Former Texas high school football star executed
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) -- Convicted killer Demarco McCullum, who traded a promising athletic future for a cell on Texas death row, was executed for the abduction, robbery, beating and fatal shooting of a Houston man 10 years ago.
In a brief final statement Tuesday, McCullum expressed appreciation and love "to all those who supported me over the years. And I want to let my mom know I love her and will see her in heaven."
Seven minutes later, McCullum was pronounced dead at 6:17 p.m.
His victim's mother was among four witnesses to watch McCullum die, but he did not acknowledge their presence.
McCullum, 30, was arrested the same day in 1994 that he was supposed to leave for Tyler Junior College, where he had an athletic scholarship after a standout football career as quarterback at Aldine High School in north Houston.
That summer, however, authorities linked him and several football-player companions to a series of robberies and assaults around Houston, culminating in the slaying of 29-year-old Michael Burzinski.
"I don't want to say the word 'closure,' because a person never really experiences closure when you especially lose a child like this to violence," Kay Bruzinski, who lost her son 10 years ago, said after the execution. "Demarco McCullum viciously murdered our son. ... I'm sure he was nervous, I'm sure he was afraid, and possibly it gave him a slight taste of what our Michael went through 10 years ago."
McCullum was the 21st Texas inmate executed this year.
Another inmate, Frederick McWilliams, convicted of fatally shooting a man in Houston while stealing a car, was set to die Wednesday evening.
McCullum had exhausted his legal appeals, and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles refused to commute his sentence to life or grant a reprieve. The U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year decided not to review his case.
McCullum's lawyer, David Schulman, had pleaded that the sentence be commuted to life in prison.
"None of us benefit by his execution," Schulman said, noting that McCullum had been a model inmate with no disciplinary infractions.
McCullum, who was 19 when he was arrested, blamed his actions on a lack of maturity.
"I wasn't one of those that had goals," he said recently from death row.
Prosecutors said Burzinski was approached by McCullum and three of his buddies outside a Houston gay club the night of July 30, 1994.
Burzinski was beaten and taken away in his own car, was forced to withdraw $400 from an automated bank machine, then was shot in the back of the head. His body was dumped in north Harris County, miles from where he was abducted.
A reward posted for information in the case prompted a tip to a Crimestoppers phone line that led to McCullum's arrest.
Also arrested were Terrance Perro, Decedrick Gainous and Christopher Lewis.
Gainous, who also was to have played football with McCullum at Tyler Junior College, and Perro received life prison terms. Lewis testified against McCullum and got a 15-year sentence.
Copyright 2004 The
Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
