Texas Executes Inmate for 2005 Triple Murder
LeJames Norman, who killed three people during a botched robbery, was executed by lethal injection.
A Texas death row inmate was executed by lethal injection Wednesday evening for the murders of three people during a botched 2005 robbery.
LeJames Norman, 40, had no last words when the warden asked him if he wished to make a final statement, according to reports. He was pronounced dead at 6:44 p.m. at the state penitentiary in Huntsville.
Norman was sentenced to death for fatally shooting Samuel Roberts, 24, Tiffani Peacock, 18, and Celso Lopez, 38, inside the Edna home they shared. Court records indicate Norman and an accomplice, Ker’Sean Ramey, believed the home contained drugs and entered with the intention to steal them, but found none.
Ramey was also convicted in the killings and sentenced to death; his execution is scheduled for the following week. Norman was apprehended approximately five months after the murders while attempting to re-enter the United States from Mexico.
He later pleaded guilty to capital murder, leaving a jury to decide his sentence. The U.S. Supreme Court had denied a request from Norman’s attorneys earlier on Wednesday to halt the execution.
During the execution, Norman lay on a mattress on a steel table and looked toward a window. His sister, two of his children, and a friend were present to witness the procedure. After receiving a lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital, Norman took deep breaths, appeared to yawn, made snoring sounds, and then ceased moving. A physician pronounced him dead about 30 minutes later.
No relatives of the three victims were present to witness Norman's execution. Norman was the fifth inmate executed in Texas this year. Meanwhile, an execution scheduled for Wednesday in Georgia was halted after a judge intervened in the case of Stacey Humphreys, convicted of killing two real estate agents.