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Billy Coble Texas Execution

Billy Coble was executed by the State of Texas for a triple murder. According to court documents Billy Coble would murder his estranged wife’s parents and brother. Billy Coble would be executed by lethal injection on March 1, 2019.

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A Texas inmate was executed Thursday evening for the killings nearly 30 years ago of his estranged wife’s parents and her brother, who was a police officer.

Billie Wayne Coble received lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville for the August 1989 shooting deaths of Robert and Zelda Vicha and their son, Bobby Vicha, at separate homes in Axtell, northeast of Waco.

Coble, 70, once described by a prosecutor as having “a heart full of scorpions,” was the oldest inmate executed by Texas since the state resumed carrying out capital punishment in 1982.

Asked to make a final statement, Coble replied: “That’ll be $5.”

He told the five witnesses he selected to be in attendance that he loved them, then again said: “That’ll be $5.” Coble nodded to the witnesses and added, “take care.”

He gasped several times and began snoring.

As Coble was finishing his statement, his son, a friend and a daughter-in-law became emotional and violent. They were yelling obscenities, throwing fists and kicking at others in the death chamber witness area.

Officers stepped in and the witnesses continued to resist. They were eventually moved to a courtyard and the two men were handcuffed.

“Why are you doing this?” the woman asked. “They just killed his daddy.”

While the witnesses were being subdued outside, the single dose of pentobarbital was being administered to Coble. He was pronounced dead 11 minutes later at 6:24 p.m.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jeremy Desel said the two men were arrested on a charge of resisting arrest and taken to the Walker County Jail.

The U.S. Supreme Court earlier Thursday turned down Coble’s request to delay his execution.

His attorneys had told the high court that Coble’s original trial lawyers were negligent for conceding his guilt by failing to present an insanity defense before a jury convicted him of capital murder.

A state appeals court had previously rejected Coble’s request to delay Thursday’s execution and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles turned down his request for a commutation.

Coble “does not deny that he bears responsibility for the victims’ loss of life, but he nonetheless wanted his lawyers to present a defense on his behalf,” his attorney, A. Richard Ellis, said in his appeal to the Supreme Court.

In Coble’s clemency petition to the Board of Pardons and Paroles, Ellis said his client suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from his time as a Marine during the Vietnam War and was convicted, in part, due to misleading testimony from two prosecution expert witnesses on whether he would be a future danger.

Billy Coble was the third inmate put to death this year in the U.S. and the second in Texas, the nation’s busiest capital punishment state.

“This is not a happy night,” McLennan County District Attorney Barry Johnson said. “This is the end of a horror story for the Vicha family.”

J.R. Vicha, Bobby Vicha’s son, said it would be a relief knowing the execution finally took place after years of delays.

“Still, the way they do it is more humane than what he did to my family. It’s not what he deserves but it will be good to know we got as much justice as allowed by the law,” said J.R. Vicha, who was 11 when he was tied up and threatened by Coble during the killings.

Prosecutors said Billy Coble, distraught over his pending divorce, kidnapped his wife, Karen Vicha. He was arrested and later freed on bond.

Nine days after the kidnapping, Billy Coble went to Karen Vicha’s home, where he handcuffed and tied up her three daughters and J.R. Vicha. He then went to the homes of Robert and Zelda Vicha, 64 and 60 respectively, and Bobby Vicha, 39, who lived nearby, and fatally shot them. After Karen Vicha returned home, Coble abducted her and drove off, assaulting her and threatening to rape and kill her. He was arrested after wrecking in neighboring Bosque County following a police chase.

Billy Coble was convicted of capital murder in 1990. In 2007, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a new trial on punishment. On retrial in 2008, a second jury sentenced him to death.

Crawford Long, the former first assistant district attorney in McLennan County who helped retry Coble in 2008, said his “heart full of scorpions” description of Coble was fitting.

“He had no remorse at all,” said Long, who retired in 2010.

J.R. Vicha, 40, still lives in the Waco area. He eventually became a prosecutor for eight years, a career choice inspired in part by his father, who was a police sergeant in Waco when he was killed. His grandfather was a retired plumber and his grandmother worked for a foot doctor.

Vicha, now a private practice lawyer, is working to get a portion of a highway near his home renamed in honor of his father.

