Web Posted : 04/18/2002 6:39 PM
A quiet Gerald Casey was executed Thursday evening for killing a 22-year-old
woman in a scheme to steal a gun collection from a home northeast of Houston
nearly 13 years ago.
The twice-convicted burglar, asked if he had a final statement, said, "No, I don't."
He took one breath, appeared to gulp, then slipped into unconsciousness as four members of his victim's family watched through a window.
As the lethal drugs began taking effect, he turned from fair-skinned to a vivid shade of purple. He was pronounced dead at 6:18 p.m., 8 minutes after the drugs were administered.
Casey, 47, had hoped to sell the weapons to raise money so he and his girlfriend could go to Florida, testimony at his capital murder trial showed.
Casey instead got a trip to death row and the girlfriend, Carla Smith, received a 10-year prison sentence for her part in the plot that left Sonya Howell dead in a mobile home in New Caney in Montgomery County.
Howell, who was a friend of Smith, was shot nine times with a .22-caliber pistol in the July 10, 1989 attack.
Casey was the ninth convicted killer to be put to death in Texas this year and third this month. Another execution is set for April 30. At least seven are scheduled for May.
When arrested for murder, Casey already had been to prison twice for burglary, getting six years for a 1976 Montgomery County conviction, then 10 years for a 1980 conviction from San Jacinto County while on parole.
The U.S. Supreme Court earlier this week refused to review Casey's murder conviction. Lawyers tried a last-ditch appeal focusing on what they said was poor and ineffective legal help during his earlier appeals.
Jurors at Casey's 1991 trial in Conroe had two versions of Howell's shooting to consider.
Smith, who testified against Casey in exchange for the 10-year sentence, said she called Howell to make sure the woman was home alone, drove and left Casey there, then went to a convenience store to await a phone call to return to pick him up. The plan was to knock Howell unconscious and take the guns, which belonged to Howell's boyfriend, Daryl Pennington, she said. Pennington found Howell's body later in the day.
Casey testified Smith, who was on probation for a robbery conviction in Georgia, got into an argument with Howell. He said he tried to break it up, but the dispute ended with Smith beating the other woman with a telephone and then shooting her.
Jurors believed Smith, returning a guilty verdict after 4 hours of deliberations.
Prosecutors showed clumps of hair on the victim matched Casey's hair. Her blood was found on his shirt.
"It was coldly premeditated," Patricia Burroughs, one of the prosecutors in the case, recalled this week. "He needed money and his plan was to steal the guns and the victim got in the way. And so he killed her."
They also produced witnesses who purchased guns from Casey. The weapons were among nearly a dozen assault rifles, deer rifles, shotguns and pistols taken from the doublewide trailer. All belonged to Pennington, authorities said.
Smith led police to some of the weapons dumped in a wooded area. Detectives also found in a motel room shared by Casey and Smith money and jewelry _ including two fake Rolex watches _ that were taken from the trailer.
Smith was paroled after eight years. Pennington died last year.
Next on the execution schedule is Rodolfo Hernandez, spared last month by Gov. Rick Perry so San Antonio police could investigate his claims of participating in several other killings there. Hernandez was condemned for killing and robbing an undocumented Mexican immigrant in Comal County. Perry's reprieve, only moments before Hernandez could have been put to death, by law may not be
04/18/2002