A Texas death row inmate was put to death Wednesday evening for the fatal shootings of three people during an attempted 2005 home robbery in rural Texas.
LeJames Norman, 40, received a lethal injection at Huntsville state penitentiary after the U.S. Supreme Court denied a last-minute appeal to stay the sentence.
Norman was convicted in the fatal shootings of 24-year-old Samuel Roberts, 18-year-old Tiffani Peacock, and 38-year-old Celso Lopez inside their shared Edna home.
Investigators determined that Norman and co-defendant Ker’Sean Ramey broke into the house believing there was cocaine stored inside to steal.
Court records showed the men attempted to rob the residence located about 100 miles southwest of Houston but found no drugs before shooting the victims.
Ramey was also convicted of capital murder in the robbery and sentenced to death, with his execution scheduled for next week.
Law enforcement officers arrested Norman five months after the killings as he attempted to cross back into the United States from Mexico.
Norman pleaded guilty to capital murder charges, leaving the punishment decision entirely to a jury.
When asked by the prison warden if he wished to make a final statement, Norman offered no spoken words and silently “shook his head” as the procedure began, per the Associated Press.
While lying on the execution chamber gurney, he nodded toward a window where his sister, two of his children, and a friend watched.
As the lethal dose of pentobarbital took effect, Norman took several deep breaths, appeared to yawn, and made six snoring sounds before all movement stopped.
An examining physician officially pronounced him dead at 6:44 p.m., 30 minutes after the injection process began.
No relatives or friends of the murder victims witnessed the execution, which marked the state’s fifth execution conducted this year.