HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A Texas man was executed Tuesday evening, 13 years to the day of a convenience store robbery in which he set a clerk on fire in a Dallas suburb.
Matthew Lee Johnson, 49, received a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. He was condemned for the May 20, 2012, attack on 76-year-old Nancy Harris, a great-grandmother he splashed with lighter fluid and set ablaze in the suburb of Garland. Badly burned, she died days afterward.
Asked by the warden if he had a final statement, Johnson turned his head and looked at his victim’s relatives, watching through a window close by.
“As I look at each one of you, I can see her on that day,” he said, speaking slowly and clearly. “I please ask for your forgiveness. I never meant to hurt her.” He added, "I pray that she’s the first person I see when I open my eyes and I spend eternity with.”
“I made wrong choices, I’ve made wrong decisions, and now I pay the consequences,” said Johnson, who also asked forgiveness from his wife and daughters.
There was little reaction from Harris’ relatives — three sons, two daughters-in-law and a granddaughter — who witnessed the execution and declined to speak with reporters afterward.
As the lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital began taking effect, Johnson gasped several times, then made repeated sounds like snoring. Within a minute, all movement stopped. He was pronounced dead at 6:53 p.m. CDT, 26 minutes after the drugs began flowing into his arms.
Johnson’s execution was the second carried out Tuesday in the United States. Hours earlier in Indiana, Benjamin Ritchie received a lethal injection for the 2000 killing of a police officer.
The day's executions were part of a group of four scheduled within about a week’s time. On May 15, Glen Rogers was executed in Florida. On Thursday, Oscar Smith is scheduled to receive a lethal injection in Tennessee.
Security video captured part of the attack against Harris who, despite her burns, was able to describe the suspect before she died.
Johnson’s guilt was never in doubt. During his 2013 trial, he admitted to setting Harris on fire and also expressed remorse. “I hurt an innocent woman. I took a human being’s life ... It was not my intentions to -- to kill her or to hurt her, but I did,” he had said at the time.
Johnson said he had not been aware of what he had done as he had been high after smoking $100 worth of crack. His attorneys told jurors Johnson had a long history of drug addiction and had been sexually abused as a child.
Harris had worked at the convenience store for more than 10 years, living only about a block and a half away, according to testimony from one of her sons. She had four sons, 11 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
Prosecutors said Harris had only been working her Sunday morning shift for a short time when Johnson walked in, poured lighter fluid over her head and demanded money.
After Johnson grabbed the money from the register, he set Harris on fire and calmly walked out of the store, according to court documents. Harris frantically tried to extinguish herself and her clothing, exiting the store and screaming for help before a police officer used a fire extinguisher to douse the flames covering her body. Johnson was arrested about an hour later.
Harris suffered extensive second- and third-degree burns over her head and face, neck, shoulders, upper arms, and leg and was in a great deal of pain in the days before she died, a nurse and doctor testified.
Johnson’s legal team did not pursue any appeals this week with the U.S. Supreme Court, according to David Dow, one of the inmate’s attorneys. Lower appeals courts had previously rejected defense requests to stay the execution, and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Friday denied Johnson’s request to commute his death sentence to a lesser penalty.
In previous appeals, Johnson’s lawyers had argued his death sentence was unconstitutional because he was improperly determined to be a future danger to society, a legal finding that was needed to sentence him to death. His most recent appeals had argued his execution date had been illegally scheduled.
Johnson was the fourth person put to death this year in Texas, historically the nation’s busiest capital punishment state. Tuesday’s executions in Texas and Indiana brought this year’s total in the U.S. to 18 inmates put to death.
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This undated photo provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shows Matthew Lee Johnson, who was sentenced to death for a convenience store robbery in which he set an elderly clerk on fire in Garland, Texas. (Texas Department of Criminal Justice via AP)
This undated photo provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shows Matthew Lee Johnson, who was sentenced to death for a convenience store robbery in which he set an elderly clerk on fire in Garland, Texas. (Texas Department of Criminal Justice via AP)
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A shooter dressed in black killed at least two people and wounded eight others at Brown University on Saturday during final exams on the Ivy League campus, authorities said, as police searched for the suspect.
