Execution Report: Johnathan Moore

Johnathan Bryant Moore, 32, was executed by lethal injection on 17 January 2007 in Huntsville, Texas for killing a police officer while burglarizing a home.

On 15 January 1995, Moore, then 20, Paul Cameron, 17, and Peter Dowdle, 17, drove to the San Antonio home of William Braden and burglarized it. After stealing some items and leaving, the men returned to the house to burglarize it again. Dowdle backed their car into Braden's driveway and stayed inside while Moore and Cameron burglarized the house.

San Antonio Police Officer Fabian Dominguez, 29, was driving home from work before sunrise and was a few blocks from home when he spotted what appeared to be a burglary in progress. Dominguez was driving his personal vehicle, but he was still in uniform. He pulled into Braden's driveway, blocking the suspects' car. The three men had concluded their second burglary and were inside the vehicle. Dominguez drew his gun, approached the vehicle, and ordered the men out of the car, but they failed to comply. Dominguez took the keys from Dowdle, then walked around to the passenger side. Moore, who was in the front passenger seat, then pulled out a .25 caliber semiautomatic pistol and shot Dominguez in the face. Dominguez dropped his gun into the car and fell to the ground. Moore then got out of the car, took the keys, and gave them back to Dowdle. He then grabbed Dominguez's gun and shot him three times in the head.

After leaving the scene of the crime, the men picked up Moore's girlfriend, Meredith Nichols, then they drove to a field near Pipe Creek in Bandera County, northwest of San Antonio. There, they disposed of both murder weapons and the stolen items.

The next day, San Antonio police put Moore under surveillance as a suspect in the murder. He was spotted committing traffic violations while driving around with Nichols in her car. When police signaled him to pull over, he sped away. He was captured and arrested after a 20-minute high-speed chase that ended in Bandera County when he lost control of his car and crashed into two police cars. After his arrest, he confessed to the murder and said he could see that the man he shot was wearing a police uniform. He said that he fled from the police because "I figured pretty much that the cops knew I was the one that shot the cop." Cameron and Dowdle were arrested a short time later.

Moore had a previous arrest for criminal trespassing in June 1993. He was given deferred adjudication. The state also presented evidence that Moore was charged with burglary in January 1995 and that he attempted to escape from the Bexar County jail twice while awaiting his capital murder trial.

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