Convicted courthouse shooter accurately predicts his death sentence
During the penalty phase of his trial for a fatal courthouse shooting, Bartholomew Granger scribbled a message on a legal pad and held it up for jurors to see.
The message read, “Death,” report the Associated Press, the Beaumont Enterprise and the Houston Chronicle. On Tuesday, jurors acquiesced after less than two hours of deliberations and found that Granger deserved to die for the fatal shooting of 79-year-old Minnie Ray Sebolt at a courthouse in Beaumont, Texas.
Granger had insisted he wasn’t responsible for the slaying of Sebolt, but did admit shooting his daughter and running over her with his truck outside the courthouse. She survived the attack. The daughter had testified against Granger in a sexual assault case, and Granger said she deserved to die. “She’s the one who should be dead,” he said in a courtroom outburst last week. “Not the old lady, her!”
The outbursts continued when Sebolt’s daughter, Deborah Ray Holst, read a victim impact statement after the jury decided on the sentence, the AP story says. Granger shouted, “I didn’t kill your mother!” and said he didn’t want to hear the statement. Holst asked the judge if Granger could be shocked.
“Tase me. Inject me with poison,” Granger said.
“I would love to do it myself,” Holst replied.
