Posted on 04/26/2007 6:09:40 PM PDT by 2dogjoe
HUNTSVILLE — A street gang member convicted of fatally shooting an Amarillo couple during a botched beer theft at their grocery store more than a dozen years ago was executed this evening.
Ryan Dickson, 30, spoke rapidly when asked if he had anything to say, expressing love to his family and apologizing to the relatives of his victims. No witnesses from his family or the victims' family attended the execution.
"I am sorry for what I did, and I take responsibility for what I did," said Dickson, the 13th prisoner to be executed this year in the nation's busiest capital punishment state.
Dickson was pronounced dead at 6:17 p.m., eight minutes after the lethal drugs began running through his veins.
Dickson had frequent run-ins with the law as a juvenile, including burglary and assault arrests, was on probation at age 9 for stealing bikes and served time with the Texas Youth Commission.
He was just two weeks past his 18th birthday when he was arrested in the double homicide — hours after the bodies of Carmelo Surace, 61, and his wife, Marie, 60, were found by a customer at their store.
Police found a witness who recognized four young people running from the store Nov. 27, 1994, as being from the neighborhood. Dickson, his 14-year-old brother, Dane, and two friends soon were taken into custody.
Prosecutors said Dickson told authorities he hoped the killing would earn him a teardrop tattoo to impress his colleagues in a gang known as the Varrio 16 Locos, or "VSL," as Dickson called it.
"I do apologize to the Surace family," Dickson said in the seconds before he died. "I am responsible for them losing their mother, their father, their grandfather and their grandmother. I never meant for them to be taken."
Before the attempted robbery, Dickson shared some marijuana with his friends at home, then decided he wanted some beer but didn't want to pay for it.
Armed with a .22-caliber sawed-off rifle, he went inside the Suraces' store. His brother stood guard at the door. Two other friends waited outside.
He blamed Carmelo Surace for confronting him.
"I didn't go in there and pull a gun and start shooting people," Dickson said in a recent interview from death row in Livingston.
He contended the store owner must have spotted the weapon hidden in his jacket, tried to wrest it away from him and was shot in the tussle.
"Nobody would have gotten shot," he said. "I would have grabbed some beer and ran out. They would have been out about $20, and we'd be at home getting drunk. That's what would have happened."
He also insisted Marie Surace was shot by accident as she reached under a counter for a gun.
Dickson, who fled the store empty-handed, received death sentences for each slaying. Today's punishment was for Carmelo Surace's murder. His brother testified against him and is serving a 15-year prison term.
Former Potter County District Attorney Rebecca King, who prosecuted the two capital murder cases against Dickson, disputed his story of the shootings, especially Marie Surace's death. The woman was trying to make a phone call, she said.
"He came up after he shot the man," King said. "She had a phone in her hand.
"She was on her knees. He shot her. Totally cold."
At least nine other Texas inmates have execution dates in the coming months. Scheduled next is Jose Moreno, 40, set to die May 10 for the abduction and fatal shooting of a San Antonio man 21 years ago.
On the Web
Texas Department of Criminal Justice execution schedule: http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/scheduledexecutions.htm
Should have had a Texas barbeque with this killer instead of a painless death.
At least Texas knows how to handle their killers. Maryland gives them the right to vote.
“...and was shot in the tussle.”
And if you’ve ever been shot in the tussle, you know how painful it is.
The world is a little cleaner this evening.
I always find this to be such a nice touch.
In California, that'd be "fast tracking" - bigtime.
Fortunately, here in Texas, we don’t have the eight million automatic appeals.
Also, after the Texas Seven escape incident and the subsequent killing of Irving PD Officer Aubrey Hawkins by the escapees, it became abundantly clear to all here that warehousing Death Row inmates was a bad idea, and that it was a much better idea to speed up the disposal process.
Told to me by an armed robber....
“When you plan an armed robbery, you have to make up your mind before you go in that you will kill anyone who resists. If not, then they can kill you. Your victim, in your mind, essentially commits suicide.”
That’s why armed robbery is such a heavy duty felony. Murder is a part of the scenario.
oh, of course the couple ‘made’ him kill them.
Two problems with this execution.
One: it took too long for this waste of skin to be taken out.
Two: It was painless.
A point lost on those opposing the death penalty.
better late than never. bravo Texas.
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