Man Executed for Tyler Slaying

HUNTSVILLE (AP) – Texas death row inmate Gregory Russeau has been executed for the slaying of a 75-year-old Tyler auto repair shop owner 14 years ago during a crack cocaine binge. The 45-year-old Russeau became on Thursday the nation’s 17th convicted killer to receive a lethal injection this year and the ninth in Texas. The U.S. Supreme Court last October refused to review his case, and no additional appeals were filed for him in the courts. Russeau was sentenced to die for the May 2001 death of James Syvertson, who was beaten, robbed and whose car was stolen from his shop in Tyler.

Russeau’s trial attorneys acknowledged he took the car but argued someone else was responsible for the slaying. His fingerprints, palm prints and DNA were found at the slaying scene. Russeau was driving the victim’s car when police pulled him over in front of a known drug house in Longview. Police found Russeau about eight hours after relatives of Syvertson found his body. Court records indicate Russeau was on a cocaine binge and on parole at the time.