Murderer’s son is arrested for lashing out during his execution
PICTURED: Murderer’s son screams ‘you killed my dad’ as he is arrested for pounding on the glass and lashing out during his father’s execution by lethal injection
- Gordon Wayne Coble, 45, was led out in handcuffs from the prison in Huntsville during his father’s execution
- Billie Wayne Coble, 70, was put to death at 6.24pm in state’s death chamber in Huntsville
- Comes 30 years after shootings of his parents-in-law Robert and Zelda Vicha, and their son Bobby Vich
- Gordon his own son Dalton were charged with resisting arrest following their outburst
Billie Wayne Coble, 70, was executed by lethal injection on Thursday night as his son and grandson lashed out
Prison officials say emotions boiled over during a Texas execution, resulting in the arrests of the inmate’s son and grandson after they swung and kicked at others witnessing the lethal injection.
Gordon Wayne Coble, 45, was led out in handcuffs from the prison in Huntsville during his father Billie Wayne Coble’s execution on Thursday night.
The son became emotional and banged on the chamber windows as the lethal dose of pentobarbital was administered.
Prison officials say he lashed out, as did his wife and his son, 21-year-old Dalton Coble.
Billie Wayne Coble was executed for the 1989 murders of his estranged wife’s parents and brother near Waco.
The 70-year-old Vietnam War veteran spoke his final words from inside the death chamber, telling people in an adjoining room that he loved them.
‘Yes sir, that will be five dollars,’ he added in the moments before death, in a cryptic remark that might have referred to his own nickname, ‘Five Dollar Bill.’
The doomed man’s son and grandson were eventually taken outside into a courtyard, where they were handcuffed and arrested.
Gordon Coble, center, is led out of the of the Texas State Penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas, after reacting to the execution of his father, Billie Wayne Coble. Chaos erupted outside Texas’ death chamber Thursday night when the son of the condemned inmate pounded on the chamber windows, shouted obscenities and threw fists after his father spoke his final words
Coble’s son Gordon, left, and grandson Dalton, right, were arrested and held in jail after banging on the windows of the death chamber during the execution
Coble is a convicted murderer who shot dead his wife’s parents and her brother in 1989. He is seen during a 2004 interview
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Both men were being held in the Walker County Jail on Friday on charges of resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.
The execution came thirty years after the August 1989 shootings of Robert and Zelda Vicha, and their son Bobby Vicha, at their homes in Axtell, northeast of Waco.
Coble is the third convict executed this year in the United States and the second in the Lone Star state, which puts to death the most inmates.
He is the oldest man executed in Texas since the US Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. The oldest in the US is serial bomber Walter Moody, put to death last year in Alabama at the age of 83.
Coble’s attorneys asked the US Supreme Court to delay the execution, arguing his original trial lawyers were negligent for conceding his guilt by failing to present an insanity defense before a jury convicted him of capital murder.
A state appeals court rejected Coble’s request to delay Thursday’s execution and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles turned down his request for a commutation.
Members of the victim’s family, the Vichas, are greeted with a salute from current and former McLennan County law enforcement officers as the head toward the entrance of the Texas State Penitentiary in Huntsville for the execution
Coble ‘does not deny that he bears responsibility for the victims’ loss of life, but he nonetheless wanted his lawyers to present a defense on his behalf,’ his attorney, A. Richard Ellis, said in his appeal to the Supreme Court.
In Coble’s clemency petition to the Board of Pardons and Paroles, Ellis said his client suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from his time as a Marine during the Vietnam War.
Ellis claims Coble was convicted, in part, due to misleading testimony from two prosecution expert witnesses on whether he would be a future danger.
J.R. Vicha, Bobby Vicha’s son, said it will be a relief knowing the execution will have finally taken place after years of delays.
‘Still, the way they do it is more humane than what he did to my family. It’s not what he deserves but it will be good to know we got as much justice as allowed by the law,’ said J.R. Vicha, who was 11 when he was tied up and threatened by Coble during the killings.
Prosecutors said Coble, distraught over his pending divorce, kidnapped his wife, Karen Vicha. He was arrested and later freed on bond.
In August 1989, Coble drove to the homes of Robert and Zelda Vicha (pictured), and their son Bobby Vicha, in Axtell, northeast of Waco, before going on a shooting spree
Nine days after the kidnapping, Coble went to Karen Vicha’s home, where he handcuffed and tied up her three daughters and J.R. Vicha.
He then went to the homes of Robert and Zelda Vicha, 64 and 60 respectively, and Bobby Vicha, 39, who lived nearby, and fatally shot them.
After Karen Vicha returned home, Coble abducted her and drove off, assaulting her and threatening to rape and kill her.
He was arrested after wrecking in neighboring Bosque County following a police chase.
Coble was convicted of capital murder in 1990. In 2007, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a new trial on punishment. On retrial in 2008, a second jury sentenced him to death.
Crawford Long, the former first assistant district attorney in McLennan County who helped retry Coble in 2008, said his ‘heart full of scorpions’ description of Coble was fitting.
His attorneys asked to delay execution, arguing trial lawyers were negligent for not presenting an insanity defense
‘He had no remorse at all,’ said Long, who retired in 2010.
J.R. Vicha, 40, still lives in the Waco area. He eventually became a prosecutor for eight years, a career choice inspired in part by his father, who was a police sergeant in Waco when he was killed.
His grandfather was a retired plumber and his grandmother worked for a foot doctor.
Vicha, now a private practice lawyer, is working to get a portion of a highway near his home renamed in honor of his father.
‘Every time I run into somebody that knew (his father and grandparents), it’s a good feeling. And when I hear stories about them, it still makes it feel like they’re kinda still here,’ Vicha said.
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