Samuel Gallamore was executed by the State of Texas for a triple murder
According to court documents Samuel Gallamore and an accomplice would force their way into a home where they would murder Julianna Kenney and her husband, Verle Clayton Kenney, and their daugher, Adrienne Arnot. The pair would rob the home before fleeing
Samuel Gallamore would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Samuel Gallamore would be executed by lethal injection on January 14 2003
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When Was Samuel Gallamore Executed
Samuel Gallamore was executed on January 14 2003
Samuel Gallamore Case
Samuel Clark Gallamore became the first man to die in the death chamber in Texas this year when his sentence for three 1992 murders was carried out Tuesday night at the Huntsville “Walls” Unit.
Gallamore, 31, looked vastly different from his mug shots taken a decade ago as he lay on the death chamber gurney. With his head shaved and sporting a goatee, Gallamore declined to make a last statement before the lethal dose of chemicals was started at 6:07 p.m. He snorted and gasped twice as the dose took effect and was pronounced dead at 6:14 p.m.
In written final statement, Gallamore — who was described by Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials as “very emotional” and “remorseful” — apologized to the family of Clayton and Julianna Kenney and Mrs. Kenney’s daughter, Adrienne Arnot, who he beat to death with a tire iron on the night of March 29, 1992.
“I would like to apologize and say I’m sorry, but words seem so hollow and cheap,” he wrote. “Their death should not have happened, but it did. I’m so sorry that all of this took place.” Gallamore also wrote that his “heart had grown” with the knowledge the victims’ relatives had forgiven him. “Thank you. You have given me more hope than I have had in a long time,” he stated. “If I could change things I would, not for my sake but for all those who have loved me over the years and for those who have forgiven me.”
Kristin Huffman, Arnot’s cousin and Julianna Kenney’s niece, witnessed the execution and said her family had indeed forgiven Gallamore. “We all believe Jesus died for us and died for him,” she said after the execution. “We forgave him. He’s been reconciled with God now, and you can’t ask for any more than that.”
Kerr County Sheriff Rusty Hierholzer, who worked on the case, said he thought of the murder and the ensuing investigation as Gallamore’s sentence was carried out. “I came mainly to support the family, but yes, when it came back up, you do relive it,” he said. “It’s a crime you could never forget.”
Gallamore and his accomplice James John Steiner, were on a two-week-long drug binge when they forced their way past Arnot and into the Kinney household on March 29, 1992. Armed with the tire iron and a large cedar tree branch, the two attacked Arnot and 83-year-old Clayton Kinney and beat the two severely in the living room. Gallamore then grabbed a knife from the kitchen and stabbed the two several times, making sure they were dead.
Gallamore then attacked Julianna Kenney, who was paralyzed and restricted to a wheelchair. Gallamore stabbed her several times and struck her with a blunt object, believed to be the tire iron, with such force that it opened a seven-inch long gash in her skull.
Gallamore and Steiner stole some belongings from the Kenney house and fled, using the proceeds from their robbery to buy more drugs. The two were then able to make good their escape for nearly 18 months, until Gallamore was arrested in Chicago. He was sentenced to death by a jury in Comal County — where the trial was moved on a change of venue — in 1994.
In spite of the brutality of the killings, Hierholzer said he was pleased that Gallamore had been granted forgiveness. “Seeing this statement now, that he’s acknowledged he’s sorry, I’m pleased that he’s been forgiven,” he said. “We have some sadness that (the Kenneys and Arnot) were killed in a horrific way, but my heart goes out to Gallamore’s family,” Huffman said. “They’ve lost a son, a loved one, and we know what that feels like.”