Texas Man Who Killed Newlywed During Robbery Is Executed foxnews.com

A Texas man who fatally shot a husband and sexually assaulted his wife during a 1993 robbery was executed Tuesday evening.

Alvin Braziel Jr., 43, received a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville for the 1993 slaying of 27-year-old Douglas White, who was attacked as he and his wife walked on a jogging trail.

"I would like to apologize for the second time to Lori for her husband dying at my hands," Braziel said as a final statement from the death chamber gurney. He did not mention the sexual assault, The Dallas Morning News reported.

Braziel was injected with the sedative pentobarbital around 7:10 p.m. and pronounced dead nine minutes after the drug began. He was the 24th inmate put to death this year in the U.S. and the 13th executed in Texas.

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In 1993, as Douglas and Lora White walked along a community college jogging trail in the Dallas suburb of Mesquite, Braziel jumped out from behind some bushes with a gun and demanded money.

The Whites reportedly didn't have any money on them but told Braziel they could get him some and they started walking back to their truck. But Braziel became angry with the couple and ordered them to the ground.

"Doug … was praying, asked God to forgive him and Lora their sins because they both knew that this was it," said Michael Bradshaw, the lead detective on the case for Mesquite police. "The last thing Doug said before Braziel fired the first round, he said, 'Please God, don't let him hurt Lora.'"

Braziel shot White once in the head and once in his heart. He then tried to shoot Lora White but his gun malfunctioned, Bradshaw said. So he instead took her to a bushy area near the trail and sexually assaulted her.

I really didn't know that I would ever be able to solve it. But I really did not give up hope.

— Michael Bradshaw
The murder was featured on the television show "America's Most Wanted" and a $20,000 reward was raised by the chiropractic college that Doug White had worked for as an electrician.

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More than 40 potential suspects were interrogated and had their blood drawn for testing, but the murder remained unsolved for more than seven years, Bradshaw, 63, who retired from Mesquite police in 2012.

"I really didn't know that I would ever be able to solve it. But I really did not give up hope," Bradshaw said.

Braziel was eventually tied to the killing in 2001 after he was imprisoned for sexual assault in an unrelated case and his DNA matched evidence from Lora White's assault. At his trial, Braziel said he wasn't near the college during the killing.

Courts had previously turned down Braziel's appeals that have focused on claims of mental illness and that he had suffered a childhood brain injury, saying Braziel refused to be examined by a mental health expert during his trial and that his family declined to help his defense attorneys obtain evidence of any mental health problems in Braziel's family.

Bradshaw said he still keeps in contact with Lora White and that she started a new life and is doing well. He said she “wants it known that she's prayed for Alvin Braziel and his family.”