Execution Report: Alva Curry

Alva Eziel Curry, 33, was executed by lethal injection on 28 January 2003 in Huntsville, Texas for the robbery and murder of a convenience store clerk.

On 16 October 1991, Curry, then 22, and Mark Davis, 18, entered an Austin convenience store armed with guns. Curry jumped over the counter, held his gun at employee David Vela's head, and demanded money. When Vela, 20, was unable to open the store's safe, Curry shot him in the temple at close range. Curry and Davis took the cash drawer, which contained $220. Before leaving the store, they shot Vela four more times. The incident was recorded on security cameras.

One week later, on 23 October, convenience store employee Brendon Proske, 23, was killed in a similar robbery.

A tip from a confidential informant led to Curry's arrest on 8 November. A search of his home produced clothing that matched that recorded on the Vela murder videotape. The convenience store's missing cash register drawer was also found in Curry's home, as well as one of the murder weapons. Curry confessed.

Curry had no prior felony convictions, but he had a history of theft and assault. At the time of the killings. He was free on bond on a charge of assaulting his sister-in-law.

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