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| Killer Mourns Victims' Lost Lives 30 Years On |
| By Tampa Bay Tribune |
| Published: 08/06/2003 |
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He freely admits he looks at the faces of the Sulphur Springs children, forever frozen in time at ages 13 and 5, and wonders what course their lives would have taken. But McMahon is not a relative grieving for the girls, who died in July 1973. He's their killer. 'I want to remember their faces and keep their memory alive,'' McMahon wrote in a letter to The Tampa Tribune last month from his cell at the Hamilton Correctional Institution in Jasper. Life ended for Roxanne and Rabyne Caton 30 years ago Monday, when McMahon plowed them down in a Camaro while they walked along Clinton Street. The children, who were walking single file with their brother, Curtis, 12, bringing up the rear, were on their way to 7-Eleven a block away on Florida Avenue to get ice cream after dinner, about 9 p.m. It was a daily ritual for the Catons, who recently had moved to Highland Avenue in north Tampa from Maryland. It was a hot summer night when McMahon approached them in his blue-and-white Camaro, headlights off. According to court testimony and officials involved in the investigation, McMahon, then 31, drove up behind the children, flipped on his lights and slammed into all three at about 35 mph. Curtis was not seriously hurt. But Rabyne was critically injured, and Roxanne was thrown into the street. McMahon got out of the car, picked up Roxanne, flung her into the passenger seat and sped away. Rabyne died two days later, about the time Roxanne's body was discovered in a field near Regnas and 46th streets. McMahon says he took Roxanne to get her to a hospital. He also says he believed his training as an emergency medical technician could help. She never made it there. Instead, McMahon said he got off Interstate 275 before reaching University Community Hospital because of heavy traffic. Then he realized the child was dead, but he sat with her body in his car for more than 10 minutes to 'make sure she wasn't still alive,'' he said in a 1997 interview. Then he decided to dump her body, which authorities found two days later. The 13-year-old was partially clothed. McMahon said the bottom of her two-piece bathing suit slipped off by itself. Both the lead detective on the case at the time, Lee Sims, and former Hillsborough State Attorney E.J. Salcines said they believe McMahon never intended to get Roxanne medical attention. An autopsy found no physical evidence the girl was sexually assaulted, but Salcines and Sims said they believe McMahon molested her. By his own admission, McMahon returned to the scene of the hit-and-run after dumping the girl's body and mingled with onlookers. After a nine-day manhunt, he was arrested at his grandmother's home in Baxley, Ga. He eventually was diagnosed as a mentally disordered sex offender, with a history of exposing himself and a 1959 conviction for kidnapping a child in Georgia. For the deaths of Roxanne and Rabyne Caton, he pleaded guilty to two charges of first-degree murder and was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. Education And Conversion At his sentencing, two court- appointed psychiatrists diagnosed him as a ``sexual psychopath,'' and a judge ordered him sent to Chattahoochee State Hospital for treatment. After a two-day escape from Chattahoochee in 1974, McMahon was transferred to the prison system. In 1991, after being caught with child pornography, McMahon was moved from Union Correctional Institution to Martin Correctional Institution, Department of Corrections spokesman Sterling Ivey said. He was up for parole five years ago, but his release was denied. After the Tribune requested an interview, McMahon, 61, sent a long letter admitting he killed the Caton girls and expressing remorse. 'Not a day passes when I don't think about them and what those children might have made of their lives if it were not for me,'' he wrote. 'I have wished that I could meet the Caton family and tell them that I'm terribly sorry.'' But he denies sexually assaulting Roxanne. Today, McMahon prefers to direct attention away from his crime and instead to his religious conversion and educational accomplishments behind bars. He earned a master's degree in psychology from Goddard University and an unaccredited doctorate from Columbia Pacific University. His dissertation was titled: 'A Psychological Profile of the Aggravated Murderer.'' He converted to Judaism during his incarceration and changed his name to Reuven Maimon. He's assembled a host of supporters in Florida's Jewish community who have argued for his release. A Life In Prison Much has changed for the Caton family during the past 30 years. Roxanne, Rabyne and Curtis' parents, Charles and Jacqueline 'Jay'' Caton, divorced in 1976. Charles Caton died in 1996, and Jay Caton died in 2001. Curtis Caton had troubles with the law, serving time for armed robbery in 1984. He was released and moved to Washington state, where he married and had a daughter. He could not be located for comment. Two other Caton children, Brenda, 48, and Patricia, 46, also could not be found. McMahon seems resigned to spending the rest of his life behind bars. His earliest possible release date is July 23, 2103, but he will face a parole review every five years. He said his own son's death - Stephen was struck and killed by a car in 1975 - gives him insight into the struggle the Caton family endured for so many years. 'Stephen was the same age as Rabyne,'' McMahon said in the letter. 'So I identify in part with the grief of the Caton family. Many, of course, will say that any mention of remorse on my part is not sincere, but since I have no hope to become a free man, I have no reason to mislead society.'' |
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