Execution Report: Norman Green

Norman Evans Green, 38, was executed by lethal injection on 24 February 1999 in Huntsville, Texas for the murder of a store clerk during a robbery attempt.

On Wednesday, 13 February 1985, Green, then 24, and Harold Bowens, 18, entered a Dyer Electronics store in San Antonio in the early afternoon. They engaged the manager, Gerry Rickhoff, and clerk, Timothy Adams, 18, in conversation and looked around the store, then left.

As Rickhoff was leaving for lunch, he saw the same two men return in the same vehicle, which was old and in poor condition. According to Rickhoff, he exited his car, went inside, told Adams not to let the two "steal anything," then left for lunch.

While Green and Bowens were in the store alone with Adams, they tried to rob it. When Adams was slow in opening the cash register, Green fired four times, striking him in the arm, chest, and abdomen. The men then fled from the store empty-handed.

Randy Reece was working at a muffler shop next door to Dyer Electronics. At about 1:30 p.m., he and two co-workers heard gunshots. Reece went to the front door of the muffler shop and saw two men getting into an old, beat-up vehicle. He and his co-workers ran over together to Dyer's and found Adams alive but "covered in blood." Reece testified he heard Adams say, "They tried to rob me, but they didn't get anything."

Leslie Daniels, the city manager for Dyer Electronics, arrived while police and ambulance were at the scene. Adams told him that the robbers had been in the store earlier that day, and Rickhoff knew who they were.

San Antonio police officer James Holguin found a car matching the description given by Adams and Reece at a nearby apartment complex. When Holguin approached the vehicle, the driver and passenger exited and fled in different directions. Holguin chased after the driver, but lost him. A .38-caliber, six-shot revolver was found close to the vehicle. It contained two live rounds and four spent shell casings. Each of the live rounds had X-shaped notch cut into the nose of the bullet. These notches are made to increase the bullet's shredding damage.

Adams died at the hospital 12 hours later. His last words to paramedics were reportedly, "They shot me for no reason."

The vehicle Officer Holguin stopped was registered to Green, a paroled felon. Fingerprints taken from the revolver found next to it were matched to him. A warrant was issued for his arrest, and he surrendered to authorities on 21 February. Rickhoff and the other witnesses identified Green and Bowens as the robbers.

Green gave a four-page written confession blaming the entire incident on Bowens, who he said he had just met that day.

Bowens testified against Green in exchange for a life sentence.

Green had been in and out of prison three times, beginning with a 5-year sentence for burglary he received at age 17. He was released on "shock probation" after serving 2 months of that sentence. Two years later, he was back in prison with a new 7-year sentence for unauthorized use of a vehicle. He was paroled after less than 2 years. He was returned to prison a year later on a parole violation, then paroled again after another year. He had been out of prison for nine months at the time of the murder.

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