North Texas man executed for $10 fatal robbery

Texas - In Huntsville, a former pizza delivery driver was executed Wednesday for the 1990 shooting death of a woman after robbing her and her husband of some inexpensive jewelry and less than $10.

Kenneth Eugene Bruce first addressed the family of his victim, Helen Ayers, and then spoke to his family.

"And to the family of Ms. Ayers, I would like to apologize for all the pain and suffering and that God give you closure," And I pray that he blesses you," he said.

Turning to his family, Bruce told them he loved them. "I may not be with you in the physical but by grace my heart will be with you all and I know God loves everyone of you all," he said.

Bruce's mother wept loudly and was allowed to sit in a wheelchair when she was unable to stand on her own.

Bruce, 32, was pronounced dead at 6:29 p.m., 8 minutes after the lethal dose began.

Bruce, who was 19 at the time of Ayers' death, was 1 of 4 men convicted for the slaying after forcing their way into her home in rural Collin County.

His lawyers sought a U.S. Supreme Court review of his case. They raised concerns about the instructions given to jurors at his trial and questioned the constitutionality of the drugs used in a lethal injection, contending the drugs as administered resulted in cruel and unusual punishment.

A couple of weeks before Christmas in 1990, 2 young men knocked on the door of Helen and Richard Ayers' home, saying their car had broken down and they needed some jumper cables.

But after Richard Ayers invited the pair inside to keep warm, 2 more young men barged in, armed with guns. After surrendering a wallet and a purse, the couple was herded into a bedroom and told to lie face down on a mattress.

Then they were shot. And shot again moments later to make sure they were dead.

Helen Ayers, 54, was killed in the 2nd volley. Her 58-year-old husband was seriously wounded.

"There was some testimony at one of the trials that since the house had pretty Christmas lights, the people there must be rich," Bryan Clayton, a former assistant district attorney in the county just north of Dallas, recalled.

Clayton called the shootings "a very ugly, horrible, senseless crime."

"They stole some jewelry and small things like that. Within an hour, they had discarded the items on the side of the road," said Clayton, who was among the prosecutors at the trials of Bruce and his 3 companions.

Richard Ayers, paralyzed after being shot in the back, remained on the floor for some 3 hours next to his dead wife until their son arrived home from work and found the carnage at the home near Prosper, about 30 miles north of Dallas.

2 of the 4, Eric Lynn Moore and Sam Andrews, turned themselves in to authorities within days. Bruce and his cousin, Anthony Quinn Bruce, then 15, were arrested 4 days after the attack.

Kenneth Bruce and Moore each received the death penalty. The 2 others got life terms.

Richard Ayers, confined to a wheelchair, testified against each of them at their trials.

Bruce, working as a pizza delivery driver when the crime occurred, declined to speak to reporters from death row. On a Web site where prisoners seek pen pals, he described himself as a song writer and poet interested in sports, reading and music.

On Tuesday, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, refused to stop the execution and rejected Bruce's appeal of a lower court's dismissal of the drug suit.

The issue of the lethal drugs was raised last month in 2 other Texas cases, resulting in punishment delays. But the 5th Circuit later declined to rule on an appeal refiled in those cases and execution dates for those 2 inmates were reset.

"None of these guys is challenging the legality of the conviction or sentence," David Dow, a University of Houston law professor involved in the appeals, said Tuesday. "They're all saying you can execute me but just can't torture me. The question is how to get a court to address this."

The 2 inmates who won delays in December would follow Bruce to the Texas death chamber.

Kevin Lee Zimmerman, 42, has a Jan. 21 date for a fatal stabbing during a robbery at a Beaumont hotel in 1987.

Billy Frank Vickers, 58, has a Jan. 28 date for fatally shooting a North Texas grocery store owner during a botched robbery attempt almost 11 years ago.

Bruce becomes the 2nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas and the 315th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on December 7, 1982.

Bruce becomes the 76th condemned inmate to be executed during the tenure of Governor Rick Perry; 152 condemned inmates were executed during the time George W. Bush was governor.

Bruce becomes the 6th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 891st overall since America resumed executions on January 17, 1977. The US Supreme Court, in the case of Gregg v Georgia, re-legalized the death penalty in the USA on July 2, 1976.