Johnathan Moore gave a full confession to the authorities after shooting San Antonio Police Officer Fabian Dominguez in 1995.
However, it wasn’t until he offered his last words shortly before his execution that Moore admitted his actions were out of “fear, stupidity and immaturity.”
“I’m sorry. I did not know the man but for a few seconds before I shot him,” Moore said, addressing Dominguez’s widow, Jennifer Morgan.
“It wasn’t until I got locked up and saw that newspaper, I saw his face and his smile and I knew he was a good man. I am sorry for all your family and for my disrespect — he deserved better.”
Moore’s friends and family members huddled closely together inside the viewing room.
Moore admonished one of his friends to stop using heroin and methadone and told his father he loved him.
He was pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m.
Moore, 32, was the second condemned Texas prisoner executed this year and the second of five scheduled to die this month in the nation’s busiest capital punishment state.
Moore was convicted of gunning down Dominguez, 29, who interrupted Moore and two companions during the burglary of a house in the officer’s neighborhood in January 1995.
Dominguez was returning home from his overnight shift when he spotted a suspicious car in the driveway of the house and stopped to investigate.
When he confronted Moore, seated in the passenger side of the car, Moore opened fire with a .25-caliber handgun.
Moore also retrieved the officer’s service revolver and shot him three more times in the head.
He was arrested the day following the shooting after leading police on a chase into neighboring Bandera County and wrecking his car by hitting a couple of police cars.
The U.S. Supreme Court refused to review Moore’s case late last year.
An appeal to stop the punishment by challenging the state’s lethal injection execution procedure was rejected Tuesday by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, and the Supreme Court then rejected a similar appeal about two hours before Moore’s scheduled execution time.
The San Antonio Police Officers Association chartered a bus and about two dozen officers holding blue glow sticks stood outside the Huntsville Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to honor their fallen colleague while prison officials inside carried out the punishment.
Moore is the first person convicted of killing a San Antonio police officer to go to the death chamber since the state resumed carrying out capital punishment in 1982.
The two others with Moore the night of the shooting were arrested a short time after his arrest. Peter Dowdle, now 29, is serving a 25-year prison term. Paul Cameron, also 29, is serving life.
On an Internet site, Moore said he “hung out with the Industrial, Punk and Goth scene” and described himself as “a full-blown fascist.”
But he added: “I have disappointed and let down everybody that has ever loved me.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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