Man Put to Death for East Texas Store Abduction Slaying

HUNTSVILLE (AP) – A Texas inmate has been executed for fatally shooting one of three people he and a partner abducted during a Rusk convenience store robbery nearly 11 years ago. 29-year-old Richard Cobb received lethal injection Thursday evening for using a 20-gauge shotgun to kill Kenneth Vandever in a field where two women also were shot and one was raped. The punishment was carried out after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a last-day appeal. Cobb’s lawyers contended a prison expert gave false testimony at Cobb’s trial in 2004 that tainted his punishment. State attorneys argued the testimony was accurate and the appeal was a meritless attempt to delay the execution. It’s the fourth execution this year in Texas. Cobb’s partner, Beunka Adams, was put to death a year ago.