“Every time I run into somebody that knew (his father and grandparents), it’s a good feeling. And when I hear stories about them, it still makes it feel like they’re kinda still here,” Vicha said.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/03/01/texas-inmate-billy-wayne-coble-executed-murders/3025769002/

Billy Coble Last Interview

Robert Jennings Texas Execution

Robert Jennings was executed by the State of Texas for the murder of a police officer. According to court documents Robert Jennings would shoot and kill Officer Elston Howard during a robbery of an adult bookstore. According to prosecutors the robbery was part of a crime spree. Robert Jennings would be executed by lethal injection on February 1, 2019 after spending three decades on Texas death row

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A 61-year-old Texas inmate was executed Wednesday evening for killing a Houston police officer more than three decades ago.

Robert Jennings received lethal injection for the July 1988 fatal shooting of Officer Elston Howard during a robbery at an adult bookstore that authorities said was part of a crime spree.

As witnesses filed into the death chamber, Jennings asked a chaplain standing next to him if he knew the name of the slain officer. The chaplain didn’t appear to respond, and a prison official then told the warden to proceed with the punishment.

“To my friends and family, it was a nice journey,” Jennings said in his final statement. “To the family of the police officer, I hope y’all find peace. Be well and be safe and try to enjoy life’s moments, because we never get those back.”

Outside the prison, more than 100 officers stood vigil. And a motorcycle club that supports police revved their engines, with the roar from the bikes audible in the chamber.

Jennings was pronounced dead at 6:33 p.m., 18 minutes after the drug started. He became the first inmate put to death this year both in the U.S. and in Texas, the nation’s busiest capital punishment state.

“Justice has been rendered and my family can finally have the closure we deserve,” Michael Agee, Howard’s nephew and a current Houston officer, said after watching Jennings die.

Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo, asked about the 30-plus years between the crime and the punishment, said he thought “justice delayed is, to an extent, an injustice continued.”

“But when the state takes a life, there has to be a process,” Acevedo said. “In this case, the day of reckoning is here. It’s a solemn occasion. For us it’s a celebration of a life well-lived by Officer Howard. We’re a family. That’s why we’re here.”

His attorneys had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to delay his execution, arguing Jennings’ trial attorneys failed to ask jurors to fully consider evidence — including details of his remorse for the officer’s shooting and possible brain damage — that might have spared him a death sentence.

Jennings had received an execution stay in 2016. But the high court and lower appeals courts rejected his request to delay Wednesday’s execution and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles turned down Jennings’ request to commute his sentence.

A twice convicted robber, Jennings had been on parole for about two months when prosecutors say he entered Mr. Peeper’s Bookstore with the intention of robbing the business. Since being paroled, Jennings had gone on a crime spree, committing about 10 robberies, including having already robbed the same adult bookstore 12 days before Howard’s slaying.

Officer Howard, 24, was in the middle of arresting the store clerk for operating a pornographic video arcade without a permit when Jennings shot the officer twice in the head.

Howard, who had been wearing a jacket with the words “Houston Police” on it, staggered for a few feet before falling to the ground, where he was shot twice more by Jennings. The clerk later testified the shooting was so quick, Howard never had a chance to unholster his gun.

Jennings was arrested hours later when he went to a Houston hospital after being shot in the hand by his accomplice, who got angry at Jennings for shooting the officer.

Joe Gamaldi, the president of the Houston Police Officers’ Union, said Jennings has spent more time on death row than Howard was alive.

Howard “was an honorable man full of integrity who did his job. He was absolutely one of the best and he was just taken entirely too soon by this animal who murdered him in cold blood,” Gamaldi said.

After his arrest, Jennings confessed to killing Howard, telling police in a tape-recorded statement he was remorseful about what happened and would “face whatever punishment (he had) coming.”

Edward Mallett, one of Jennings’ current appellate attorneys, said the inmate’s trial attorneys failed to present sufficient evidence of his remorse as well as his history of brain damage, being abused as a child and drug addiction. He said the trial attorneys also failed to provide an instruction to jurors that would have allowed them to give sufficient weight to these aspects of Jennings’ life when they deliberated.

Mallett said a prior appellate attorney also failed to argue these issues in earlier appeals.

“There has not been an adequate presentation of his circumstances including mental illness and mental limitations,” Mallett said.

