William Wyatt was executed by the State of Texas for the murder of three year old Damien Willis
According to court documents William Wyatt was left to care for Damien Willis however he would sexually assault the child and then murder him with a plastic bag over his head
William Wyatt would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
William Wyatt was executed by lethal injection on August 3 2006
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When Was William Wyatt Executed
William Wyatt was executed on August 3 2006
William Wyatt Case
Condemned inmate William Wyatt Jr. asked for forgiveness in the moments before he was executed for the slaying of a 3-year-old boy but insisted repeatedly from the Texas death chamber gurney that he didn’t kill the child. “I did not murder your son,” Wyatt, 41, told the father and grandmother of little Damien Willis as they watched him Thursday evening through a window as he received lethal injection. “I did not do it. “I just want you to know that.”
Then he continued, asking “for all of your forgiveness and I will see all of you soon.” He also thanked his relatives for their support. Eight minutes later, he was pronounced dead.
Wyatt was sentenced to die for raping and smothering the son of his girlfriend at their home in Texarkana 9 1/2 years ago. The child’s relatives, accompanied by Bowie County District Attorney Bobby Lockhart, declined to speak with reporters after the execution, the 17th this year in Texas, the nation’s busiest capital punishment state.
Wyatt had said in a recent death row interview with The Associated Press that he may have been responsible for the drowning because he left the child alone in a bathtub on Feb. 4, 1997. But Wyatt, who was caring for the child while his girlfriend was at work, echoed the sentiment he expressed Thursday, saying he didn’t kill the boy. “He was kind of my son,” Wyatt said. “That’s how I looked at it. I wouldn’t hurt him, or anybody. Period.” He pointed out that he summoned emergency medical help after discovering the child unconscious in the tub.
Evidence, however, showed the toddler didn’t drown but was smothered. Authorities also determined the boy had been sexually assaulted, both in the past and just before he died. Prosecutors theorized he made up the drowning story to cover up the rape and smothering.
The execution came about two hours after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal that sought to block the punishment.
A prosecution psychologist testified at Wyatt’s capital murder trial the former Bowie County jailer was a sexual sadist who enjoyed inflicting pain.
Wyatt, a Detroit native known to his fellow death row inmates as “Motown,” also gave police a statement acknowledging raping and smothering the boy. Wyatt argued his statements – and he gave three over three days following his arrest – were coerced by authorities.
In his first statement after his arrest, Wyatt said he found the child under water. A day later, he acknowledged not telling the truth and said he sodomized the boy before putting him in the tub. Then the following day, he changed his story again, blaming something he saw on television for prompting him to sexually assault the child and telling police of beating and smothering the boy with a plastic bag. “I felt threatened,” Wyatt said, explaining his confessions.
Wyatt was arrested after physicians determined the child likely had been the victim of repeated sexual assaults. “One of the pediatricians testified it was the worst case of child abuse he’d seen,” Michael Shepherd, the Bowie County district attorney who prosecuted Wyatt, said this week.
Three more executions are scheduled for this month in Texas. Next, on Aug. 17, is Richard Hinojosa, 44, condemned for the 1994 abduction and slaying of a Bexar County woman
http://www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/news/state/15194704.htm
