HUNTSVILLE (AP) A North Texas man was executed Tuesday evening for fatally shooting a teenager during a carjacking outside a nightclub 12 years ago.


"To my loved ones and my dear friends, I love y'all and appreciate y'all for being there," Threadgill said. "I am going to a better place. To all the guys back on the row, keep your heads up, keep fighting. I'm ready. Let's go."





A bandana that witnesses said the carjacker was wearing was found stuffed under the truck trailer. Blood on Threadgill's clothing matched McDonald's blood. Threadgill's fingerprints were found on the stolen car.

Rob Dunn, one of Threadgill's trial attorneys, said the number of people who saw the attack left "no wiggle room" to convince jurors that someone else was responsible for the crime. He said his strategy had been to try to keep him off death row.


Prosecutors called nearly a dozen witnesses during the punishment phase to show Threadgill's reputation for trouble. He already had felony convictions for cocaine possession and burglary and misdemeanor convictions for assault, resisting arrest, theft, criminal trespass, criminal mischief and marijuana possession. Three months before the fatal carjacking, Threadgill was released from a prison on mandatory supervision, a form of parole.


Appeals lawyer Lydia Brandt argued to the Supreme Court that jurors weren't given an accurate picture of Threadgill's abusive and tumultuous childhood, nor were they told that his mother encouraged her children in criminal activity and that his mother, male relatives and his three siblings all had criminal records.

But state attorneys told the justices his legal help throughout had been proper and competent. His appeal with the punishment fast approaching was "nothing more than a meritless attempt to postpone his execution," according to Stephen Hoffman, an assistant Texas attorney general.


Read or Share this story: