Buckland gets 30 years in ex-wife’s slaying

BY SETH GREEN • Daily Tribune Staff

AUSTIN - Gary Jackson Buckland was sentenced to 30 years in state prison Friday in the brutal slaying of his ex-wife Robin Buckland, a former Burnet resident and employee of the Picayune.

Buckland, 48, waived his right this week to a jury trial in the Nov. 9, 2003, slaying of 47-year-old Robin Buckland, who had worked at the Marble Falls Wal-Mart and as a carrier for The Picayune, the sister publication to The Daily Tribune. She was killed at her ex-husband’s Spicewood-area home after being hit in the head with a hammer.

State District Judge Mike Lynch found Buckland guilty of murder Tuesday, after a day-and-a-half of testimony.

Before pronouncing the 30-year sentence, Lynch explained his train of thought.

“In our system of jurisprudence, we’ve tried to tie punishment to culpability,” Lynch said during Buckland’s sentencing hearing Friday. “Is he culpable in the sense we think of people being culpable? (Defense attorney Jon Evans) made a strong case that he wasn’t.”

Lynch referred to arguments in which Buckland blamed his acts largely on mental problems and a lack of the proper medication.

“My medication was making me sick,” Buckland said during the sentencing phase of his trial Tuesday. “I was throwing it up every time I took it.”

Also, the judge said, Buckland had virtually no criminal history before or since the death of his ex-wife.

“I did look at his record, and you can see he only committed one terrible act,” Lynch said. “The other side of the equation is that he did a brutal and intentional act, and he was very matter-of-fact about it.”

Lynch handed down the sentence after two days spent sifting through thousands of pages of medical records Evans submitted as evidence during the punishment phase.

The hearing took a while to get under way Friday. Jailers apparently forgot to put Buckland on the bus to the Travis County Courthouse Friday morning, and the jail went into a state of lockdown shortly thereafter, Evans told family members Friday.

Buckland appeared in court after 10 a.m., though court officials earlier this week had said they expected to begin the day with Buckland’s sentencing.

Buckland said Tuesday he had experienced hallucinations, but that updated prescriptions made him “feel fine.”

During the punishment phase of his trial, Buckland said he told his mother what he had done and hid in nearby bushes. After his arrest, Buckland was held in the Travis County Jail on a $100,000 bond.

According to the Nov. 14, 2003, issue of the River Cities Tribune (the precursor to The Daily Tribune), Travis County sheriff’s Deputy Roger Wade said the original call to authorities only asked for emergency medical assistance in the Spicewood area the night of the slaying.

“The call we got was just EMS needed at Whitney Drive,” Wade said.

EMS personnel found Robin Buckland dead outside the residence.

According to the story, she worked at Pace Bend Park in Travis County, and she would often stay at her former husband’s residence so she wouldn’t have to commute all the way to and from Burnet.

According to testimony at the trial earlier this week, Gary Buckland scratched on his mother’s bedroom window, told her he had killed his ex-wife and asked her to call the police. Before they arrived, Buckland dragged his ex-wife’s body outside his home, washed the hammer he used to kill her and hid in the bushes.

Robin Buckland was active in the Burnet High School Band Boosters, said Kathy Kasparek, the former publisher of the Picayune. Gary Buckland was a Vietnam War veteran, Kasparek added.

The couple has two daughters.

Funeral services for Robin Buckland were held Nov. 12, 2003, in Burnet.

seth@thepicayune.com

Back to main page

Buckland gets 30 years in ex-wife’s slaying