TEXAS LAST MEAL
GERALD CASEY
April 18, 2002

Texas Death Row Inmate Executed

LAST MEAL: Fried chicken (3 drumsticks and 3 thighs), 1 quart coleslaw, tea or juice, vanilla ice cream, and 1 Dr. Pepper

THE SKINNY: Caey was executed Thursday for killing a 22-year-old woman in a scheme to steal a gun collection from a Houston-area home nearly 13 years ago. Casey, 47, had hoped to sell the stolen weapons to raise money so he and his girlfriend could go to Florida, according to testimony at his capital murder trial. The girlfriend, Carla Smith, received a 10-year prison sentence for her part in the plot. Sonya Howell was shot nine times during the July 10, 1989, robbery at a mobile home in New Caney, northeast of Houston. The victim was a friend of Smith. Dozens of assault rifles, deer rifles, shotguns and pistols were taken from the doublewide trailer. All belonged to Howell's boyfriend, authorities said.

SOUNDS OF SILENCE: Casey, a twice-convicted burglar, did not give a final statement before he was given the lethal injection.

FACTOIDS: FAMILY REACTION..."I wanted to see him suffer," the victim's mother, Linda Howell, said after the execution. "It was very, very extremely disappointing. We watched him close his eyes. ... And that was that. Too easy." Howell said she had hoped to meet with Casey in an attempt to forgive him, but her requests were refused. "I will never forgive him now," she said.