Texas on Wednesday put to death a man who fatally stabbed a suburban Dallas real estate agent more than 16 years ago, the second execution this year in what has been the nation’s busiest death penalty state. Kosoul Chanthakoummane, 41, received a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville and was pronounced dead at 6:33pm, the AP reports. He was condemned for fatally stabbing 40-year-old Sarah Walker in July 2006. She was found stabbed more than 30 times in a model home in McKinney, about 30 miles north of Dallas. In a brief statement after he was strapped to the death chamber gurney, Chanthakoummane thanked Jesus Christ, ministers with the Texas prison system, and “all these people in my life that aided me in this journey.”
Although no relatives of Walker attended the execution, he offered a message to them: “I pray my death will bring them peace.” As the 5 grams of the powerful sedative pentobarbital began flowing through IV lines into veins in each of his arms, he looked toward a window through which his mother quietly watched a few feet away and mouthed, “Mom, I love you." He then took four breaths, gasped slightly, and there was no further movement. He was pronounced dead 15 minutes later. Just before the execution took place and at Chanthakoummane's request, a Buddhist monk placed his right hand on the inmate's chest and read a passage from the Book of Ecclesiastes that refers to “a time for everything.” He responded: “Amen.”
Prosecutors say Chanthakoummane entered the model home and then beat Walker, a mother of two, with a wooden plant stand and stabbed her before stealing her Rolex watch and a silver ring, which were never found. DNA evidence showed Chanthakoummane’s blood was found in various places inside the model home, including under Walker’s fingernails. Chanthakoummane had acknowledged he was in the model home but said he only went inside to get a drink of water. He had been on parole in Texas after serving time in North Carolina for aggravated kidnapping and robbery. Walker’s father, Joseph Walker, who died last year, had opposed Chanthakoummane’s execution and had told the Times Union in New York in 2013 he had forgiven his daughter’s killer.
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