Houston man executed for robbery-slaying

HUNTSVILLE, Texas -- Condemned prisoner Franklin Dewayne Alix was executed Tuesday evening for fatally shooting a Houston man during a robbery.

Alix, 34, received lethal injection for the slaying of 23-year-old Eric Bridgeford, who interrupted Alix as he robbed the apartment of Bridgeford's sister. The sister also had been abducted and raped in what authorities said was part of a six-month series of crimes by Alix more than 11 years ago.

The execution was the fifth this year in Texas, which executes more prisoners than any other U.S. state.

"I killed the dude," Alix told The Associated Press recently from death row. "I wasn't trying to but I did. The dude wasn't bothering me. I was bothering him.

"I don't want to die. I'm remorseful. But I won't apologize."

But he did, to the Thomas family.

"I've been wanting to apologize to y'all for your son," he told them in the seconds before his death. "They told me not to do it in court."

According to trial testimony, Alix abducted Bridgeford's sister Jan. 3, 1998, forced her into the trunk of a car, drove around and raped her, then brought her home. As he was ransacking her apartment, Bridgeford came in, saw Alix with a gun and ran off but was shot in the back. Alix fled and was arrested a few days later.

Alix denied the rape. He said he threatened to put Bridgeford's sister in the trunk of a car and she "volunteered to give me her TV" if he wouldn't kill her.

"That's how I got in her house," he said. "Her brother came home. It was just a simple robbery. My intention was never to kill anybody."

Harris County prosecutors said Alix also was responsible for multiple rapes and robberies from August 1997 through January 1998.