JUNE 13, 2002:

TEXAS - execution - Convenience store clerk killer executed

Daniel Reneau, a 27-year-old construction worker, was executed this evening for killing a Kerrville convenience store clerk during a robbery more than 6 years ago.

 Reneau had no final statement. As the drugs began flowing, he looked at Chaplain Richard Lopez and said, "I thought you were going to speak to me." The chaplain said he would. Reneau's eyes then fell partially shut, his cheeks filled with air and he exhaled 1 last time.

 He was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m., 9 minutes after the lethal drugs began to flow.

 Texas Rangers Sgt. Henry Fleming and Capt. Clete Buckeleu witnessed Reneau's execution on behalf of his victim's family.

 Prosecutors said Reneau hatched the plan that also involved his roommate and culminated with the death of Kriss Keeran, 31, who knew both men.

 Evidence showed Reneau entered the store before dawn on Jan. 2, 1996, and shot Keeran once in the face with a .22-caliber pistol. Then joined by roommate Jeffrey Wood, they robbed the store of more than $11,000 in cash and checks. Both were arrested within 24 hours.

 The U.S. Supreme Court this week refused to review Reneau's case.

 Asked on death row last week to identify the shooter, Reneau had a 1-word reply: "Me."

 According to court records, Wood was waiting outside the store and came in after Keeran was shot, then both fled with the store safe, a cash box and a video recorder containing a security tape showing the robbery and slaying.

 "As I recall, he was pretty cold, very little emotion shown at any time," said Bruce Curry, the Kerr County district attorney who prosecuted Reneau. "And the method of this particular murder was cold -- just kind of walk up, shoot some guy in the head, walk on by, commit the robbery and leave."

 Evidence showed the pair had planned the robbery for a couple of weeks and unsuccessfully tried recruiting Keeran and another employee to stage a phony robbery.

 Reneau and Wood drove to Wood's parents home in Devine, about 65 miles to the south, where they tried to open the safe with a sledge hammer and a blow torch.

 When Wood's 16-year-old brother, Jonathan, asked them how they got the safe, Wood told him about the holdup and shooting. And when the brother expressed skepticism, Wood showed him the tape. Wood's brother testified he then was ordered to destroy the tape with the blow torch.

 Witnesses, including a delivery driver, described for police the pair of men seen at the store during the 6 a.m. robbery. They also had gone on a spending spree and an officer who had pulled them over the previous night remembered them, authorities said.

Wood led police to the murder weapon, which Reneau said had been taken by Wood in an earlier burglary.

 "I ended up giving a confession," Reneau said from death row.

 He did not testify at his trial.

 "I don't think it would have made any difference," he said.

 A jury took 15 minutes before returning with its guilty verdict.

 Reneau said he thought at the time of the crime only treason or trying to kill the president or something similar would make one eligible for the death penalty. He thought Wood, for example, would end up with only about a five-year sentence.

 Wood joined him on death row. He does not yet have an execution date.

 "I don't feel like dying," Reneau said. "I don't want to die. But if it does happen, I accept it. I believe in a Christian God, but I won't really know until I die to find out."

 Reneau was born in Jacksonville, Fla., when his father was in the Army. He grew up in Kansas near Fort Riley, quit school in the 12th grade and worked construction jobs in Texas.

 He said Wood recently wrote him asking that he write a letter exonerating him in the crime. Reneau said he did not respond.

 Reneau and Wood were tied to several previous burglaries where several guns were taken although Reneau denied any participation. While in jail, authorities learned the 2 were working on a plan to break out by killing a jailer.

 Reneau becomes the 16th condemned Texas inmate to be put to death this year, and the 272nd overall since the state resumed capital punishment on December 7, 1982. Texas, which executed 17 inmates last year, has 3 more executions set in 2 weeks, and is on a pace to equal or break its record 40 executions carried out in 2000.

 Reneau becomes the 33rd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 782nd overall since America resumed executions on January 17, 1977.