Son of Carey Dean Moore victim speaks ahead of scheduled execution

Steve Helgeland was 13 years-old when he was pulled out of his junior high classroom and told his father had been murdered. 

His father, Maynard Helgeland, was one of the two taxi cab drivers murdered by Carey Dean Moore in August of 1979. 

Steve Helgeland remembers arriving in Omaha and learning the news. 

"One thing I recall vividly is the gurney with my dad’s body on the news as they wheeled it away," Helgeland said. 

Helgeland says his father, an Air Force veteran, struggled for years with alcoholism and depression. 

At one point, he lost  both his feet to frostbite after drunkenly passing out in his cab. 

But Helgeland says his father was starting to turn his life around when he was shot several times by Moore who allegedly was looking for drug money. 

"It was just a straight up act of evil," Helgeland said. 

Nearly four decades have passed since, along with seven scheduled executions for Moore which have failed to materialize. 

Those years have been frustrating for Helgeland and his family. 

He says it’s "ridiculous" that the state hasn’t taken action in the case. 

Moore faces execution once again on Tuesday, but Helgeland thinks the result will be the same as it’s always been. 

"I just don’t have any faith in the state of Nebraska for making it happen," he said. "They haven’t been able to do it in 38 years." 

Helgeland says time hasn’t healed the pain of his father’s murder. 

He says he’s angry and that he just wants that horrific chapter of his life to finally be over, whether that be by Moore’s execution or a decision to keep him imprisoned for life. 

Helgeland will be in Lincoln the day of Moore’s execution, but says he doesn’t want to watch it. 

"I don’t have any interest in watching another human being die," he said. "It won’t provide me with any… closure as people like to say."