Death Penalty For Border Killer

A Texas man was sentenced Friday to die by lethal injection for killing a 73-year-old New Mexico man who was selling goods at a marketplace on the Texas-New Mexico border.

"This jury served the ultimate punishment against a person who choses to commit the ultimate crime," District Attorney Randall Harris said.

New Mexico has not executed anyone since 1960, but now has four inmates on Death Row. Anti-death-penalty opponents failed to get the 1999 Legislature to pass a bill that would have repealed capital punishment in New Mexico.

A state district court jury deliberated two hours Friday and three hours Thursday before delivering the death penalty against Michael Treadway, 20, of Farwell.

He pleaded guilty Oct. 19 to first-degree murder in the December 1997 shooting death of Everett Clint "Red" Prather.

Appeals are automatic in death penalty cases, Harris said.

"I think this jury has sent a very clear message at least to this side of the state: If you choose to commit a crime like murder, be prepared to suffer the ultimate penalty," Harris said.

Two other men - Ronald Armstrong of Muleshoe, Texas, and Billy Galvan of Farwell - pleaded guilty last year to being accessories to robbery in Prather's death.

State law provides for executions to be carried out by lethal injection. In the last execution nearly 40 years ago, New Mexico used the gas chamber.

Eight prisoners have been put to death in New Mexico since 1933, but there have been no state executions since David Cooper Nelson died in the gas chamber in 1960 for killing a California hitchhiker.