Jennings’ trial in 1989 took place just as the Supreme Court issued a ruling that faulted Texas’ capital sentencing statute for not allowing jurors to consider evidence supporting a sentence less than death.

The Texas Legislature changed the statute to address the high court’s concerns but that took place after Jennings was convicted.

The Texas Attorney General’s Office called Jennings’ claim he had ineffective lawyers at his trial and during earlier appeals “specious,” and said appeals courts have previously rejected allegations his personal history was not adequately investigated and presented at his trial.

“My hope is that on Wednesday (Howard’s family gets) the closure that they’ve been searching for 30 years,” Gamaldi said.

https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/lethal-injection/texas-inmate-robert-jennings-executed-houston-officer-s-death-n965711

John Hummel Texas Execution

John Hummel was executed by the State of Texas for a quadruple murder. According to court documents John Hummel would murder his pregnant wife, daughter and father in law. John Hummel stabbed his wife, Joy Hummel, more than 30 times, then used a baseball bat to beat to death his daughter, Jodi Hummel, and his 57-year-old father-in-law, Clyde Bedford, who used a wheelchair. He then set their home on fire in Kennedale, a Fort Worth suburb. John Hummel would be executed by lethal injection on June 30 2021

John Hummel More News

A Texas inmate was executed Wednesday evening for an attack that killed his pregnant wife, 5-year-old daughter and father-in-law more than a decade ago.

John Hummel received a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville for the December 2009 killings.

Authorities say Hummel stabbed his wife, Joy Hummel, more than 30 times, then used a baseball bat to beat to death his daughter, Jodi Hummel, and his 57-year-old father-in-law, Clyde Bedford, who used a wheelchair. He then set their home on fire in Kennedale, a Fort Worth suburb.

Hummel, strapped to the death chamber gurney, said a brief prayer that ended with him saying he would “be with Jesus when I wake.”

“I truly regret killing my family,” he said, then thanked friends for their prayers and support.

“I love each and every one of you,” he added.

As the lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital began to take effect, he took a half-dozen breaths, then began snoring quietly. About a minute later, all movement stopped, although his eyes didn’t completely close. He was pronounced dead at 6:49 p.m. CDT, 13 minutes later.

“It was too easy,” Cecil Bedford, whose brother was among those killed, said after watching Hummel die. “It was like going to sleep.” He said a punishment more severe would be more appropriate. “A rope, a guillotine, a firing squad. There’s all kinds of good stuff to kill people. They should get what they deserve. An eye for an eye. I’m sorry. I’m old school.”

Prosecutors say he killed his family because he wanted to run off with a woman he met at a convenience store. After the fire, Hummel fled to Oceanside, California, near San Diego, but was later arrested. Investigators say he confessed to the killings.

Hummel, 45, who had worked as a hospital security guard, was convicted of capital murder for the deaths of his 34-year-old wife and father-in-law. He was not tried for his daughter’s death.

His attorney, Michael Mowla, did not file any last-minute appeals before his execution, saying all available legal avenues had been exhausted.

Appeals courts rejected Mowla’s attempts to stop his execution because Hummel had not been properly assessed on whether he would be a future danger — a question Texas juries must answer in death penalty cases. Mowla also unsuccessfully argued the appearance of impropriety as Hummel’s trial lawyer now works for the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office, which convicted him.

Hummel had been scheduled to be executed on March 18, 2020, but it was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Bedford’s sister, Cylinda Bedford, said her family still doesn’t understand why Hummel killed his family. She described Joy Hummel, who worked as a massage therapist, as outgoing and bubbly. Jodi had been excited about starting school and Clyde Bedford, who was better known by his nickname Eddie, “loved that grand baby,” Cylinda Bedford said.

“Come on, your own baby. You gotta be some kind of monster,” Cylinda Bedford, 54, a retired body shop technician, said of Hummel. “I don’t have no closure. And him being put to death, is not going to be closure either because then we’ll never know why.”

Hummel’s attorney also argued that his client suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and other issues related to his military service that caused him to “snap” one night.

But Miles Brissette, a prosecutor at Hummel’s trial, said authorities discovered Hummel had previously tried to kill his family by putting rat poison in a spaghetti dinner.

On the night of the killings, Hummel stood in his kitchen for 30 minutes so he could “psych himself up” for what he was about to do, and after killing his wife, he caught his breath before fatally beating the others, Brissette said.

