A Texas man executed Tuesday for killing an elderly store clerk after he set her on fire in a Dallas suburb in 2012 bizarrely declared in his final statement that he hoped to see the victim again in death.
Matthew Lee Johnson’s death by lethal injection came 13 years to the day after he set great-grandmother Nancy Harris, 76, on fire during a convenience store robbery in Garland.
The store clerk suffered gruesome burns and died several days later.
Johnson, 49, was pronounced dead at 6:53 p.m., about 26 minutes after the cocktail of drugs was injected in his arm inside the state penitentiary in Huntsville.
Leading up to his execution, he turned to the Harris family watching through a window a few feet away and begged for forgiveness — while also telling them he wanted to see their slain loved one again.
“As I look at each one of you, I can see her on that day,” he said. “I please ask for your forgiveness. I never meant to hurt her.
“I pray that she’s the first person I see when I open my eyes and I spend eternity with,” he added.
Johnson also asked his wife and daughters to forgive him.
“I made wrong choices, I’ve made wrong decisions, and now I pay the consequences,” he said.
The heinous attack was partially caught on camera, and Harris was able to describe Johnson before she succumbed to her injuries.
During his 2013 trial, he admitted to the slaying as he expressed regret for the murder, calling himself “the lowest scum of the earth.”
He claimed he was high on crack when he set the victim on fire and was not aware of his actions.
“I hurt an innocent woman. I took a human being’s life. I was the cause of that,” he claimed at his trial. “It was not my intentions to — to kill her or to hurt her, but I did.”
Johnson’s legal team previously said their client was addicted to drugs and was sexually abused as a child.
Harris left behind four sons, 11 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
Johnson was killed hours after Indiana executed Benjamin Ritchie, who was convicted of killing a police officer in 2000.
Last week, suspected serial killer Glen Rogers was put down — but before he gave a shout-out to President Trump. Another convicted killer, Oscar Smith, is set to be executed by lethal injection in Tennessee on Thursday.
Johnson is the fourth inmate to be executed this year in Texas.
With Post wires
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