglary and spent about two years in prison. On Nov. 29, 1979, 15 days after his release, police say, he raped, then strangled Stock.

Barone was a suspect in Stock's slaying, but there was not enough evidence to charge him then, said Fort Lauderdale Homicide Detective Mike Walley, who reopened the case after Barone's arrest in Oregon.

About six months after Stock was killed, police arrested Barone in an alleged attempt to kill his grandmother, Mattie Marino, 70.

She was choked, beaten with a rolling pin and robbed of $10. Marino identified Barone as her attacker, but had trouble with her testimony. A jury acquitted Barone.

Broward Sheriff's Office Lt. Tony Fantigrassi, who arrested Barone in connection with the attack, remembers the case well.

"I'll never forget that crime scene," Fantigrassi said. "I remember the rolling pin, the blood. I think he left her for dead."

Despite being acquitted in the attack, Barone was convicted in an unrelated burglary case and went to prison in 1981.

In 1986, Barone was transferred to a state prison in Starke after a brief escape and assault on a guard. There he met Ted Bundy.

Bundy, a law-school dropout in Washington state, later confessed to the killings of 23 women in four states. He was executed in Florida's electric chair six years ago for killing Kimberly Leach, 12, of Lake City, Fla., his youngest and last victim. He had also been sentenced to death for killing two Florida State University coeds.

Barone was housed next to Bundy on two occasions, once for about two months and again for 12 days.

"He thought it was really neat and bragged to other inmates about his associations with Bundy," O'Connell said.

Walley believes Barone asked Bundy how he got caught and may have learned ways to avoid detection. Walley also said Bundy gave Barone a singles newspaper from Washington. Barone answered an ad from a woman he eventually married.

After his release, Barone moved to the Northwest, where he legally changed his name and joined the Army.

He served with a Rangers unit in Panama during the 1989 invasion to overthrow dictator Manuel Noriega. Barone was accused of exposing himself to a female officer. Army officials checked his background, learned his real name and criminal past, and he was discharged in 1990.

Building a case

Barone moved to Oregon, where he was convicted last year on burglary and sexual-assault charges involving older women. He bragged to inmates about murdering women; jailhouse informants told police, who began putting the cases together.

After Barone was arrested in the Oregon slayings, Walley read about it in a newpaper. Walley had been the first officer to arrive at the scene of Stock's slaying; he immediately remembered Barone.

Walley and police Detective Bob Williams reopened the case and were able to get an indictment against Barone in January 1994. Chuck Morton, head of the Broward (Fla.) State Attorney's Homicide Unit, said he plans to bring Barone to trial as soon as the Oregon cases are cleared.

Now that Barone has been convicted of murder, Fantigrassi said he hopes Barone will talk freely.

So far, Barone isn't talking.

(Reporter Holly Danks of The Oregonian newspaper contributed to this report.)