Gary Green: FINAL words of death row inmate who murdered estranged wife and daughter, 6, revealed
HUNTSVILLE, TEXAS: A Texas inmate, convicted of fatally stabbing his estranged wife and drowning her six-year-old daughter in a bathtub, addressed the victim’s family moments before his execution. Gary Green, 51, received lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas, at 7.07 pm on Tuesday night, March 7, nearly 14 years after the incident.
He received a death sentence for the September 2009 murders of his estranged wife Lovetta Armstead, 32, and her daughter Jazzmen Montgomery at their home in Dallas. Green did not file any appeals against the execution. When asked by the warden if he had a final statement, Green addressed the victim's family and sought forgiveness. "Vetta, Jared, Ray, I’m sorry, no I’m not sorry. I apologize for all the harm I have caused you and your family," he said to Armstead’s two other children - nine-year-old Jerrett, 12-year-old Jerome and Jazzmen's father Ray Montgomery. "We ate together, we broke bread together, we laughed and cried together as a family."
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'See y’all on the other side'
"I’m sorry I failed you, there’s nothing I can do. I’m not just saying that because I’m laying on this gurney. We were all one and I broke that bond right or wrong I took not one, but two people that we all loved and I had to live with that while I was here. I ask that you forgive me, not for me but for y’all. I’m fixing to go home and y’all are going to be here. I want to make sure you don’t suffer. You have to forgive me to heal and move on. Sorry JT, I always loved you and I told you I will never say goodbye, but this is goodbye. There’s nothing I can do to bring your mother and sister back. One thing about the man I used to be is that I never stopped loving y’all. See y’all on the other side. God bless you. I’m done, warden," he said in his final words, according to The Sun.
Gary Green thanked prison administrators
Prison technicians used a vein in Green's right arm and a vein on the top of his left hand instead of using IV needles which delayed the execution briefly. During his final moments, Green thanked the prison administrators, chaplains, and "all the beautiful human beings at the Polunsky Unit," the prison where he was held. Green then took several quick breaths which evolved into snores. Finally, he was pronounced dead at 7.07 pm after nine snores.
'Too little to die'
Green reportedly committed the murders after Armstead tried to annul their marriage. On the day of the murders, the mother-of-three wrote a letter to him explaining that despite loving him, she had "to do what's best for me." Green wrote one back in response, accusing his estranged wife of plotting against him. He wrote: "You asked to see the monster so here he is the monster you made me.” He also threatened to kill Armstead's other children. In his testimony, Jerrett who survived the stabbings, told the jurors that he believes Green spared his and his brother’s life because they were "too little to die."