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Published
by the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. CLICK FOR NEWSPAPER DELIVERY
Thursday, July 19, 2001
Execution of Troy Kunkle in local murder is delayed
By Jeremy Schwartz
Caller-Times
Less than three weeks before he was scheduled to die, convicted murderer Troy Kunkle received a stay of execution from U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack of Corpus Christi.
Kunkle's Aug. 1 execution was taken off the schedule a day after he filed an unopposed motion for the stay because of a new federal court appeal.
Kunkle has been on death row since his 1985 conviction for murdering 29-year-old Steven Wayne Horton on Paul Jones Avenue.
Kunkle, who was then an 18-year-old San Antonio high school student, and several friends had taken LSD and consumed a large amount of beer before they robbed Horton of $13, according to court testimony.
During the robbery, which occurred after Kunkle and his friends lured Horton into their car, Kunkle shot Horton in the back of the head, witnesses said.
Lora Lee Zaiontz, Kunkle's girlfriend, received a life sentence in connection with the murder.
Key testimony in Kunkle's case centered on a Metallica song, "No Remorse," that Kunkle was said to have sung to his friends the day after the murder.
"Another day, another death," the song goes. "Another sorrow, another breath."
Kunkle's writ of habeas corpus, filed earlier this month, claims numerous grounds for a reversal of his death sentence, including ineffectual representation during the sentencing phase of the trial, inflammatory remarks by then Assistant District Attorney Leslie Poynter and the introduction of unrelated offenses into the court record.
Kunkle was scheduled to be the second man with Corpus Christi connections to enter the prison system's Huntsville death house in August.
Jeffery Doughtie, sentenced to die for murdering an elderly couple at their antiques store in 1993, is scheduled for an Aug. 16 execution.
Contact Jeremy Schwartz at 886-3779 or schwartzj@caller.com
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