Jan. 12
TEXAS—-execution
Former worker who shot 2 at Texas ranch executed
Convicted killer Gary Johnson has been executed in Texas for fatally
shooting a ranch foreman and another man during a ranch burglary almost 24
years ago.
The 59-year-old Johnson’s lethal injection Tuesday evening came about 2
hours after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to halt the punishment.
Johnson was condemned for the April 1986 slayings of 28-year-old James
Hazelton and Hazelton’s 23-year-old brother-in-law, Peter Sparagana.
The 2 were killed while investigating a call from a neighbor who reported
intruders had driven through a chained gate at a ranch outside Huntsville
in southeastern Texas.
Johnson becomes the 2nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in
Texas and the 449th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on
December 7, 1982. Johnson becomes the 210th condemned inmate to be put to
death in Texas since Rick Perry became governor in 2001. Johnson becomes
the 4th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the
1192nd overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.
(sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin)