Texas man executed for 1997 shooting rampage that killed 5

[webfact]

Texas man executed for 1997 shooting rampage that killed 5
MICHAEL GRACZYK, Associated Press

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A man convicted of killing five people including his ex-wife in a 1997 shooting rampage near Houston was put to death Wednesday.

Coy Wesbrook's lethal injection was the eighth this year nationally and fourth in Texas, which carries out capital punishment more than any state. Two Georgia inmates have been executed so far in 2016, plus one each in Alabama and Florida.

Before being executed, the 58-year-old Wesbrook apologized profusely to relatives to some of his victims who witnessed the punishment.

He was pronounced dead at 8:04 p.m. CST — 18 minutes after the lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital began taking effect.

The execution was delayed about 90 minutes after a death penalty opponent's late appeal that was rejected by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals hours earlier appeared to be headed to a higher court. The appeal sought another review of claims that Wesbrook was mentally impaired and ineligible for the death penalty under U.S. Supreme Court rulings.

"The main thing in my case is five victims, five shots, five bodies and everybody died," Wesbrook said recently from death row.

The five killed were Wesbrook's ex-wife, Gloria Jean Coons, 32; her roommate, Diana Ruth Money, 43; and three men: Antonio Cruz, 35, Anthony Ray Rogers, 41, and Kelly Hazlip, 28.

Wesbrook, a former security guard and delivery driver, married Coons in 1995. They divorced the following year but continued seeing each other. They had lunch Nov. 12, 1997, and talked about reconciling. That was on his mind when he showed up that night at her apartment in Channelview, just east of Houston. Instead, he found people partying.

He testified at his 1998 trial that Coons humiliated him by having sex with two of the men at the party while he was there. He said when he tried to leave, Cruz grabbed the keys to his truck and joined others in taunting him. He said he "lost it," walked out, grabbed a rifle he kept in the truck and returned, shooting each person once. Coons was the final victim.

Court records show the five shots were fired within 40 seconds. Each victim was shot at close range.

Neighbors who heard the gunfire and called police saw Wesbrook emerge from the apartment, place the rifle inside his truck and stand calmly by the tailgate of the pickup to wait for sheriff's deputies to arrive.

"If I could change things and turn back time and bring all these people back and I could be in my right mind and not under the influence of any alcohol, none of this would have taken place," Wesbrook said in the death row interview.

At least 10 other Texas inmates are scheduled to be executed in the coming months, including two later this month.


-- (c) Associated Press 2016-03-10

[khwaibah]

One of the few things about Texas I agree with.

[HLover]

1997-2016 x $40,000 per year to keep an inmate in jail= nice efficient system they have.

[nottocus]

1997-2016 x $40,000 per year to keep an inmate in jail= nice efficient system they have.

As I said yesterday, out the back of the courthouse 2 minutes after the verdict and a bullet to the head.

[sanukjim]

Keep it up Texas.Clear out all the cells of the condemned and may be we can catch up to Saudi.

[up-country_sinclair]

1997-2016 x $40,000 per year to keep an inmate in jail= nice efficient system they have.

As I said yesterday, out the back of the courthouse 2 minutes after the verdict and a bullet to the head.

From 1973-2013, 8,466 people were given the death penalty. 890 had their conviction overturned.

That's 10.5%.

Or 890 people that you just had shot in the head even though a mistake was made.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2015/03/17/most-death-penalty-sentences-are-overturned-heres-why-that-matters/

The guy in the OP admitted his guilt in the murders, so that's a different matter entirely.

Edited March 10, 2016 by up-country_sinclair

[RuamRudy]

1997-2016 x $40,000 per year to keep an inmate in jail= nice efficient system they have.

As I said yesterday, out the back of the courthouse 2 minutes after the verdict and a bullet to the head.

From 1973-2013, 8,466 people were given the death penalty. 890 had their conviction overturned.

That's 10.5%.

Or 890 people that you just had shot in the head even though a mistake was made.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2015/03/17/most-death-penalty-sentences-are-overturned-heres-why-that-matters/

The guy in the OP admitted his guilt in the murders, so that's a different matter entirely.

There have been more than a few people who, for reasons of insanity or lack of understanding, have confessed to crimes that they have not committed.

[up-country_sinclair]

Fair point.

[farcanell]

1997-2016 x $40,000 per year to keep an inmate in jail= nice efficient system they have.

As I said yesterday, out the back of the courthouse 2 minutes after the verdict and a bullet to the head.

From 1973-2013, 8,466 people were given the death penalty. 890 had their conviction overturned.

That's 10.5%.

Or 890 people that you just had shot in the head even though a mistake was made.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2015/03/17/most-death-penalty-sentences-are-overturned-heres-why-that-matters/

The guy in the OP admitted his guilt in the murders, so that's a different matter entirely.

There have been more than a few people who, for reasons of insanity or lack of understanding, have confessed to crimes that they have not committed.

And that's why Im generally opposed to the death penalty.

Generally? Whilst trying not to be hypocritical, if the murderer is unequivocally guilty (multiple witnesses etc), then I'm not so opposed.

However, 10.5% is a large number, and from what another has posted, that figure is only related to overturned convictions... The percentage of people incorrectly sentenced to death, may well be higher, which is at the core of my "reservation" to executions.

But once again, it's a US domestic policy, and it's their problem in justifying this extreme penalty... So much so, that a lot of states have dropped it as a punishment.

Question... Is there a correlation between states still practicing execution, and that states gun ownership stance.... Eg... Texas is verbal about gun ownership (I think) and enforces the death penalty

[bbbbooboo]

Good riddance

[humqdpf]

Lets leave out the benefits or otherwise of a death penalty. My question is as follows: if a state has a death penalty, why don't they allow the person who was wronged to carry out the punishment? In fact, once it has been established that the perpetrator has indeed killed others illegally, why not just get the brother/father/wife/girlfriend or whoever is closest to go out and kill the perpetrator under warrant? The idea would be that if the perpetrator is still loose, a warrant can be applied for by the nearest and dearest to hunt him down.

What I am getting at is, why have some individual who, by virtue of his job as a prison officer alone, kill the prisoner. The prisoner did nothing to him and he has no personal moral right to do anything to this man. Why not have someone who is connected to the victim do the work?

[GOLDBUGGY]

Although you could classify these murders as "Premeditated", as he went back to his truck to produce his rifle, and to get Capital Punishment in the first place, these murders seem like he was in a very Grey Area with me in this case.

I am sure when he got back to his truck he was still fuming from what he just witnessed, so not really in a normal state of mind to plan these murders I would think. Unless of course he normally didn't carry his rifle with him, which he claims. Had he gone home to get his Rifle first, and then came back to kill them, then in that case I would agree. That would have been enough time then for him to cool down.

But I do, and always will I suppose, find it so strange in putting someone to there death for the crimes they committed some 20 years earlier. What is the objective to that? Is it meant to be punishment for a crime you committed 20 years ago, or a deterrent, to say to the individual that if you kill someone we will feed and house you for 20 years and then return the favor.

Whow! Some deterrent that is! Do this crime after 65 years of age and by the time your date comes up you would be ready and willing to go then, if you were gone by then naturally anyway.

[natway09]

Moral of the story

Don't mess with another man's woman

[HLover]

Moral of the story

Don't mess with another man's woman

Yes, because if you do- you may get execution decades later. Hilarious.