Execution Report: Jeffrey D. Williams

Jeffrey Demond Williams, 37, was executed by lethal injection on 15 May 2013 in Huntsville, Texas for killing a police officer who was attempting to arrest him.

On the Wednesday night of 19 May 1999, Houston Police Officer Troy Blando, 39, was driving around the parking lot of the Roadrunner Inn in southwest Houston, looking for stolen vehicles. Blando was in plain clothes and driving an unmarked police Jeep Cherokee. Blando spotted Williams, then 23, driving a Lexus. Blando did a computer search on the car and learned that it had been stolen in an aggravated robbery.

Williams exited the car. Blando then approached him with his weapon drawn. Blando confronted Williams and attempted to handcuff him. While they were struggling, Williams drew a gun from under his shirt and shot Blando in the chest. Blando also fired his gun, but missed. Williams then ran away. Blando was able to return to his car and operate a switch to summon emergency help. An ambulance arrived 19 minutes later. Officer Blando died on the way to the hospital. Williams was arrested about a block from the scene a short time later. He had a pair of handcuffs locked around one wrist and was still carrying the murder weapon, a 9mm semiautomatic pistol.

Under Texas law, the killing of a policeman is capital murder if the victim was acting in the line of duty and the killer knew that the victim was a peace officer.

After his arrest, Williams admitted shooting Blando, but he said he shot in self-defense. He said he did not know Blando was a police officer, but thought he was trying to rob him.

At Williams' trial, one of the officers who responded to Blando's call for help testified that Blando was wearing his badge around his neck. Trial testimony also indicated that it was standard department practice for officers to draw their weapons when approaching a suspect in a stolen vehicle. The Lexus had been stolen from Jennifer Null at gunpoint on 10 May 1999, nine days before Troy Blando's killing.

A witness testified that she heard two men arguing in the parking lot, and she looked out her window. She saw and heard "a black man" (Williams) telling "a white man" (Blando) not to handcuff him. After Blando got one handcuff on Williams, Williams spun around and shot Blando.

Williams had no prior felony convictions, but two witnesses at his punishment hearing identified him as the gunman in a January 1999 robbery-shooting.

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