LeJames Norman, 40, was put to death by lethal injection Wednesday at the state penitentiary in Huntsville for the fatal shooting of three people during an attempted robbery at his neighbor’s home. Two of his children watched from a window as he died.
Norman had been sentenced to death in the fatal shootings of Samuel Roberts, 24, Tiffani Peacock, 18, and Celso Lopez, 38, inside the home they shared in Edna in 2005. The execution marks the state’s fifth this year.
Attempted robbery turned deadly
Court records indicated Norman and Ker’Sean Ramey believed there was cocaine in the house and hoped to steal it, but they never found any drugs. Lopez was shot four times, including three in the back of his head. Peacock was shot twice in the head. Roberts was shot five times to the chest, neck and head.
Norman was arrested about five months after the killings while trying to cross back into the U.S. from Mexico. He pleaded guilty to capital murder, leaving a jury to decide his punishment.
Final moments and execution
Asked by the warden if he wanted to make a final statement, Norman shook his head. He was laying on a thin mattress atop a steel table, his head on a white pillow. He nodded toward a window through which a sister, two of his children and a friend watched and made eye contact as one of them danced.
As the lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital began taking effect, he took a couple of deep breaths, appeared to yawn and made snoring sounds — six of them. All movement then stopped. Thirty minutes later, after a physician examined him, he was pronounced dead at 6:44 p.m. and covered with a white sheet.
The U.S. Supreme Court denied a request on Wednesday from Norman’s attorneys to stop his execution. No relatives or friends of the three murder victims witnessed Norman’s punishment. Ramey was also convicted in the shootings and sentenced to death; his execution is set for next week.
