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Saturday, November 22, 1997

Houston man executed for 1983 robbery-slaying

By MICHAEL GRACZYK / Associated Press Writer

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) -- His appeals exhausted, a convicted killer was executed Friday night for fatally shooting a Houston woman during a robbery attempt in a supermarket parking lot more than 14 years ago.

Charlie Livingston was pronounced dead at 6:17 p.m., four minutes after a lethal dose of drugs began flowing into his arms.

"Y'all brought me here to be executed, not to make a speech," Livingston said while strapped to the gurney. "Get on with it -- that's it."

Livingston, 35, gasped deeply three times, then wheezed but did not move again.

Watching through a nearby window was James Caldwell, husband of the woman Livingston was convicted of killing. Caldwell came to Texas Friday from Brisbane, Australia to attend the execution.

But Caldwell declined to speak with reporters afterward.

Livingston became the second condemned inmate this week to receive lethal injection in Texas and the 36th this year, adding to a state record. At least two more executions were set for this year, both in December.

After Livingston's appeals were exhausted, Gov. George W. Bush's legal staff recommended a request for clemency from the inmate's attorneys be rejected.

"I don't relish anyone being put to death," Jim Peecock, former Harris County assistant district attorney who prosecuted Livingston, said Friday. "I don't get any joy or pleasure. However, I believed it was the appropriate punishment under the law at the time. And it's still the law."

The 10th-grade dropout who worked as a warehouseman was convicted of killing Janet Caldwell, 38, during an Aug. 10, 1983 attack as the mother of two was carrying an armload of groceries to her van.

At the time, Livingston had served four years of a 10-year probation for trying to kill his ex-girlfriend and her boyfriend. The pair had been stabbed 17 times as they slept.

Livingston was hiding under Ms. Caldwell's van when the secretary and mother of two emerged from the grocery store on Houston's northwest side.

Witnesses testified at his trial that he darted from beneath the vehicle as the woman neared, pulled a 9mm pistol on her and tried to steal her purse. When she struggled, he shot her in the neck at close range. The witnesses, who saw the shooting from a service station across the street, said Livingston ran into an alley and rifled the woman's purse.

When he noticed people watching him across the street, he raised his weapon at them at least twice, warning them to stay away. Then he fled into some backyards in the neighborhood before circling back, apparently to retrieve his own car that was left at the service station.

By that time, police had arrived and he was noticed because he was sweating profusely and his trousers were badly torn.

Although the gunman had been masked, witnesses identified by his red and white T-shirt shirt, which carried the slogan: "We eat, sleep, ride, talk, breathe, live and love water skis."

Defense attorneys at his trial said this was a case of mistaken identity, but detectives found his shoe print in one of the yards behind the store.

Police also testified that when they tried to perform a metal trace test on him to determine if he had fired a gun, he spat on his hands and spat all over himself, trying to clean himself. He also spat on officers.