Inmate executed for 1988 burglary-slaying
01/31/2003
HUNTSVILLE, Texas - Delivering his final statement in French and English, a burglar who authorities said began his career while in elementary school was executed Thursday for fatally bludgeoning an Amarillo man with a tire iron during a home burglary.
"I love all of you," Granville Riddle said, speaking first in French and then in English. "I have no grudges against anyone and I would like to say to the world I have always been a nice person.
"I've never been mean-hearted or cruel. I wish everybody well."
With his Swiss prison bride sobbing and murmuring in French as she watched through a window nearby, Riddle said, "Je t'aime." He then gasped and let out a long breath as the drugs began to take effect.
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Riddle, 32, didn't deny his involvement in the Oct. 9, 1988, beating death of Ronnie Bennett, 39, but contended he hit Bennett more than a dozen times in self-defense.
Riddle was the sixth person to be executed in Texas this year and the third this week. Two more are scheduled for next week.
"I'm just a normal small town boy," Riddle, who declined to speak with reporters in the week's preceding his execution, said on an Internet Web site devoted to prisoners seeking pen pals. "I am caring and I am considerate."
His record disputed that.
"He's been a problem for law enforcement since he got old enough to even think about being a problem for law enforcement," said Randall Sims, an assistant district attorney in Potter County who indicated Riddle's first burglary was at age 8. "That's not good old country boys. That's prison material."
Besides numerous burglaries, including a church, school and a restaurant where his mother worked, he had arrests for drug possession and auto theft. In April 1988, he was sent to prison after getting a seven-year term for burglary but was paroled after just 21/2 months during a time when Texas was experiencing a prison bed shortage.
In November 1988, the then 19-year-old was indicted for capital murder for killing Bennett.
"It was one of the bloodiest crime scenes I've ever seen in 20 years," said Sims, who prosecuted the case. "The (victim's) skull looked like a volleyball that was a sponge, just holes everywhere."
Before arriving at death row, Riddle, from Stinnett, tried escaping from the county jail numerous times - succeeding once for three days. He also attempted to electrify his cell door with wires from his radio and television and was involved in several fights with other inmates.
Evidence at his trial showed Riddle and a friend drove to Bennett's home. He gave conflicting statements, saying he broke in by prying open a screen with the tire iron and later saying he found a door unlocked and went in that way. Evidence showed a kitchen window had been pried open.
Riddle testified Bennett, who he knew and who he described as drunk, made a sexual advance that angered him, so he responded by hitting the man some 15 times with the tire iron. But evidence showed Bennett at the time of the attack had a blood-alcohol level of 0.29, enough to render him unconscious.
The friend, Brad Bybee, who was waiting outside, testified Riddle called him in, pointed out some items he could steal, then swung the lug wrench - blunt end first - at Bennett's head, leaving it buried in the dead man's skull.
Bybee reacted in horror and fled. Riddle panicked, grabbed the victim's wallet and drove off in the victim's truck, which was found burned the next day in a ravine near Borger, about 40 miles to the northeast. Bybee was picked up by police and fingered Riddle, who was arrested five days later.
Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dallas/tsw/stories/0131dntexexecution.be68b.html