Missouri executes man convicted of killing former lover, her husband

BONNE TERRE, Mo. — A Missouri man convicted of killing his former lover and her husband was executed on Tuesday, prison officials said.

David Hosier, 69, was pronounced dead at 6:11 CDT after receiving a single-dose injection of the sedative pentobarbital at the state prison, Missouri Department of Corrections spokeswoman Karen Pojmann told The Associated Press via text message.

The execution was carried out at the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre, The Kansas City Star reported.

Hosier was convicted in 2013 for the murders of Angela Gilpin, 45, and her husband, Rodney Gilpin, 61, who were found dead at their Jefferson City home on Sept. 28, 2009, the Star reported. Angela Gilpin and Hosier had been in a relationship before she reconciled with her husband, according to the newspaper.

“I leave you all with love,” Hosier said as part of a final statement released before the execution, prison officials said. “Now I get to go to Heaven. Don’t cry for me. Just join me when your time comes.”

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson had denied clemency for Hosier on Monday, saying that “he displays no remorse for his senseless violence,” USA Today reported.

Hosier maintained until his death that he was innocent of the charges and should not have been convicted on circumstantial evidence, according to the AP. The evidence included an application for a protective order alleging that Hosier had stalked Angela Gilpin and that she was afraid of him, the Star reported.

“He scares me. I don’t know (what) he will do next,” she wrote, according to court records.

According to court records, Hosier left a voicemail for a friend the day before the killings, saying that he was going to “finish it,” USA Today reported. He allegedly called another friend to say that he was going to “eliminate his problems,” court records state.

The next morning, a neighbor found the bodies of the Gilpins in the hallway of their apartment, the Star reported.

Parson, a former county sheriff, has overseen 10 executions since taking office in 2018, according to the AP.

“Ms. Angela Gilpin had her life stolen by David Hosier because he could not accept it when she ended their romantic involvement. He displays no remorse for his senseless violence,” Parson said in a statement Monday. “For these heinous acts, Hosier earned maximum punishment under the law. I cannot imagine the pain experienced by Angela’s and Rodney’s loved ones but hope that carrying out Hosier’s sentence according to the Court’s order brings closure.”

Hosier’s defense attorneys attempted through the years to appeal the death sentence on the grounds that no physical evidence linked him to the murders, CBS News reported.

“No confession, no eyewitnesses, no fingerprints, and none of David’s DNA or other personal effects were found at the crime scene,” the attorney wrote in his 2019 appeal.

© 2024 Cox Media Group