Posted on 06/11/2003 9:04:45 PM PDT by chance33_98
Johnson Executed For Videotaped Robbery-Slaying
Inmate's Final Words: 'Tell Mama I Love Her' Posted: 6:54 p.m. CDT June 11, 2003 Updated: 7:04 p.m. CDT June 11, 2003
HUNTSVILLE, Texas -- A twice-paroled burglar was executed Wednesday evening for gunning down the night manager of a suburban San Antonio convenience store almost 10 years ago in a $23 robbery.
"Tell Mama I love her," Kia Levoy Johnson, 38, said when asked by a prison warden if he had a final statement. "Tell the kids I love them too. See y'all," he said, directing his comments to his brother, watching through a window a few feet away.
He never looked through an adjacent window where the parents and brother and sister of his victim watched.
Johnson, who has four children, gasped a couple of times as the lethal drugs began to take effect and was pronounced dead at 6:18 p.m., seven minutes after the dose began.
Johnson was condemned for killing William Matthew Rains, who authorities said bled to death after he was shot once in the abdomen with a .32-caliber pistol in the Oct. 29, 1993, fatal attack at the Balcones Heights store.
Johnson was the 16th condemned inmate to receive lethal injection in Texas this year and one of 10 set to die over the next two months.
Johnson's lawyers contended he was mentally retarded and should not be put to death because the U.S. Supreme Court has barred execution of the mentally retarded.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected the appeal last week. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also turned down the appeal late Tuesday and Johnson's lawyer took his argument to the Supreme Court. The high court late Wednesday afternoon refused to halt the punishment.
Appeals that contended Johnson received incompetent legal help at his 1995 Bexar County trial were rejected earlier.
For an agonizing 45 minutes, a surveillance videotape from inside the store shows the victim, Rains, trying to climb out from behind a counter after he had been shot and robbed.
"It's like in the movies where you see the shaking hand come up and the shaking hand go down when somebody is trying to lift themselves up," Bexar County Assistant District Attorney Michael Cohen recalled this week. "You'd see the hand shake, then fall. It was real surreal."
The video that showed Rains' excruciating death also showed the shooting and helped convict Johnson, who insisted he was innocent.
"I told them that they had the wrong person and that I did not kill anybody," Johnson, who refused to speak with reporters from death row, said on a Web site devoted to his case.
"I'm not surprised he's sitting there awaiting his execution saying it wasn't him," said Catherine Babbitt, who also prosecuted the case. "There's no doubt in my mind it was him."
"He walks in, the gun's out and he shoots the guy immediately," Cohen said. "The guy goes down and (Johnson) stands over the counter and is yelling at the guy to get up to open the register."
On the tape, Rains, 32, is shot once and moans in pain. His attacker grabs the register from the counter and flees.
"As he's doing that, he's dragging the cash register tape, the paper that comes out," Cohen recalled. "And when he steps out of the door he steps on the cash register tape and leaves a real good imprint of the sole of the tennis shoes he's wearing."
A customer found Rains' body and called police. When the video of the crime was aired on television in San Antonio, several people called police to tell them the gunman was Johnson.
"When we caught up with him at his residence, we found that same tennis shoe in his closet and it was a perfect match," Cohen said.
Johnson, a high school graduate who worked as a cook, was no stranger to authorities. He had a long juvenile record that included seven arrests. As an adult, records showed he had four more arrests and wound up with a pair of burglary convictions that in March 1990 got him 10 years in prison. Six months later he was paroled, only to be returned to prison in February 1992 as a parole violator.
Nine months later, in November, he was paroled again. The Rains killing occurred the following October.
I was going to check the DMN last night and update my earlier thread, but got sidetracked !
Man executed for killing store manager in 1993San Antonio robbery netted him $23; victim bled to death
06/12/2003
HUNTSVILLE, Texas A twice-paroled burglar was executed Wednesday evening for gunning down the night manager of a suburban San Antonio convenience store 9 ½ years ago in a $23 robbery.
"Tell Mama I love her," Kia Levoy Johnson, 38, said when asked by a prison warden whether he had a final statement. "Tell the kids I love them, too. See y'all," he said, directing his comments to his brother, watching through a window a few feet away.
Mr. Johnson never looked through an adjacent window where the parents and brother and sister of his victim watched.
He gasped a couple of times as the lethal drugs began to take effect and was pronounced dead at 6:18 p.m., seven minutes after the dose began.
Mr. Johnson was condemned for killing William Matthew Rains, who authorities said bled to death after he was shot once in the abdomen with a .32-caliber pistol in the Oct. 29, 1993, fatal attack at the Balcones Heights store.
Mr. Johnson was the 16th condemned inmate to receive lethal injection in Texas this year and one of 10 set to die over the next two months.
Also Online
Texas Executions: Coverage from TXCN.com Offender profile: Kia Levoy Johnson Related links Texas Department of Criminal Justice Scheduled executions Offenders on death row Mr. Johnson's lawyers had contended that he was mentally retarded and should not be put to death because the U.S. Supreme Court has barred execution of the mentally retarded. Earlier, his attorneys unsuccessfully argued that Mr. Johnson received incompetent legal help at his 1995 Bexar County trial.
A surveillance videotape inside the store showed the victim, Mr. Rains, trying for 45 minutes to climb out from behind a counter after he had been shot and robbed.
"It's like in the movies where you see the shaking hand come up and the shaking hand go down when somebody is trying to lift themselves up," said Bexar County Assistant District Attorney Michael Cohen. "You'd see the hand shake, then fall. It was real surreal."
Mr. Johnson, who declined to speak with reporters from death row, said on a Web site devoted to his case that he was innocent.
Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dallas/tsw/stories/061203dntexexecution.aaf5c.html
AP
Johnson Executed For Videotaped Robbery-Slaying
Excerpt:
HUNTSVILLE, Texas -- A twice-paroled burglar was executed Wednesday evening for gunning down the night manager of a suburban San Antonio convenience store almost 10 years ago in a $23 robbery.
"Tell Mama I love her," Kia Levoy Johnson, 38, said when asked by a prison warden if he had a final statement. "Tell the kids I love them too. See y'all," he said, directing his comments to his brother, watching through a window a few feet away.
He never looked through an adjacent window where the parents and brother and sister of his victim watched.
Johnson, who has four children, gasped a couple of times as the lethal drugs began to take effect and was pronounced dead at 6:18 p.m., seven minutes after the dose began.
Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my Texas Executions ping list!. . .don't be shy.
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