More than 13 years ago a man dressed in black wearing a hood and gloves kicked down a door of a San Antonio apartment where his drug supplier lived, attacking two people with a knife, and killing one before fleeing.
TaiChin Preyor only returned to the scene to pick up his dropped car keys when police arrived and arrested him while he was still covered with the blood of his victims, Associated Press reports.
The 46-year-old, Preyor, a drug dealer, and user is set to be executed by lethal injection tonight on July 27.
Preyor said he was acting in self-defense when he stabbed and cut the throat of 24-year-old Jami Tackett, and wounded her boyfriend during the struggle. Tackett sold illegal drugs to Preyor, who then sold them to others according to a media advisory.
In the second of two statements to San Antonio police, Preyor claims that Tackett and her boyfriend attacked him first and that he “poked” at Tackett with a knife.
“I felt like I was a victim,” Preyor said. “I was the one being robbed, and I defended myself.”
If executed, Preyor would be the fifth inmate put to death in Texas this year and the 16th nationally, Fox News reports.
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted 6-0 Tuesday, July 25, against letting Preyor go while the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals refused to stop the punishment as well. Preyor’s lawyers took their case to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals after a federal judge in San Antonio also did not want to halt the execution, AP reports.
But State attorneys said that the late appeals were legally improper, adding that it was Preyor’s decision to stay with the inexperienced lawyer.
Testimony at Preyor’s previous trials revealed the woman he murdered, Tackett, recognized Preyor on Feb. 26, 2004, after he barged into their bedroom. She called Preyor by his nickname “Box.”
Tackett died before paramedics arrived but she was able to tell police one thing.
“The guy who ran from the apartment did this,” John Economidy, Preyor’s lead defense attorney, recalled her saying.
Economidy said the dying declaration did not help them “a whole lot,” even though he was caught at the scene.
A Bexar County jury decided that Preyor should die by execution.