“This guy senselessly took the life of a beautiful mother, a beautiful child and a grandfather that just did everything for them. For him to want to be single and just kill them this way is senseless,” said Brissette, who is now a defense attorney in Fort Worth.

Hummel was the second inmate executed this year in Texas and the fifth in the U.S. Last month, Texas resumed executions after nearly a year. But it didn’t go as planned: The execution was performed without media witnesses. An investigation blamed the mistake on several factors, including new personnel and procedures, along with insufficient oversight.

Media witnesses Wednesday evening were escorted to the death chamber without incident, although the punishment was delayed briefly as prison technicians had some difficulty inserting the needles into Hummel’s arms, agency spokesman Jeremy Desel said.

Cylinda Bedford said nothing will make up for the loss her family still feels at Christmas or on birthdays. And a piece of her history was lost when Hummel burned down the family home where her father was born and raised and where her parents raised their children. Her family sold the land where the home stood but nothing new has been built there.

“It’s still an empty lot,” Bedford said.

https://apnews.com/article/texas-executions-health-coronavirus-pandemic-a29f0ea201e8ebf3a22ec79974dc4d11

John Hummel Execution Video

Billy Wardlow Texas Execution

Billy Wardlow was executed by the State of Texas for the murder of an elderly man. According to court documents Billy Wardlow, who was eighteen at the time, would murder 82-year-old Carl Cole during an attempted robbery. Critics argued that at eighteen his brain had not fully formed however the Texas court system felt different. On July 8, 2020 Billy Wardlow was executed by lethal injection

Billy Wardlow More News

The state of Texas executed Billy Joe Wardlow on Wednesday night for a 1993 East Texas robbery and murder. It was the state’s first execution since the coronavirus swept through the state.

In late appeals, Wardlow’s lawyers argued that his death should be stopped because of the dangers presented by the rising pandemic and his young age at the the time of the crime. Neuroscientists and a group of Texas lawmakers also raised concerns with sentencing people who had committed crimes under 21 to death because of brain immaturity. All of Wardlow’s appeals were denied by the U.S. Supreme Court just after 6 p.m., the scheduled time of execution.

Sitting in a holding cell, Wardlow was then taken into the Texas death chamber at a Huntsville prison, placed on a gurney and connected to an IV. His fiancee, lead attorney and two other friends stood nearby in another room, according a prison witness list. A friend of the murder victim was also present.

At 6:28 p.m, Wardlow was injected with a lethal dose of pentobarbital. He waspronounced dead 24 minutes later.

During Texas executions, witnesses for the inmate and the murder victim regularly stand closely together with prison officials, chaplains and reporters in separate but adjacent rooms. Because of the coronavirus — including active cases of infected inmates and employees at the prison housing the death chamber, a Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesperson said Tuesday that all witnesses would have their temperatures checked, be required to wear masks and stay 6 feet apart. He did not say how that would be possible, citing security concerns. Twenty-six people were named on the witness list.

Wardlow, who declined to give a final statement in the death chamber, sent a letter last month to the parole board and spoke of how he changed during his quarter of a century on death row.

“I came to death row a scared boy who made poor choices; I will leave death row a man that others admire because I weathered the storms of life with the help of people that loved me,” Wardlow wrote the board. “We should all be so fortunate.”

Wardlow was 18 when he killed82-year-old Carl Cole in Cason. Wardlow shot Cole during an attempted robbery in which he said he had planned to steal Cole’s truck to leave the rural town and start a new life with his girlfriend.

Prosecutors argued Wardlow intentionally killed Cole, shooting him between the eyes. Wardlow said he hadn’t planned to fire the weapon and shot Cole during an unexpected struggle. After the killing, Wardlow and his girlfriend fled and were later arrested in South Dakota.

After 25 years on death row, Wardlow, aided by neuroscientists, asked the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that at 18, he was too young to face Texas’ death penalty. Nearly 60 Texas lawmakers also informed the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, which could recommend a delay to the execution, thatthey plan to take up the issue of age and the death penalty in the 2021 Legislature. But on Monday, the board voted against halting the execution until then.

The parole board also received letters from two jurors at his trial who said they now believe Wardlow should have gotten a life sentence based on new research.

