Texas, Oklahoma executed convicted killers

HUNTSVILLE, Texas - A murderer and twice-convicted burglar was executed by injection Wednesday for killing a Waco tortilla shop owner during a 1989 robbery.

It was the state's 21st execution this year and the second of three scheduled this week. A few hours later, Oklahoma executed a man who beat and burned his wife's lover to death in a plot to collect an insurance settlement.

John Albert Burks, 44, was on parole when he walked into Jesse's Tortilla Factory in Waco early Jan. 20, 1989, demanded money and then shot Jesse Contreras as the 63-year-old store owner tried to throw a trash can at him.

Contreras was hit four times and died 27 days later.

In a recent interview, Burks, who grew up near the tortilla shop, denied any involvement. He said he was in the Rio Grande Valley, 370 miles away, at the time of the shooting.

Witnesses testified that they saw Burks leave the scene and flee in a car police determined belonged to his half-brother.

''I don't hold any grudge against him,'' said Contreras' widow, Esther Contreras. ''I can't say that he did do it or that he didn't do it. But the fellows who were with him told off on him and they said he did it.''

In a brief final statement, Burks greeted some relatives who served as witnesses and told them it was ''going to be all right.'' Then he told the warden, ''it's going down, let's get it over with. Y'all take care.''

In McAlester, Okla., William Clifford Bryson, 29, was executed by injection early Thursday for his part in the 1988 murder of James Plantz, 33. He became the ninth Oklahoma prisoner put to death this year.

Prosecutors said Bryson and Marilyn Plantz planned to collect an insurance policy of about $300,000 for Plantz's accidental death. Mrs. Plantz was the beneficiary.

On Aug. 26, 1988, Bryson, then 18, and friend Clinton McKimble surprised Plantz in his house and beat him with two baseball bats provided by Plantz's wife, who also was present, prosecutors said.

McKimble, who received a life sentence for testifying against Bryson, said Mrs. Plantz looked at her husband's head injuries from the beating and remarked that it didn't look like an accident.

''She told us to burn him,'' McKimble testified.

Plantz was loaded into a pickup truck and driven to a remote area, where he and the vehicle were doused with gasoline and set ablaze.

Mrs. Plantz was sentenced to death and is awaiting execution.