Stephen McCoy was executed by the State of Texas for two murders
According to court documents Stephen McCoy, James Paster and Gary Leblanc agreed to murder Robert Edward Howard for money. The three men would wait in a parking lot outside of a bar and punctured the tire of Howard’s truck. When Howard came out he would attempt to get his jack out of the back of the truck when he would be fatally shot by James Paster
In another incident Stephen McCoy, James Paster and Gary Leblanc would abduct an eighteen year old Cynthia Johnson from her vehicle which was broken down on the side of the road. McCoy would sexuallly assault the woman and would hold down her legs while Paster and Leblanc strangled her with an electric cord
Stephen McCoy, James Paster and Gary Leblanc would be arrested
Gary LeBlanc would testify against the two other men in exchange for a 35 year prison sentence
James Paster would be convicted and sentenced to death for the Robert Edward Howard murder and sentenced to life for the Cynthia Johnson murder
Stephen McCoy would be convicted and sentenced to death for the Cynthia Johnson murder and sentenced to life for the Robert Howard Murder
Stephen McCoy would be executed by lethal injection on May 24, 1989
James Paster would be executed by lethal injection on September 20 1989
Stephen McCoy Photos
James Paster Photos
Stephen McCoy FAQ
When was Stephen McCoy executed
Stephen McCoy was executed on May 24 1989
How was Stephen McCoy executed
Stephen McCoy was executed by lethal injection
When was James Paster executed
James Paster was executed on September 20 1989
How was James Paster executed
James Paster was executed by lethal injection
Stephen McCoy Case
ames Emery Paster was executed by lethal injection early Wednesday for the 1980 contract killing of a Houston man whose ex-wife paid $1,000 to have him murdered.
Paster, 44, stared at the ceiling and avoided eye contact with witnesses as he was led into the death chamber at the Texas Department of Corrections. He was pronounced dead at 1:17 a.m. EDT, department officials said
‘If there was ever an individual that warranted the use of the death penalty, this was clearly one,’ Texas Attorney General Jim Mattox said after the execution.
He was sentenced to death for shooting Robert Earl Howard, 38, in the head outside a Houston nightclub Oct. 25, 1980. The victim’s ex-wife, Trudy Howard, hired Paster and brothers Eddie and Gary LeBlanc to kill Howard for $1,000.
It was unclear whether Paster’s final statement — ‘I hope Mrs. Howard can find peace in this.’ — referred to the victim’s mother or the woman who hired him to commit the killing.
Outside the prison, about two dozen members of the human rights group Amnesty International protested the execution, chanting ‘Say no to death row,’ ‘Killing is killing is killing, and ‘Reject the injection.’
Defense lawyers notified the Texas attorney general’s office Tuesday that they would not pursue appeals after being rejected Monday by a state district judge and by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
The lawyers from the Texas Resource Center said they had no further issues to include in appeals. They previously argued that Paster’s original lawyers did not present mitigating evidence at the trial concerning childhood abuse.
Paster, also convicted in the abductions, rapes and killings of two other women, was the 118th person put to death in the United States and the 32nd in Texas since the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976.
The condemned man spent most of Tuesday watching television or talking with fellow death row inmate John Paul Penry, Texas Department of Corrections spokesman Charles Brown said. He ordered a final meal of steak, salad, french fried potatoes and watermelon.
Two months after the Howard slaying, Trudy Howard married Eddie LeBlanc. All three LeBlancs later were convicted in the murder for hire and still are in prison.
Trudy LeBlanc, 42, and Eddie LeBlanc, 34, are serving life sentences for their part in Howard’s death. Gary LeBlanc is serving a 35-year sentence in exchange for testimony against Paster in that case and others.
Two days before Paster was to be executed in 1987, U.S. District Judge Ross Sterling granted a reprieve. Paster’s lawyer had argued that the condemned man had been unable to participate in his defense because he had been fed only bologna sandwiches in jail and had been deprived of adequate sleep because he was awakened every day between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. to go to court.
Paster also is serving life sentences in the murders of Cynthia Darlene Johnson, 18, of Conroe and Diane Trevino Oliver, 27, of Channelview.
Johnson was abducted along a Houston freeway, taken to a warehouse and raped before being strangled. Paster drove a nail through the woman’s nose to ensure her death. One of his co-defendants in that case, Stephen McCoy, was executed in May for Johnson’s death.
McCoy also was a co-defendant with Paster in the abduction, rape and stabbing death of Oliver.
Paster, a former rock musician and restaurant cook, also has confessed to killing two Houston-area women but never was tried for those crimes.
https://www.upi.com/Archives/1989/09/20/Hired-killer-executed-in-Texas/8256622267200/
