MCALESTER, Okla., Jan. 6 (UPI) -- Oklahoma Thursday executed Billy Don Alverson of Tulsa, one of four men convicted of killing convenience store clerk Richard Yost in 1995.
Alverson, 39, was administered a lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary and was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m. CST, the Tulsa World reported. Alverson was convicted in 1997 of killing Yost during a robbery in which Yost was beaten to death with a baseball bat.
"First, to the Yost family, I would like to say I'm sorry. Forgive me," he said before the execution. "And to my own family, I'm alright. God is good. Don't you cry. Uh-uh. Don't do it. I'm alright."
After the execution, Yost's widow, Angela Houser. Issued a statement saying she doesn't know whether she "will ever have true closure."
"There are no winners tonight, each of us from both sides of the family have lost," she said.
"I want to give my condole(nce)s to the Alverson family, " she said.
Alverson is the second man to be executed for killing Yost. Darwin Demond Brown was put to death in 2009.
The other two convicted in the case are Michael L. Wilson, who is appealing a death sentence, and Richard J. Harjo, who is serving life without parole.
Oklahoma is scheduled to execute Jeffrey David Matthews, 38, Tuesday. He was convicted of killing a 77-year-old great uncle during a robbery in 1994.