“I have since that time … come to the conclusion that because of Mr. Wardlow’s youthful age at the time this crime was committed, we could not have predicted how he would turn out when he grew into adulthood,” Bob Seale wrote in a letter to the board after Wardlow’s legal team reached out to him.

Since 2005, the Supreme Court has held that death sentences are unconstitutional for those 17 or younger at the time of the crime because of their vulnerability, comparative lack of control and still-undefined identity. Some state and lower federal courts have questioned in recent years whether the upper limit of 18 is too young as new science emerges that shows the brains of people ages 18 to 20 are “functionally indistinguishable” from those of 17-year-olds in terms of moral culpability, according to Wardlow’s brief.

In a plea to stop his execution and invalidate his death sentence, Wardlow asked the high court to rule that the death penalty is unconstitutional for those under 21 — but just in Texas. That’s because a Texas death sentence requires a jury to unanimously agree that a person convicted of capital murder would likely be a future danger to society — a decision Wardlow’s attorney and a group of brain researchers said is impossible to make for an 18-year-old.

“No technology or methodology available now or at the time of Mr. Wardlow’s sentencing makes it possible reliably to predict whether someone who commits a crime at the age of 18 will remain dangerous in the future,” wrote numerous neuropsychologists, neuroscientists and related professional groups in a brief to the Supreme Court supporting Wardlow.

The Morris County district attorney countered that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals already dismissed the recent appeal and that it was filed too late to be considered. Death penalty appeals must overcome certain procedural bars, like providing new evidence that was previously unavailable, to warrant a court to review new claims after the first set of appeals concludes.

Outside of the courts, Wardlow’s age at the time of Cole’s death also drew the attention ofa group of Texas lawmakers. In June, state Rep. Nicole Collier, D-Fort Worth, chair of the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee, and 57 other Democratic state representatives and senators told the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles in a letter the issue deserves “thoughtful examination.”

“We intend to further explore this issue and take it up in the next legislative session” which begins in January, the June 5 letter states. “We write to inform you of this intention, lest Mr. Wardlow be executed before we consider an issue that might impact his case.”

In Texas, the parole board can recommend that the governor reduce a death sentence to life in prison or halt an execution for a certain amount of time. Wardlow asked the court to delay his execution for 330 days, until the end of the next legislative session in May.

On Monday, the parole board denied the request in a 6-1 vote.

Gov. Greg Abbott can also halt an execution for 30 days without a board recommendation, but he has never done so. As the clock reached 6 p.m. Wednesday, several Democratic and a Republican Texas state representatives called on the governor to stop Wardlow’s death.

“When there are questions left to be answered – as a result of new science or new evidence – we should always, always err on the side of life,” state Rep. Jeff Leach, a Plano Republican and chair of the House Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence Committee, tweeted at Abbott.

Aside from the petition focused on his age, Wardlow‘sother late appeals focused on issues connected to a recent ruling against the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on ineffective death penalty attorneys. He alsoasked the Texas Supreme Court and Abbott to halt his execution because of the coronavirus pandemic. The court denied the motion Wednesday morning, and Abbott took no action.

Before Wednesday, Texas hadnot held an execution since the pandemic took hold of the state in March — a long stretch for the state that carries out the most executions by far. The Court of Criminal Appeals halted four scheduled executions from March to May “in light of the current health crisis and the enormous resources needed to address that emergency.”

But last week, as Texas coronavirus numbers trended upward, with record-high counts of hospitalizations and infections, the court denied a request to halt Wardlow’s execution because of the coronavirus without an explanation. In an unusual motion, Wardlow’s lawyers then asked the Texas Supreme Court to step in — a court that rarely handles death penalty issues.

Wardlow’s attorneys argued that the trial court’s order setting an execution date violatedthe state’s Supreme Court emergency order during the pandemic to stop “proceedings that pose risks to parties, attorneys and the public.”

Texas executions are held at the Huntsville Unit in Huntsville, a prison that on Wednesday reported active infections among inmates and staff in a city that has seen a high surge of cases, largely due to the fact that it has seven prisons and many prison employees. Wardlow’s attorneys argued that holding an execution was still too dangerous, potentially exposing to the virus employees who have to attend the execution, witnesses and the community.

