A Walton County man who killed an elderly friend of his mother will be executed at 7 p.m. on Dec. 8, the state Department of Corrections said Monday.
Brian Keith Terrell, 47, would be the fifth person on Georgia's Death Row to be executed this year, and the second in 19 days. Five other men are likely to be scheduled for execution over the coming weeks and months as these cases have completed their appeals.
Terrell was convicted and sentenced to die in the shooting and beating death of John Watson, 70, a man Terrell’s mother had befriended and was helping with meals, errands and trips to dialysis treatment.
Having served 1 ½ years in prison for robbery during a home invasion in DeKalb County, Terrell was free less than two months when he stole 10 blank checks from Watson. He then wrote checks totaling $8,700, making some of them out to himself.
When Watson discovered the theft, he told Terrell’s mother he would not press charges if her son returned the money within two days.
Terrell said he would but instead he went to Watson’s house around daybreak on June 22, 1992, and waited for him to leave the house for a his dialysis appointment.
Terrell shot at Watson several times. He missed but one bullet ricocheted off the driveway and hit Watson in his thigh. Terrell reloaded, chased down Watson and shot him three times more. Then he dragged Watson across the lawn to a secluded spot and beat him about the face and head, breaking bones in his jaw, cheek, forehead and eye socket. Watson died when one of the broken bones penetrated his brain.
This is Terrell's second execution date this year. He was scheduled to die March 10, but that execution was called off because of problems with the lethal injection drug. The drug, pentobarbital, had been secured for the execution of another inmate, Kelly Gissendaner. Both Terrell's and Gissendaner's executions were postponed to allow time for prison officials to determine why the pentobarbatal had clumped. They said cold temperatures caused solids in the compounded drug to separate from the liquid. Gissendaner was eventually put to death on Sept. 30.
In total, Terrell was tried three times for murder.
The first time the case was tried in Houston County because pre-trial publicity made it difficult to seat a jury. Jurors could not agree on a verdict.
The second trial was in 1995 in Walton County. Terrell was found guilty and sentenced to die, but the Georgia Supreme Court reversed his conviction because of a mistake made during jury selection.
His third trial, in 2001, also was in Walton County. Terrell testified in that trial, admitting he stole Watson’s checks and forged them but denying he killed his mother’s friend.
Terrell was eventually convicted of murder and 10 counts forgery and sentenced to die.
On Thursday night, Marcus Ray Johnson was executed for the 1994 murder of Angela Sizemore, a woman he met in an Albany bar. Johnson refused an offer for a prayer and went to his death without making any final statement even though he had insisted that he was innocent.
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