Execution Report: Monty Delk

Monty Allen Delk, 35, was executed by lethal injection on 28 February in Huntsville, Texas for murdering a man and stealing his car.

In November 1986, Delk, then 19, answered an newspaper advertisement for a Chevrolet Camaro for sale. The owners were Gene Olan "Bubba" Allen II and his wife, Sheila. Delk phoned Mr. Allen and they arranged to meet in the parking lot of a grocery store the next morning. While Delk and Allen were on a test drive, Delk shot Allen in the head with a sawed-off shotgun and dumped his body in a ditch. Delk stole the car and Allen's wallet. Allen's body was discovered later that day.

That afternoon, Delk met a friend, Philip Johnson, and talked him into accompanying him to New Orleans. Delk and Johnson were arrested three days later in Louisiana. Inside the car, police found the murder weapon, a copy of the ad showing the car for sale, and a photograph of Sheila Allen, which Delk had taken from Bubba Allen's wallet. Johnson stated that Delk told him he had killed someone, and that along the way, he stopped to dispose of Allen's wallet, explaining that he "had to get rid of some evidence."

Delk had recently been evicted from his boarding house and had lost his Volkswagen in a poker game.

At his trial, Delk's estranged wife, Tina, testified that Delk often contemplated robbery-murders such as Allen's. She said that Delk would look through the paper for ads for valuable items and propose that they go to the seller's houses together, "hold them up at gunpoint, tie them up and take their valuables and shoot them in the head and leave." She also testified that her husband routinely beat her.

Delk had told Tina and others that he had killed a man, William W. Richardson, who disappeared in Florida in March 1985. Richardson's remains were discovered in September 1986. He had been killed with a gunshot to the head. Delk was never charged in Richardson's murder, but Florida authorities considered him their prime suspect. Delk also made death threats against co-workers, family members, and jail staff.

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