Officers were hunting through campus buildings and sifting through trash cans more than three hours after the shooting erupted.
The suspect was a male in dark clothing who was last seen leaving an engineering building where the attack happened, said Timothy O’Hara, Deputy Chief of Police.
Mayor Brett Smiley said a shelter-in-place was in effect for the area and encouraged people living near the campus to stay inside and not to return home until it is lifted.
“We have all available resources” to find the suspect, Smiley said.
The eight wounded people were in critical but stable condition, the mayor said. He declined to say whether the victims were students.
University officials initially told students and staff that a suspect was in custody, before later saying that was not the case and that police were still searching for a suspect or suspects, according to alerts issued through Brown’s emergency notification system.
The mayor said a person preliminarily thought to be involved was detained but was later determined to have no involvement.
“We’re still getting information about what’s going on, but we’re just telling people to lock their doors and to stay vigilant,” said Providence Councilmember John Goncalves, whose ward includes the Brown campus. “As a Brown alum, someone who loves the Brown community and represents this area, I’m heartbroken. My heart goes out to all the family members and the folks who’ve been impacted.”
The shooting occurred in the Barus & Holley building, a seven-story complex that houses the School of Engineering and physics department. According to the university’s website, the building includes more than 100 laboratories, dozens of classrooms and offices.
Engineering design exams were underway in the building when the shooting occurred.
Brown senior biochemistry student Alex Bruce was working on a final research project in his dorm directly across the street from the building when he heard sirens outside and received a text about an active shooter shortly after 4 p.m.
“I’m just in here shaking,” he said, watching through the window as a half-dozen armed officers in tactical gear surrounded his dorm. He said he feared for a friend who he thought was inside the engineering building at the time.
Students in a nearby lab hid under desks and turned off the lights after receiving an alert about the shooting, said Chiangheng Chien, a doctoral student in engineering who was about a block away from the scene.
Mari Camara, 20, a junior from New York City, was coming out of the library and rushed inside a taqueria to seek shelter. She spent more than three hours there, texting friends while police searched the campus.
“Everyone is the same as me, shocked and terrified that something like this happened,” she said.
President Donald Trump told reporters that he had been briefed on the shooting and “all we can do right now is pray for the victims.”
“It’s a shame,” he said in brief remarks at the White House.
Police were actively investigating and still gathering information from the scene, said Kristy DosReis, the chief public information officer for the city of Providence. The FBI said it was assisting in the response.
Brown is a private institution with roughly 7,300 undergraduate students and more than 3,000 graduate students.
Durkin Richer reported from Washington. Associated Press journalists Mike Balsamo and Seung Min Kim in Washington; Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City; Jack Dura in Bismarck, North Dakota; and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.
Law enforcement officials walk near an entrance to Brown University in Providence, R.I., on Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, during the investigation of a shooting. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Emergency personnel gather on Waterman Street at Brown University in Providence, R.I., on Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, during the investigation of a shooting. (AP Photo/Mark Stockwell)
Emergency personnel gather on Waterman Street at Brown University in Providence, R.I., on Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, during the investigation of a shooting. (AP Photo/Mark Stockwell)
Law enforcement officials carrying weapons gather near Brown University in Providence, R.I., on Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, during the investigation of a shooting. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Ambulances line Hope Street at Brown University in Providence, R.I., Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, during reports of a shooting. (AP Photo/Mark Stockwell)
Emergency personnel gather at Hope and Waterman Streets at Brown University in Providence, R.I., Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, during reports of a shooting. (AP Photo/Mark Stockwell)
Ambulances line Hope Street at Brown University in Providence, R.I., Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, during reports of a shooting. (AP Photo/Mark Stockwell)
Emergency personnel gather at Hope and Waterman Streets at Brown University in Providence, R.I., Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, during reports of a shooting. (AP Photo/Mark Stockwell)
In this image from video, law enforcement officials gather outside the Brown University campus in Providence, R.I., on Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Kimberlee Kruesi)
FILE - The logo for Brown University is displayed at the school's campus in Providence, R.I., on Wednesday, April 25, 2018. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)
