John Wheat was executed by the State of Texas for three murders
According to court documents John Wheat girlfriend sent him a note saying she was going to the police for her six year old daughter and told her she was molested by Wheat. Wheat would head over to the home and would shoot and injure his girlfriend and shoot and kill her children Edwardo Ochoa (8), Ashley Ochoa (6), and Lacey Anderson (19 months)
John Wheat would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
John Wheat would be executed by lethal injection on June 13 2001
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When Was John Wheat Executed
John Wheat was executed on June 13 2001
John Wheat Case
A former church custodian was executed Wednesday evening for a shooting rampage six years ago in Fort Worth where three children were killed and four other people wounded.
John Wheat was convicted of killing 20-month-old Lacey Anderson in a spree that also claimed the lives of her two older siblings, Eddie Ochoa, 8, and Ashley Ochoa, 6. The three, all shot in the head, were found in their mother’s apartment after Wheat surrendered to police closing in on him. Angie Anderson, their mother, was injured. Wheat was pronounced at 6:19 p.m., eight minutes after the lethal dose of drugs began.
“I deeply regret what happened,” he said. “I did not intentionally or knowingly harm anyone. I did not do anything deliberately. That’s it.” Then Wheat uttered a word in Vietnamese, “didimau,” which prison officials translated as meaning, “Let’s get out of here.” He coughed twice, sputtered and gasped before he stopped moving.
Angie Anderson’s aunt, Cynthia Bolin, said her niece still had nightmares about the shootings and that Wheat had taken “the only thing that mattered to her.” “Mr. Wheat has taken the only joy of her life and left her with severe brain damage for the rest of her life,” she said in a written statement. “The execution will not bring closure to Angie, but it may comfort her to know that he is dead and will not kill or harm anyone else.” Anderson was not in Huntsville Wednesday night for the execution.
“She will never again be as functional as she once was before the tragedy,” Bolin said. “She will remain a victim … with only partial memories of her three children, all caused by the cruel actions of John L. Wheat.”
Five friends and relatives of Wheat watched him die and one remarked in the chamber following his death that the three children now had someone to care for them in heaven. “I think he’ll never have a chance to see them in hell,” added Angela Jay, the police officer who was shot three times in the spree and was among victim witnesses also in the chamber Wednesday. Asked if she accepted his explanation that the killings were unintentional, Bolin replied: “That’s a bunch of bull.”
Wheat was the eighth convicted killer executed this year in Texas, where a record 40 executions were carried out last year. The U.S. Supreme Court last week refused to review his case and Wheat’s attorneys made no moves seeking clemency. He declined to speak with reporters in the weeks leading up to his punishment.
“It’s probably the most horrendous offense I’ve ever dealt with,” said Lisa Mullen, who prosecuted Wheat at his capital murder trial, recalled this week.
