Execution Report: Douglas Feldman

Douglas Alan Feldman, 55, was executed by lethal injection on 31 July 2013 in Huntsville, Texas for killing two people in a fit of road rage.

On the night of 24 August 1998, Feldman, then 40, was driving his motorcycle in Plano when Robert Everett, 36, driving an eighteen-wheel truck, passed him and suddenly pulled into his lane, missing his left hand by twelve to eighteen inches. Feldman then took out a 9mm pistol and fired several shots into the back of Everett's trailer. According to witnesses, Feldman then reloaded his weapon and pulled up alongside the cab of Everett's truck. He fired several more shots directly at Everett, killing him. Feldman fired a total of twelve gunshots at the truck. He rode into a parking lot, then returned to Everett's truck. Seeing that Everett was dead, Feldman began riding home.

Approximately 45 minutes after the shooting, Feldman passed by a gas station in Dallas, about eleven miles from where he killed Everett, and saw a gas tanker truck refilling the station's supply. Feldman drove into the station and fired four shots. Two of them hit the driver, Nicolas Velasquez, 62, in the back, killing him. Feldman then returned home.

On 5 September, twelve days after the killings, Feldman was driving past a Dallas fast food restaurant in his Land Rover. He saw Antonio Vega using a pay phone next to a parked truck and shot him three times, seriously injuring him. A bystander noted Feldman's license plate number and gave it to the police.

When police arrested Feldman, they recovered two firearms and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. Ballistics testing showed that one of the guns, a 9mm pistol, was used in all three shootings.

At his trial, Feldman testified that as he was riding his Harley-Davidson on the Central Expressway, Everett's truck "came out of nowhere, just flying." He said he feared for his life and became angry.

"I felt like I needed to try and stop that man," Feldman testified. "I chased Mr. Everett down, and I shot him to death." He added that he still felt angry about the incident.

Feldman said he shot Velasquez at the gas station because he was standing next to an eighteen-wheeler, and "I exploded again in anger ... I felt emotionally compelled and consumed by anger." He further testified that he shot Vega twelve days later because he saw a diesel truck parked near the pay phone Vega was using and thought Vega might be a truck driver.

At Feldman's punishment hearing, police officer Will Prince testified that the day before Everett and Velasquez's murders, he responded to a call at an automobile dealership, where someone had fired gunshots into several vehicles on the lot and in the showroom, also shattering three large panes of glass. The shell casings and fragments collected from the dealership matched Feldman's pistol. The dealership had worked on Feldman's vehicle thirteen years previously.

Feldman was a former financial analyst who graduated magna cum laude from Southern Methodist University.

While Feldman was in jail, he renewed contact with Elizabeth Garcia, a girlfriend he lived with in the 1980s. Garcia gave investigators 81 letters Feldman wrote to her while he was awaiting trial. "I have found it quite pleasurable to kill those two men," he wrote. "It feels wonderful to cause their death and to watch their pain." He stated that he fantasized about walking through Dallas-area stores and shooting at shopkeepers who had angered him in the past. Feldman wrote that murder should not be illegal, and compared killing humans with hunting game animals.

"I have come to hate every single person on this planet with all my heart and soul," he wrote Garcia. "If I had a button which would kill every single person on this planet, I would push it with no hesitation whatsoever!"

Feldman had a previous conviction for the aggravated robbery of a pharmacy. Employee Jadean Jourden testified that on 16 January 1978, Feldman held a gun to pharmacist Robert Scarbrough's head and ordered him to get specific drugs for him. Brad Runnels testified that he watched Feldman point a gun at a driver who was blocking his escape from the robbery. Feldman served 8 months of a 2-year prison sentence, then served the remainder of the sentence on parole.

James Brantley testified that on 6 December 1996, Feldman was driving his Land Rover out of a parking lot and collided with his restored 1984 Pontiac Firebird. Feldman did not stop. When Brantley tried to catch up with him, Feldman repeatedly slammed his brakes, attempting to cause another collision. At one point, Feldman stopped his vehicle and exited it carrying a ball-peen hammer. Feldman beat the windshield and door with the hammer, then reached in and hit Brantley at least three times. After threatening to kill Brantley, Feldman went back into his Land Rover, drove it in reverse onto the hood of the Firebird, then drove away.

Donna McElroy testified that she was working as a carhop at a hamburger restaurant on 1 May 1998 when she brought Feldman's order to him, but he said he had no money to pay her. When she refused to give him his order, he drove his car into her, throwing her 20 feet and causing her to lose consciousness and some teeth.

Continued on Page 2