A Missouri man convicted of killing a woman he had an affair with and her husband has been executed despite his previous claims of innocence.
David Hosier was killed by lethal injection in a Missouri prison on Tuesday evening. He had his request for clemency denied by Governor Mike Parson.
Hosier, 69, was found guilty in 2009 of killing Angela and Rodney Gilpin. Investigators said that Angela and Hosier were having an affair, but she ended it.
"Ms. Angela Gilpin had her life stolen by David Hosier because he could not accept it when she ended their romantic involvement. He displays no remorse for his senseless violence," Gov. Parson said. "For these heinous acts, Hosier earned maximum punishment under the law. I cannot imagine the pain experienced by Angela’s and Rodney’s loved ones but hope that carrying out Hosier’s sentence according to the Court’s order brings closure."
Hosier, however, has said he was not guilty of the crime and shared a statement he planned to read before his execution with NBC News.
"I’ve been able to speak the truth of my innocence. I’ve been able to set an example of resistance to lawyers who bully their clients," it read. "I’ve been able to reminisce with family and friends new and old. I’ve been able to learn to be the fullest version of me."
The inmate had expressed concerns with how his lawyers presented his clemency petition by focusing on his childhood instead of the circumstances of the crime. When Hosier was 16 years old, his father, Glen, was killed in the line of duty while serving as an Indiana state trooper.
"Fifty-three years ago, my dad was killed," Hosier previously told NBC. "I told them I didn’t want any of that used. It doesn’t have anything to do with this case."
Prosecutors detailed Hosier as a scorned lover who broke into the couple’s home. Hosier said the affair happened while the couple was estranged, but they got back together a month before the killings.
Angela Giplin had a request for a protective order against Hosier in her purse when she was killed.
Police arrested Hosier in Oklahoma with a cache of weapons. He had a World War II-era machine gun that was not loaded when police found it, according to NBC. However, the weapon was used in the killing, investigators say.
Ballistics tests were ‘inconclusive’ an expert said at Hosier’s trial, according to NBC.
Police also claimed to find an incriminating note in Hosier’s car that read in part: “If you are going with someone do not lie to them"
Hosier said he was only going for a long drive because he enjoyed them and took his guns because was a hunter. He added that no DNA evidence or fingerprints were found tying him to the scene.
"I know two people were killed. I know I got blamed for it," he once said.
