The Oklahoman &

OKLAHOMA - Execution -  Man executed for Oklahoma City killing

A former car salesman was executed by injection Tuesday night for robbing and killing a man in 1985.

John Joseph Romano, who had maintained his innocence, was pronounced dead at 9:12 p.m. in the state's 1st execution of the year. Oklahoma led the nation with 18 executions in 2001.

Romano, 43, had been sentenced to death in 1987 for killing Roger Sarfaty, 52, in Sarfaty's Oklahoma City apartment. Sarfaty, who earned money dealing jewelry out of his home and his pocket, was stabbed in the heart and strangled.

Last week, the state Supreme Court denied Romano's request for DNA tests on nail clippings and swabs taken from Sarfaty's apartment.

Romano also was sentenced to death for killing and robbing Lloyd Thompson, 63, a year after Sarfaty was killed. On Monday, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver turned down Romano's appeal of his death sentence in that case.

Romano's co-defendant in both cases, David Wayne Woodruff, is scheduled to be executed Thursday.

2 death penalty opponents began a public fast near the state Capitol on Tuesday. They set up a 2-person tent at a makeshift campsite on a highway median, where they planned to fast until Thursday night on water, fruit juice and vegetable broth.

"We need to examine what's going on in the state," said Dr. Gary Conrad, an emergency room physician. He wore thick mittens, thermal underwear and a parka to protect himself from the cold.

"People have been fasting as a form of protest for many, many years," he said. "We may lose some weight, but we won't lose our heart."

A rally on the steps of the Capitol drew about 60 death penalty opponents who denounced state-sponsored executions.

Sarfaty, who earned money dealing jewelry out of his home and his pocket, was stabbed in the heart and strangled. Gone from his body were the rings he wore on almost every finger as a way of advertising his business. Also missing were the Kentucky Fried Chicken buckets filled with quarters that he kept on hand for guests at his poker games.

On the day Sarfaty died, Romano and Woodruff showed up drunk at a shopping mall and tried to buy a television set with pocketfuls of quarters. Woodruff, who was an acquaintance of the cashier, also had an injured hand and blood on his pants.

Mall security was called after the 2 became disorderly. They were arrested, taken to a detoxification center and released before Sarfaty's body was found 4 days after the killing.

He and Woodward did not become suspects until after they were arrested in Thompson's killing.

Trial testimony limited details of Sarfaty's life to his jewelry trading and the scotch and water he took every night at the same bar.

His daughter, Twyla Alvarez, issued a statement Tuesday saying it was "a great tragedy that my father did not live to expand the boundaries of his life, to meet and know his grandchildren."

"He deserved all the opportunities that life offers us and Romano deserves severe punishment for his role in taking those opportunities away from him," she said.

Alvarez opposes the death penalty, but said she respects the judicial system in Oklahoma.

Eulys Thompson, brother of Lloyd Thompson, said neither his brother nor Sarfaty deserved what happened.

"And both Romano and Woodruff deserve what they get," he said.

Romano becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Oklahoma and the 49th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1990.

Romano becomes the 6th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 755th overall since America resumed executions on January 17, 1977.