Murderer upbeat, joking in seconds before execution
'Put some headphones on my head and rock 'n' roll me when I'm dead'
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) -- A convicted murderer who said he first tried cocaine at the age of 10 was executed Wednesday for abducting and fatally stabbing a man during a drug-induced haze nine years ago.
Douglas Roberts, 42, was upbeat and animated in the seconds before the lethal drugs were administered.
"I've been hanging around this popsicle stand way too long," he said. "When I die, bury me deep, lay two speakers at my feet, put some headphones on my head and rock 'n' roll me when I'm dead."
"I'll see you in heaven some day," he added.
At his trial, Roberts told his attorney to call no defense witnesses and pick a jury that favored the death penalty. His jury deliberated two hours before convicting him and the following day decided he should be put to death.
Roberts was convicted of killing Jerry Velez, 40, who was abducted in San Antonio in May 1996.
Roberts, a machinist, had just robbed a San Antonio convenience store and stole a customer's car at knifepoint. Lost in an unfamiliar place and "stoned out of my mind," Roberts said he spotted Velez walking to a row of cars parked outside an apartment complex.
The pair drove to a dirt road in a remote area about 30 miles northwest of San Antonio, where Roberts and Velez scuffled.
Roberts was armed with a Bowie knife, and an autopsy showed Velez was stabbed five times, had ribs broken, a lung punctured and head injuries. Evidence at Roberts' trial showed the victim had been run over with a car as many as three times.
Roberts drove back toward Austin where he called police from a pay phone and told a dispatcher about the slaying, then waited for authorities to pick him up.
Roberts was to have shared the death chamber Wednesday with another condemned prisoner, Milton Mathis, for a rare back-to-back execution. But Mathis won a reprieve Tuesday from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
Roberts was the fifth Texas prisoner put to death this year.
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