The Latest: Texas executes man convicted of killing 2
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — The Latest on the Texas execution of James Bigby (all times local):
6:40 p.m.
Texas prison officials have executed a Fort Worth man condemned for killing a father and his 4-month-old son during a Christmas Eve rampage nearly 30 years ago that also left two other men shot to death.
James Bigby was pronounced dead at 6:31 p.m. Tuesday evening. He was the fourth Texas inmate and the sixth nationally to receive lethal injection this year.
The 61-year-old Bigby was convicted of fatally shooting 26-year-old Michael Trekell and suffocating Trekell's infant son at their suburban Dallas-Fort Worth home. He confessed to the killings but wasn't tried for killing two other men the same day, contending all three men were conspiring against him in his workers' compensation case against a former employer.
At his trial, Bigby grabbed a gun from behind the judge's bench and tried to abduct the judge.
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4:30 p.m.
An inmate has been struggling to contain his emotions as Texas prison officials moved him to a small cell near the death chamber where he's set for lethal injection.
James Bigby arrived at the Huntsville Unit prison mid-afternoon Tuesday from death row at a prison about 45 miles to the east to await his execution Tuesday evening.
Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark says the 61-year-old Bigby has been trying to keep from sobbing as he tries to express his sorrow over the Fort Worth-area slayings almost 30 years ago that resulted in his death sentence.
Clark also says Bigby wanted to be sure no appeals were in the courts to try to prevent his punishment from taking place.
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12:20 a.m.
The attorney for a Fort Worth man set to die for killing a father and his infant son in 1987 says no last-day appeals are likely to try to stop the punishment.
Texas prison officials are to give 61-year-old James Bigby a lethal injection Tuesday evening for fatally shooting 26-year-old Michael Trekell and suffocating Trekell's 4-month-old son Jayson on Christmas Eve 1987 at their Arlington home.
Evidence showed he also killed two other men, believing they along with Trekell were conspiring against him in a workers' compensation case he filed against a former employer. He wasn't tried for those men's killings.
The U.S. Supreme Court in 2015 refused to review Bigby's case, upholding lower-court appeal rejections.
He'd be the fourth inmate executed this year in Texas and sixth nationally.
