TEXAS EXECUTES NY EX-CONVICT FOR SOLDIER'S SLAYING

Texas executed a former New York City hair stylist with a long criminal record for the robbery, rape and murder of an Army medic at her apartment near Fort Hood.
Denard Manns, 42, was pronounced dead 10 minutes after the lethal drugs began to flow.
He was convicted of raping and murdering 26-year-old Michelle Robson in 1998. The former mural painter from New York City had moved to Texas that year after being paroled after serving nearly six years in prison for armed robbery — his second stint in jail for the crime.
He maintained he had nothing to do with the death of Robson, who lived with her husband a few doors down from where Manns was staying with his half brother and cousin in Killeen, in central Texas.
Manns was the 17th convicted killer executed this year in the nation's most active death penalty state and the second in as many days. Another three lethal injections are scheduled for next week in Texas.