scoone
01-15-2004, 05:59 AM
DALLAS (*******) - Texas on Wednesday executed a former pizza deliveryman who was part of a gang that shot dead a 54-year-old woman in 1990 and made off with about $10 in cash and some nearly worthless costume jewelry.
Kenneth Eugene Bruce, 32, was given a lethal injection at the execution chamber in Huntsville for killing Helen Ayers in her home north of Dallas.
"I would like to apologize for all the pain you have suffered," Bruce told members of the Ayers family at the execution, according to Michelle Lyons, a spokeswoman for the Texas prison systems.
Bruce was convicted of being one of four people who forced their way into the home of Ayers and her husband Richard Ayers. The group tied up the couple and shot them several times.
Helen, 54, was killed and her husband, then 58, was paralyzed. He lay on the bedroom floor near death for three hours until their sons returned from work.
Two of the four robbers -- Eric Lynn Moore and Sam Andrews -- turned themselves in while Bruce, then 19, and his then 15-year-old cousin Anthony Quinn Bruce were arrested a few days later.
Kenneth Eugene Bruce, 32, was given a lethal injection at the execution chamber in Huntsville for killing Helen Ayers in her home north of Dallas.
"I would like to apologize for all the pain you have suffered," Bruce told members of the Ayers family at the execution, according to Michelle Lyons, a spokeswoman for the Texas prison systems.
Bruce was convicted of being one of four people who forced their way into the home of Ayers and her husband Richard Ayers. The group tied up the couple and shot them several times.
Helen, 54, was killed and her husband, then 58, was paralyzed. He lay on the bedroom floor near death for three hours until their sons returned from work.
Two of the four robbers -- Eric Lynn Moore and Sam Andrews -- turned themselves in while Bruce, then 19, and his then 15-year-old cousin Anthony Quinn Bruce were arrested a few days later.