Convicted killer executed by lethal injection in Texas

A Texas man who murdered his former common-law wife and her brother in 1993 was executed by lethal injection Wednesday night.

Before he was put to death, Willie Trottie had messages for his relatives, including, “I hope this brings you some closure.”

He also had a message for descendants of one of his victims, Titus Canada. “Titus, if his kids are out there ... I’m sorry for your dad,” he said.

Trottie was convicted of killing Barbara Canada, 24, and her brother, Titus, 28, at their parents’ home in Houston 21 years ago. Trottie, who turned 45 on Monday, maintained that the shootings were accidental. He was executed at 6:35 p.m. Central Time at the state prison in Huntsville, according a statement from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

The execution moved forward after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene. Lawyers for Trottie had filed a last-minute appeal earlier Wednesday, contending that the drug to be used in the lethal injection, pentobarbital, had expired and might make Trottie suffer during the process.

“It is not in the public interest for the state to be allowed to be deceptive in its efforts to procure lethal injection drugs,” the lawyers argued in their petition to have the nation’s highest court reverse lower court rulings that supported the state.

Texas officials disagreed, saying the drugs had not expired. “The drugs have been tested for potency and defect,” Jason Clark, the director of public information for the Department of Criminal Justice, said in an email Wednesday afternoon. “The drugs have a potency of 108% and were found to have no defects.”

Clark said Wednesday night that the execution occurred without incident.

Trottie’s death by lethal injection came after executions in Ohio, Oklahoma and Arizona during which the inmates took a long time to die and gasped and writhed in pain, according to witnesses.

Trottie was the eight person put to death in Texas this year and the second executed Wednesday. Earl Ringo Jr. was executed in Missouri after the Supreme Court and the governor denied his requests for clemency. Ringo was put to death by lethal injection at 12:22 a.m. Central Time for the 1998 murders of Dennis Poyser and Joanna Baysinger.

Times staff writer Michael Muskal in Los Angeles contributed to this report.