07:31 AM CST on Friday, November 5, 2004

Associated Press

HUNTSVILLE, Texas -- Apologetic killer Robert Brice Morrow was executed Thursday for the fatal beating and slashing of a 21-year-old Nevada college student who was abducted while home in Texas on spring break.

In a last statement, Morrow addressed the parents of his victim by name and told them, "I would like to tell you that I am responsible and I am sorry for what I did and the pain I caused."

He expressed love to his friends and said he had been blessed that they stood by him. Morrow urged them to stay strong.

"Set me free warden," he said. "Father, accept me."

As he waited for the lethal drugs to take effect, he turned again, looking through a window at his victim's relatives and added, "I do hope my death brings you all some closure."

Then he blurted out, "I feel it" and gasped slightly three times. He was pronounced dead at 6:35 p.m. CST, eight minutes after the drugs began flowing.

The execution was delayed briefly as prison officials had difficulty finding suitable veins in the former drug user's arms. Instead they selected veins at the top of each hand for the needles.

Morrow, 47, a former oilfield roughneck with a criminal record in at least three states, was condemned for the 1996 slaying of Lisa Allison, who was taken from a car wash near her home in Liberty, about 45 miles east of Houston. Her body was found the next day in the Trinity River. Authorities determined she had suffered 42 injuries.

Morrow was the 20th Texas inmate executed this year and the second this week.

No last-day appeals were filed to try to block the punishment. The U.S. Supreme Court two weeks ago refused to review his case.

"I still can't believe that there are people that walk the earth like this man," Mike Allison, the victim's father, said after watching Morrow die. "He paid a price tonight, a price I wanted him to pay, that he's just beginning to pay. and he'll be paying it for eternity.

"I hope now some of the anger can come out of my body so I can reflect back on the memories, the sweet memories of Lisa, and enjoy the life and accomplishments of my other daughter."

Lisa Allison had cheated death once, getting a clean bill of health months earlier after surviving thyroid cancer. She was looking forward to a hotel management career after graduation from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.

A witness told authorities he saw a man fitting Morrow's description lying on top of Allison in the passenger side of a car at the car wash. She didn't appear to be struggling and he dismissed the activity as nothing more than boyfriend and girlfriend, then saw them drive away in the direction of the river.

The car later was found abandoned. Morrow, who had previous convictions for burglary, weapons possession and larceny in South Carolina, Louisiana and Texas, was arrested nearly four months later walking near a crack house in Houston. A computer check revealed he was wanted for the slaying.

At his trial and in interviews with reporters, the 10th-grade dropout gave multiple stories about his case, including acknowledging involvement in her death, claiming a relationship with her and blaming someone else.

Prosecutors called Allison the victim of a random crime and disputed some of Morrow's comments.

"I caught him in several lies," said Mike Little, the Liberty County district attorney who prosecuted Morrow. "I think the jury saw through what he was saying very quickly."

After a 10-week trial, the jury took 13 minutes to decide he should be put to death.

"I wish it didn't happen, but I can't change it," Morrow said recently from death row. "When you do drugs, there's no telling what can happen. I did that night and it got out of hand."

Blood samples from the car matched Morrow's blood and the victim's. Witnesses testified he previously had talked of how easy it would be to abduct a woman from the car wash, rob her and use the money to buy drugs. Witnesses also said he had bloody clothing and scratches on his arms when they saw him the night of Allison's disappearance.

On Tuesday, Lorenzo Morris, 52, from Houston, was executed for beating a 70-year-old Houston man who died nine months after the attack.

Next week, Demarco McCullum, 30, is scheduled to die Tuesday for the robbery, beating and shooting death of a gay man in Houston in 1995. The following day, Frederick McWilliams, 30, faces lethal injection for the shooting death of a man in Houston during a car theft.