Wardlow wasthe thirdperson to be executed in Texas this year and the second in the country since the coronavirus swept the nation.

https://www.texastribune.org/2020/07/08/texas-execution-billy-wardlow/

Abel Ochoa Texas Execution

Abel Ochoa was executed by the State of Texas for five murders that took place in 2002. According to court documents Abel Ochoa would murder his wife, two children and two relatives in a drug filled rage. Abel Ochoa would be executed by lethal injection on February 6, 2020.

Abel Ochoa More News

A Dallas man was executed Thursday evening for a shooting in which he killed his wife, two children and two other relatives during a drug-fueled rage nearly 18 years ago. Prosecutors say Abel Ochoa was high on crack cocaine and looking for money to buy more drugs when he started shooting inside his home in August 2002.

Ochoa, 47, was pronounced dead at 6:48 p.m., 23 minutes after receiving a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville for the slayings of his 32-year-old wife, Cecilia, and his 7-year-old daughter, Crystal. He also killed his 9-month-old daughter, Anahi; his father-in-law, 56-year-old Bartolo Alvizo; and his sister-in-law, 20-year-old Jacqueline Saleh, and seriously injured his sister-in-law Alma Alvizo.

“I want to apologize to my in-laws for causing all this emotional pain,” Ochoa said, strapped to the death chamber gurney and looking at several of his victims’ relatives who watched through a window a few feet from him. “I love y’all and consider y’all my sisters I never had. I want to thank you for forgiving me.”

As the lethal dose of the powerful sedative pentobarbital began, Ochoa closed his eyes and had no visible reaction.

Jonathan Duran, who watched Ochoa die, said he accepted Ochoa’s apology.

“I accepted the fact as a child, at 12 years old, when I buried my mother, my sisters, my aunt and my grandfather,” Duran said. “Nothing’s going to bring them back. It’s up to us to keep their memory alive, rebuild what we lost. I can’t ever replace my mother or my sisters.”

“After 17 years, me, my family … We can finally say we got closure, we got justice,” Duran added.

Ochoa was the second inmate put to death this year in Texas and the third in the U.S. Seven other executions are scheduled in the next few months in Texas, the nation’s busiest capital punishment state.

The execution was carried out after the U.S. Supreme Court turned down a request by Ochoa’s attorneys to halt it. They wanted a review of whether his rights were violated because he initially wasn’t allowed to film a prison interview with his legal team for his state clemency petition.

A Texas appeals court this week turned down a different request for a stay on claims that there were problems with paperwork related to Ochoa’s death warrant. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles also turned down a clemency petition.

Ochoa’s attorneys said in court documents that his death sentence should be commuted to a life sentence because of “his deep and sincere remorse.”

Ochoa’s trial attorneys had described him as a hard-working, law-abiding citizen whose life unraveled amid a 2½-year addiction to crack.

Ochoa spent up to $300 a week on cocaine and took out loans to support his drug habit. At one point, he underwent treatment at a drug rehabilitation center, but then continued to use cocaine, according to court documents. Ochoa had gone 10 days without using cocaine leading up to the shootings. Desperate for the drug, he persuaded his wife to take him to buy crack. After returning home, he smoked the drug in his backyard.

“While I was lying on the bed my body started wanting more crack. I knew if I asked my wife for more money to buy some more crack she wouldn’t let me have it,” Ochoa said in his confession to police.

Ochoa told police he grabbed his 9mm handgun, walked into the living room and started shooting until he ran out of bullets.

He then went and got more ammunition and returned to the living room, where his 7-year-old daughter was still alive, he said.

“Crystal saw me with the gun and she started running away. I chased after her and I shot her,” Ochoa said.

Police later arrested him at a shopping center after he tried to get money from an ATM.

At trial, Ochoa’s attorneys argued that he shot his family in a cocaine-induced delirium and had brain damage from drug abuse. Ochoa testified that he didn’t remember shooting his family.

Howard Blackmon, one of the Dallas County prosecutors who tried the case, said he argued that Ochoa killed his family in frustration and anger.

“It’s just a horrendous set of circumstances for a parent just to murder, gun down their own children,” said Blackmon, who is now a criminal defense lawyer in Dallas.

Alma Alvizo testified that Ochoa had become aggressive toward his wife after learning she had a son from a previous relationship. Alvizo said her sister told her Ochoa had pointed a gun at her three weeks before the killings.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/texas-execution-today-abel-ochoa-executed-shooting-deaths-wife-two-children-relatives-2020-02-06/

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