Roy Pippin

Roy Lee Pippin, 52, was executed by lethal injection on 29 March 2007 in Huntsville, Texas for the murder of two men in a drug-dealing operation.

Pippin owned and operated an air conditioning business in Houston. In December 1993, Pippin became involved in a money laundering scheme, using air conditioners and gas tanks to smuggle the proceeds from Columbian cocaine sales in the U.S. into Mexico. In April 1994, he notified his boss, "Alfredo," that approximately $2 million was missing. Following Alfredo's instructions, Pippin rented a van and some motel rooms. Then on 27 April, Abraham Pacheco, at Pippin's request, abducted Elmer Buitrago and his cousin, Fabian. The Buitragos were taken to the motel, where they were held captive and questioned about the missing money for several days. According to court records, three of Pippin's employees, working in shifts, stayed with the Buitragos, while Pippin would occasionally visit the motel to check in on the kidnapping and to bring food, beer, and drugs to the captors.

On the morning of 4 May, Pippin, then 39, and Pacheco put the Buitragos in the rented white van and took them to Pippin's warehouse. Using a pillow to muffle the sound, both Buitragos were shot approximately four times. Pippin and Pacheco then left the warehouse to dispose of the murder weapon.

After the men left, Elmer Buitrago, though fatally wounded, made it outside to a nearby apartment complex, where he began breaking windows to draw attention. Responding to the call, Houston police officer Eddie Parodi found Buitrago crying out in English and Spanish for help. While they waited for an ambulance to arrive, Buitrago told Officer Parodi that Pippin shot him. He also gave Parodi a physical description of Pippin. He also said that he managed to hit Pippin on the head with a pipe. Buitrago was then taken to a hospital, where he died later that day.

The body of Fabio Buitrago was discovered in the warehouse. Police also found eight fired 9mm cartridges and some bullet holes and bullets lodged in one wall of the warehouse.

According to some reports, two other men were kidnapped along with the Buitragos. Javier Riasco was also shot and killed in the warehouse, and Jair Salas was beaten, but not killed. The trial and court records, however, only dealt with the Buitragos' murders.

At his trial, Pippin admitted to participating in the Buitragos' kidnappings, but he denied being involved with their killings, and also denied being present when they were killed.

Houston police firearms examiner Charles Anderson testified that two guns were used to killed the Buitragos. On cross-examination by the defense, Anderson testified that the ballistics report he prepared before the trial and made available to the defense and prosecution did not make it clear that two guns were used. This testimony became an issue in Pippin's appeals.

Warren Garza, a security guard from the apartment complex, testified that he assisted Officer Parodi in finding the source of the commotion. He testified that before Parodi arrived, he noticed two men fitting the physical descriptions of Pippin and Pacheco driving around the apartment complex in a white van. He also testified that he heard Elmer Buitrago say "Pippin shot me," and he also heard him say the name Roy.

A jury convicted Pippin of capital murder in September 1995 and sentenced him to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence in May 1997. All of his subsequent appeals in state and federal court were denied.

Regarding Pippin's claims that the prosecution withheld ballistics evidence showing that two guns were used in the killings, the appeals courts ruled that the defense had a ballistics expert of its own who had full access to the same evidence that the prosecution had, and that the question of whether there was one murder weapon or two did not lessen Pippin's culpability.

Aaron Loweth, 39, one of the men who held the Buitragos captive in the motel room, was convicted of possession of a controlled substance and kidnapping and was sentenced to 4 years in prison. Information on Abraham Pacheco and the other two kidnappers, Flavio Salazar and Jorge Pulido, was not available for this report.

In an interview from death row days before his execution, Pippin admitted that he smuggled drug money through his air conditioning business, and he also admitted that he helped dispose of Javier Riasco's body, but he insisted that he was no killer. "I wasn't the boss," Pippin said. "I didn't orchestrate these murders. I didn't have the power to kill these men." At the same time, however, Pippin said that he was "under duress" from his bosses in the drug trade. "They said they were going to kill my family."

Even Pippin's own lawyer, Walter Cochran, seemed to disbelieve Pippin's claim of innocence. "He got dragged into this," Cochran said. "Basically, it was kill or be killed."

A few days before his execution, Pippin gave up his more than month-long hunger strike to protest what he called the deplorable conditions of Texas' death row. "This is absolute torture in this place," Pippin said. "If they kill me, it's going to be a blessing."

Pippin also warned that when the time for his execution came, he would not cooperate. "I'm going to fight, literally," he said.

On the morning before his execution, Pippin made a fire in his cell on death row in the Polunsky Unit at Livingston by using some trash and some copper wire stuck into an electrical outlet. Corrections officers extinguished the fire. Pippin was taken to a prison clinic and treated for smoke inhalation.

According to prison officials, Pippin was angry when he arrived at Huntsville for his execution, but a prison chaplain was credited with calming him down. His execution was delayed for about a half hour as the U.S. Supreme Court considered - and rejected - his final appeal. When officials were ready to move him from his holding cell into the execution chamber, Pippin said, "I promise you, my oath, I won't try to hurt any guards." He was then led in and tied down to the gurney without incident.

"I charge the people of the jury, trial judge, the prosecutor that cheated to get this conviction," Pippin said in his last statement. "I charge each and every one of you with the murder of an innocent man. You will answer to your maker when you find out you have executed an innocent man. May God have mercy on your souls."

"I ask forgiveness for all of the poison I helped bring into the U.S., the country I love," Pippin continued. He also expressed love to his family, then said, "That's it. Warden, go ahead and murder me." As the lethal injection was started, Pippin said, "Jesus, take me home." He was pronounced dead at 6:42 p.m.