Powered by Blogger.

rss

Thursday 16 October 2008

Kevin Watts was set for lethal injection Thursday evening for the execution-style slayings of three people during a robbery at a Korean restaurant

Convicted killer Kevin Watts blames the lure of quick money to support his life with gangs on the streets of San Antonio for his demise and a date Thursday with the Texas executioner."Fast money is the eyecatcher so we do things to get ourself situated," Watts, 27, said in a recent interview from a small cage in the visiting area of death row. "If you make this choice, you've got to deal with it."
Watts was set for lethal injection Thursday evening for the execution-style slayings of three people during a robbery at a Korean restaurant in San Antonio more than six years ago. The wife of one of the shooting victims also was abducted and raped.
"Some innocent people lost their lives in my case and that was a crappy price for them to pay because I didn't deserve to play God," he said.His even-tempered acknowledgment from prison was a far cry from his outburst in a San Antonio courtroom earlier this year when he ripped into a judge setting his execution date with an obscenity-laden tirade against what he said was a racist criminal justice system."I don't put my trust in no jury, no judge," Watts explained from death row. "They have faults, make mistakes, just like we do. And sometimes they don't have the heart to admit (it)."I might have screwed myself, but I never had a chance to speak for myself, how I was railroaded, how I had an inadequate attorney, how this is not about justice."Watts' lawyer, John Economidy, said Watts' demeanor in court "is exactly how I've had to deal with him in every letter and every face-to-face meeting.""You just have to sit there and be as professional as you can and do your best professional job," Economidy said.Watts' appeals were exhausted and the lawyer said no last-minute appeals were anticipated.Watts would be the second condemned Texas prisoner executed this week, bringing the state's execution total this year to 11. Another 10 inmates are set to die over the next five weeks in the nation's busiest capital punishment state.Watts, carrying a Tec-22 automatic pistol and after a night of drinking and drugs, barged into the Sam Won Gardens restaurant the morning of March 1, 2002, and demanded money. He ordered manager Hak Po Kim, 30, and cooks Yan Tzu Banks, 52, and Sun Chae Shook, 59, to kneel on the kitchen floor, face against a wall, then shot each of them in the head.He forced Kim's wife of two months to retrieve the wallet and keys from her dying husband, grabbed about $100 from a cash register, then drove off with her in Kim's SUV.The truck was spotted at a nearby apartment complex parking lot and police arrested Watts about three hours after the shootings as he tried to flee by ramming it into two patrol cars.
"He had the murder weapon literally tied around his neck," Bill Pennington, the Bexar County assistant district attorney who prosecuted Watts, recalled this week. "We had video of him, the gun being taken from around his neck."
Kim's wife testified against Watts at his trial. Jurors convicted him after 30 minutes of deliberations.Watts was from San Jose, California. He said when he was about 14 his mother tried to get him away from gangs there and moved him to San Antonio to live with an aunt."I came to Texas and I guess you could say I picked up where I left off with the gangs," he said. "I wish I could turn back the hands of time, but that's what I was into at that time."Watts' record included misdemeanor convictions for evading arrest, criminal mischief, trespassing, marijuana possession and driving while intoxicated. He also had a weapons case against him as a 16-year-old.At his trial, defense lawyers didn't deny Watts was responsible for the slayings but tried to show he didn't intend to kill the victims and that he was high on drugs.
On Tuesday, Joseph Ries, 29, is the first of two prisoners set to die next week. He was convicted of breaking into a rural home in Hopkins County in northeast Texas and fatally shooting and taking the car of Robert Ratliff, 64, who was asleep.

0 comments:

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

van

Pageviews from the past week

van

Drug Enforcement automatically monitors news articles and blog posts tracking breaking news of arrests and drug incidents as they happen worldwide .These inter-active News Reports are followed as they develop. Giving you the chance to comment on breaking stories as they happen. Drug Enforcement alerts you to topics that are frequently linked to and commented upon in the world press. Someone is arrested every 20 seconds for a drug related offense !Readers are solely responsible for the content of the comments they post here. Comments are subject to the Blogspots terms and conditions of use and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or approval of the Drug Enforcement site. Readers whose comments violate the terms of use may have their comments removed or all of their content blocked from viewing by other users without notification.

Popular Posts

Latest Templates

FEEDJIT Live Traffic Map

Friend's Link

Blog Archive

 

Privacy Policy (site specific)

Privacy Policy (site specific)
Privacy Policy :This blog may from time to time collect names and/or details of website visitors. This may include the mailing list, blog comments sections and in various sections of the Connected Internet site.These details will not be passed onto any other third party or other organisation unless we are required to by government or other law enforcement authority.If you contribute content, such as discussion comments, to the site, your contribution may be publicly displayed including personally identifiable information.Subscribers to the mailing list can unsubscribe at any time by writing to info (at) copsandbloggers@googlemail.com. This site links to independently run web sites outside of this domain. We take no responsibility for the privacy practices or content of such web sites.This site uses cookies to save login details and to collect statistical information about the numbers of visitors to the site.We use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and would like to know your options in relation to·not having this information used by these companies, click hereThis site is suitable for all ages, but not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 years old.This policy will be updated from time to time. If we make significant changes to this policy after that time a notice will be posted on the main pages of the website.

Latest News

Add to Technorati Favorites
Site Specific Privacy Policy run in accordance with http://www.google.com/privacy.html
We can be reached via e-mail at
copsandbloggers@googlemail.com
For each visitor to our Web page, our Web server automatically recognizes information of your browser, IP address, City/State/Country.
We collect only the domain name, but not the e-mail address of visitors to our Web page, the e-mail addresses of those who communicate with us via e-mail.
The information we collect is used for internal review and is then discarded, used to improve the content of our Web page, used to customize the content and/or layout of our page for each individual visitor.
With respect to cookies: We use cookies to store visitors preferences, record user-specific information on what pages users access or visit, customize Web page content based on visitors' browser type or other information that the visitor sends.
With respect to Ad Servers: To try and bring you offers that are of interest to you, we have relationships with other companies like Google (www.google.com/adsense) that we allow to place ads on our Web pages. As a result of your visit to our site, ad server companies may collect information such as your domain type, your IP address and clickstream information. For further information, consult the privacy policy of:
http://www.google.com/privacy.html
copsandbloggers@googlemail.com
If you feel that this site is not following its stated information policy, you may contact us at the above email address.