At yesterday's Texas killing the victim used the only weapon available to him.
Killer claims innocence before death
By Michael Graczyk
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Wednesday, June 26, 2002
HUNTSVILLE -- Professing his innocence, a Houston man accused of murdering five members of his family, including his parents, in a scheme to collect an inheritance almost 10 years ago was executed Tuesday evening.
"I'm innocent. I had absolutely nothing to do with my family's murder," said Robert Coulson, 33, strapped to the death chamber gurney.
Coulson then thanked those who supported him, adding, "I hope you continue to fight. You know who you are."
After thanking the warden and as the drugs began taking effect, he spotted Dale Atchetee, a former Houston police officer involved in the murder investigation, and told him, "You know you planted that evidence. You know and I know."
Coulson gasped slightly and slipped into unconsciousness. He was pronounced dead at 6:23 p.m., nine minutes after the lethal dose began.
Coulson was condemned for killing his adoptive parents, two sisters and a brother-in-law. The victims were suffocated or fatally beaten with a crowbar, then bound with tape and plastic ties and burned.
Firefighters responding to the blaze at the home of Otis Coulson, 66, and his wife, Mary, 54, found the bodies. Also killed were their daughter, Sarah, 21; Robert Coulson's biological sister, Robin Wentworth, 25; and her husband, Richard, 27.
Robert Coulson attended their funerals a few days after the Nov. 13, 1992, slayings. Hours later, he was arrested for their deaths.
Evidence showed two days after the killings, he called the family lawyer, inquiring about the size of the inheritance. It was $600,000.
"He wanted the money," Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal said.
Coulson was the 17th Texas inmate to be put to death this year. In 2001, 17 people were executed during the whole year.
Earlier Tuesday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles rejected Coulson's requests for a reprieve, a commutation and a conditional pardon. The vote on each was 17-0.
Coulson's roommate at the time of the murders, Jared Althaus, told police he took Coulson to and from the house on the day of the murders. He later helped investigators build the case.
"I agreed to assist Bob in this crime because he told me we would never have to worry about money," Althaus said in his confession.
"It's infuriating," Coulson said from death row, denying any involvement in the slayings. "I haven't had a fair day in court."
Coulson called Althaus' confession a lie, saying authorities took advantage of his roommate's mental and emotional problems.
Authorities said Coulson, carrying out a plan he and Althaus had worked on for three months, telephoned the victims and told them he'd meet them at a particular time at the family's northwest Houston home.
Then they were systematically killed. Their hands and feet were bound, trash bags were tied over their heads and gasoline was poured on the corpses.
Althaus said Coulson told him a stun gun he bought to incapacitate the family members didn't work properly after the first two were killed, so he had to suffocate his mother with a pillow and use a crowbar to kill two others. Then a water heater prematurely ignited the fire because of fumes from gasoline.
"Bob jumped into the car and said: `It went all wrong. It didn't go the way I planned it,' " Althaus said.
Althaus was sentenced to 10 years in prison in exchange for his 1994 guilty plea to murder.
The inheritance went to Sarah Coulson's son, whom she had put up for adoption a month after his birth.
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