[7] While she was passing through Jefferson County, Alabama, Deblieux encountered a group of four youths, who were all drinking alcohol and using drugs when they first met her.
However, while they were driving in the van, the group deviated from the route and instead took Deblieux to a wooded area, on the pretense of picking up another vehicle.
The youths managed to restrain her and tackled her to the ground and they started to assault Deblieux by kicking her repeatedly all over her body.
The body was left behind while the youths drove the truck to Pell City to clean the vehicle and remove the bloodstains.
An autopsy revealed that the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head and asphyxiation was a possible contributing factor.
Investigators revealed that the four teenagers were identified as suspects after one of them displayed a severed finger to a friend and bragged about the murder.
[18] Loggins, who pleaded innocent by insanity, was subsequently convicted in December of that same year, and among the 12-member jury, ten jurors recommended the death penalty.
[20][21] During his trial, a forensic psychologist testified that Grayson has bipolar disorder, and he was experiencing a "manic state" during the murder.
However, the psychologist also emphasized that Grayson was still able to distinguish between right and wrong at the time, and his actions could not be excused solely due to his mental health condition.
[33] In 2001, the Alabama Supreme Court once again upheld and therefore finalized the death sentences of the condemned trio (Grayson, Duncan, and Loggins) after dismissing their appeals.
[34] In 2005, after the U.S. Supreme Court heard the Roper v. Simmons case, a majority ruling of 5 to 4 formally decreed that it was unconstitutional to execute offenders who were below 18 at the time of their crimes.
On January 28, 2006, an Alabama state court allowed the re-sentencing plea of Loggins and commuted his death sentence to life without parole.
[47] In 2015, Grayson was one of five death row prisoners who filed a lawsuit opposing the state authorities' bid to administer large doses of midazolam in lethal injection executions.
Grayson had reportedly elected to be executed by nitrogen gas inhalation in 2018, based on court documents presented in the hearing.
[52][53] Five days after the Supreme Court approved Grayson's death warrant, his death sentence was scheduled to be carried out via nitrogen hypoxia on November 21, 2024, making him the third person in Alabama to face a nitrogen gas execution after Kenneth Eugene Smith on January 25 and Alan Eugene Miller on September 26.
[56] Days after the death warrant was issued, Grayson's lawyers filed a legal motion and sought to stave off the impending execution, citing that Grayson should not be put to death by nitrogen gas due to potential problems with the new execution method, noting that there were witness statements that Kenneth Eugene Smith, the first convicted killer executed with this method in Alabama, had allegedly experienced seizure-like spasms, and this could amount to cruel and unusual punishment since it did not guarantee a painless death for Grayson.
[57][58] On October 9, 2024, it was reported that Grayson's lawyers proposed amendments to the nitrogen gas execution protocols to ensure that his death sentence would be carried out smoothly.
[68] Haley noted that Grayson had been abused in his youth and said that "society failed this man as a child, and my family suffered because of it."
[68][75] According to witnesses and official sources, the nitrogen began to flow at 6:12 p.m., and Grayson moved his head, shook, and tugged at the restraints on the gurney.
His legs, covered in a sheet, lifted off the gurney at 6:14 p.m. For several minutes, he gasped for air in a series of more than a dozen breaths.