Cesar Barone

Cesar Francesco Barone (born Adolph James Rode Jr.; December 4, 1960 – December 24, 2009) was an American serial killer and rapist who was sentenced to death in 1995 for assaulting and killing four women in the Portland metropolitan area area between 1991 and 1993. He was posthumously linked to one further murder and is a suspect in two others dating back to 1979, including at least one in Florida.

Barone remained on death row until his natural death in 2009, steadfastly refusing to admit guilt in any other potential crimes.

Early life and criminal activity Adolph James "Jimmy" Rode Jr. was born in Lauderdale Lakes, Florida, on December 4, 1960, but was raised in Fort Lauderdale. He had an older brother and a sister. When he was four, his mother left the household to live with another man; his parents divorced the following year, and Rode was raised by his father, Adolph Sr., and his new wife, Stella Hall. While growing up, Rode often skipped school to smoke marijuana, steal coins from neighboring homes, and he spent most of his time tending to animals such as snakes and alligators. He would later claim that once he nursed a monkey back to health, he locked it in a closet with some stray cats just so the monkey could tear the cats apart for his amusement.

Beginning in his teenage years, Rode developed a drinking problem and was often seen carrying cans of beer around with him. At the age of fifteen, he entered the home of Alice Stock, a neighbor in her seventies, threatening her with a knife and ordering her to undress: she refused, and Rode left the scene. Despite this, his first arrest came two years later on December 15, 1977, when he was caught for several burglaries. While he was initially supposed to serve three years in prison, Rode was released early in December 1979—at around this time, his older brother died in a car accident.

Three months later, Rode was arrested yet again for several burglaries and for possessing burglary tools, but was bailed out by his mother for $200. In early 1980, Rode broke into the home of his stepmother and attempted to rape and strangle her to death, but stopped once she started crying out.

While awaiting trial for the burglary charges, Rode was accused of severely beating up his 70-year-old grandmother, Mattie Marino. Decades later, an investigator who would help investigate Rode's later crimes suspected that the young criminal might have asked Bundy for advice on how to avoid getting caught, and even suggested that Bundy provided Rode with a singles newspaper so he could date women, through which he later met and married his wife, Kathi Scarbrough.

Later criminal activity Army service After his release in 1987, Rode started going by the name "Cesar Francesco Barone" – it is unclear if he legally changed his name or this was just an alias. Barone decided on this name because he was enamored with Italian gangsters. He then moved to the Northwestern United States, where, in late 1988, he enlisted in the United States Army and was transferred for basic training in Fort Benning, Georgia. In an attempt to gather tips about the case, the Hillsboro CrimeStoppers branch offered a reward of $1,000 for any information that could lead to the arrest of her killer.

On October 9, 1992, Barone, possibly with an accomplice, was driving on Cornell Road in Hillsboro when he spotted a green Volkswagen Beetle driven by 41-year-old Martha Browning Bryant, a midwife who was returning home from work. He pulled up behind her car and opened fire, striking her in the left shoulder and forcing Bryant onto the sidewalk. Barone then got out of his car, forcibly dragged her into his and then drove for approximately a third of a mile before he shot her in the head. Barone then left her body in the middle of the road on Northeast 231st Avenue, where she was discovered by a passing motorist. An ambulance was called in and Bryant was rushed via a Life Flight helicopter to a hospital in Portland, where she was pronounced dead at 6:50 AM. Similarly to Schmidt before her, the local CrimeStoppers branch raised $1,015 as a reward for any information leading to an arrest, while a fund was also started in Bryant's name to provide scholarships for midwifery students.

On December 30, 1992, Barone and 24-year-old Leonard Benjamin Darcell II, an acquaintance from his days at the Forest Grove nursing home, picked up 23-year-old Chantee Elise Woodman from the Satyricon, a nightclub in downtown Portland. The two men then held her hostage while Barone raped her. However, as she resisted fiercely, he instead shot her in the head, after which he and Darcell abandoned the body along the Sunset Highway. Darcell fled to Seattle, Washington after this murder, where he soon surrendered for an unrelated parole violation and was incarcerated.

Arrest and possible additional victims Barone was arrested on February 27, 1993, for the murder of Martha Bryant. In February 2026, law enforcement connected him to the Wasson killing via DNA evidence. He was additionally investigated for other crimes in Washington and his native state of Florida. Darcell was charged alongside him as an accomplice in the Woodman murder, and was held without bail.

In December 1993, Barone's trial was delayed so prosecutors could gather additional evidence against him. He was then brought in to testify at Leonard Darcell's trial, but refused to take the stand when asked. In the end, Darcell was convicted of felony kidnapping and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment.

That following month, Florida authorities decided to charge him with Stock's murder based on the striking similarities between that case and his later crimes, in addition to claims that he had boasted about the murder to his cellmates.

It was eventually ruled that Barone would be have multiple trials, with the first being in the Bryant case. For his role, Barone's attorney attempted to cast doubt on the testimony from Barone's cellmates, pointing out several errors they had made that did not line up with the police reports.

In January 1995, a jury of seven women and five men took only 90 minutes to convict Barone on four counts of aggravated murder in the Bryant case. Following this, prosecutors announced that they would introduce his previous criminal history as evidence why he should be sentenced to death, while Barone's lawyers gathered sympathetic witnesses and mental health experts to testify about his harsh life.

Joint murder trial Following the conclusion of the Bryant trial, Barone was scheduled to be tried for the remaining three homicides – the first convict to do so since the Legislature passed a law allowing for the consolidation of murder cases back in 1991. In November 1995, he was convicted on all counts, and on December 6, he was given two additional death sentences.

Barone was noted for his rude and at times bizarre behavior during the trial – one newspaper, The Oregonian, noted that he made outlandish claims such as being a descendant of Italian nobility and that the all-white jury was racially prejudiced against him because he supposedly had black ancestors. He also attempted to ask for help in convincing one of the women he sexually abused not to testify because she "doesn't know how to stop talking", and put a small sign on the defense table reading "Kangaroo Court".

Imprisonment and death In January 1996, Barone was indicted for the murder of Alice Stock in Florida. While he claimed that he had nothing to do with it and was looking forward to an acquittal, most people, including his relatives, stated in interviews to the media that they believed he was guilty. Initially, he opted to act as his own attorney, but later changed his mind and sought legal counsel. However, in 2000, the charges in this case were dropped due to the lack of robust evidence and Barone's existing death sentences in Oregon.

In December 1998, in the midst of a protest by anti-death penalty activists, the Oregon Supreme Court denied an appeal by Barone concerning the Bryant murder. In July 1999, the Oregon Supreme Court also upheld his other two death sentences.

In January 2000, Barone and three other death row inmates were featured in a controversial anti-death penalty ad by Italian fashion brand Benetton Group. The ad was heavily criticized by prosecutors and the family members of the inmates' victims, who claimed that it glorified their loved ones' murderers.

Suspected victims Date Name Age Place December 1979 Alice Stock 73 Fort Lauderdale, Florida February 4, 1993 Joyce Marie Scarbrough 61 Hillsboro, Oregon