Man executed for murdering wife, teenage clerk
08:25 PM CDT on Wednesday, September 10, 2003
HUNTSVILLE, Texas – A repentant condemned killer, Larry Allen Hayes, was executed Wednesday evening, a punishment he'd been requesting.
"I'm genuinely sorry for what I did," he said as the parents and other relatives of one of his two victims watched through a nearby window. "I ask you to reach down in your heart and forgive me. There's no excuse for what I did."
Mr. Hayes said there was "no good answer" for the 1999 shooting spree in which his wife and a convenience store employee were killed.
"I love you all. Thanks for sticking with me," he told several friends, who witnessed the execution.
Mr. Hayes ended his comments by thanking the officer who arrested him and gave him CPR after he had been shot. "He kept me alive and gave me a chance to get my life right," Mr. Hayes said, his voice shaky.
He was pronounced dead at 6:29 p.m., nine minutes after the lethal dose began.
Mr. Hayes, 54, was the 21st inmate executed this year in Texas, which leads the nation in carrying out capital punishment.
He was executed for fatally shooting his wife, Mary, 46, at their Montgomery County home on the night of July 15, 1999, then a few minutes later gunning down an 18-year-old convenience store clerk, Rosalyn Robinson, and driving off in her car.
He was captured within a few hours after being shot by Polk County deputies investigating a report of a man with a gun wandering through a truck stop.
While condemned Texas inmates average nearly 10 years in prison before their sentences are carried out, Mr. Hayes' punishment came just over four years since his crime.
"I've made my peace with God," he said last week from a tiny cell in the death row visiting area. "I know where I'm going. ... I'm truly, honest-to-God sorry for what I did."
Mr. Hayes' guilt never was in doubt. Ms. Robinson's slaying was caught on the store's videotape, which was played for jurors at his trial.
"Both murders were pretty horrible," said Jim Prewitt, a Montgomery County assistant district attorney who was lead prosecutor in the case. "The one on tape was just awful."
Mr. Hayes grew up in West Plains, Mo., and attended Southwest Missouri State University for 1 ½ years.
He had spent time in a Missouri prison for a 1970s drug conviction that eventually was reversed and had a Galveston County conviction for driving while under the influence of drugs.
He said the shootings followed several days of arguments and fighting with his wife of 14 years, who told him she'd been having an affair.
Evidence showed that Ms. Hayes was shot seven times with a .44-caliber pistol, including three shots to the head. Mr. Hayes' mother was in the house at the time of the shooting, and his 10-year-old daughter fled in panic to a neighbor's home.
Mr. Hayes, who drove off in his wife's truck, said he needed a different car and stopped at the convenience store in Grangerland, not far from his home in Woodloch in south Montgomery County.
The store video shows Mr. Hayes holding a gun to Ms. Robinson's head as he orders her out of the store and into her car. Another customer drove up, distracting Mr. Hayes, and Ms. Robinson was shot trying to escape, then was shot again point-blank in the head by Mr. Hayes while cowering in fear.
"I know it was selfish," Mr. Hayes said from prison. "I couldn't leave her there with a telephone. My only concern was getting away."
The customer called police as Mr. Hayes drove off in Ms. Robinson's car. Mr. Hayes dumped it in Cleveland, in Liberty County, where he stole a truck. He then was spotted at a truck stop in Goodrich, about 35 miles northeast of the store shooting.
Confronted by officers, he refused to surrender and was shot in the back and chest.
"I was pretty much in a daze," he said of the shooting spree. "I didn't know what I was doing."
Name |
TDCJ Number |
Date of Birth |
| Larry Allen Hayes | 999358 | 11/23/1948 |
Date Received |
Age (when Received) |
Education Level (Highest Grade Completed) |
| 5/26/2000 | 51 | 12 |
Date of Offense |
Age (at the time of Offense) |
County |
| 7/15/1999 | 50 | Montgomery |
Race |
Gender |
Hair Color |
| white | male | grey |
Height |
Weight |
Eye Color |
| 5 ft 9 in | 198 | blue |
Native County |
Native State |
Prior Occupation |
| Howell | Missouri | laborer |
Prior Prison Record |
||
| Missouri State Prison on a 7 year sentence for Possession of Barbiturates, confined 9 months and Paroled in 1976, sentence was overturned in 1978. | ||
Summary of incident |
||
| On 7/15/1999 in Conroe, Hayes fatally shot a 46 year old white female (his wife). Hayes used a 44 caliber pistol to shoot her eight times in the head. He left the scene of the incident and went to a convenience store. There he shot an 18 year old black female two times in the head and took her car. | ||
Co-defendants |
||
| None | ||
Race and Gender of Victim |
||
| white female | ||
Photograph of Offender |
||
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Last updated: 06/11/2001