The son of a murderer in Texas began shouting and pounding his fists at his father’s execution on Thursday night, leading to a scene of chaos that ended with multiple arrests.
Billie Wayne Coble was sentenced to death for the 1989 killings of his estranged wife's parents and brother. The Vietnam War veteran was executed Thursday night.
Before the lethal drug was administered, he told five people in the witness room that he loved them, adding, "That'll be five dollars." As he finished speaking, his son, a friend and a daughter-in-law became emotional.
Officers stepped in and eventually moved them to a courtyard, where the two men were handcuffed and arrested on charges of resisting an officer.
“Why are you doing this?” the woman asked. “They just killed his daddy.”
As the men were being subdued outside, a single dose of pentobarbital was being administered to Coble. He gasped several times and began snoring inside the death chamber at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. He was pronounced dead 11 minutes later, at 6.24pm.
The 70-year-old Coble was the oldest inmate executed by Texas since the state resumed carrying out capital punishment in 1982.
He was condemned for the August 1989 shooting deaths of Robert and Zelda Vicha and their son, Bobby Vicha, at separate homes in Axtell, northeast of Waco.
The US Supreme Court turned down Coble's delay request about two hours before his execution.His attorneys had argued that Coble's original trial lawyers were negligent for conceding his guilt.
Coble, distraught over his pending divorce, kidnapped his wife, Karen Vicha. He was arrested and later freed on bond. Nine days after the kidnapping, Coble went to her home, where he handcuffed and tied up her three daughters and nephew, JR Vicha, according to investigators.
Coble then went to the homes of Robert and Zelda Vicha, 64 and 60 respectively, and Bobby Vicha, 39, who lived nearby, and fatally shot them.
After Karen Vicha returned home, Coble abducted her. He drove away, assaulted her and threatened to rape and kill her. He was arrested after wrecking the vehicle in neighbouring Bosque County following a police chase.
Coble was convicted of capital murder in 1990. An appeals court ordered a new trial on punishment in 2007, but a second jury also sentenced him to death.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
