Former policeman executed for slaying of Conroe boy
07/02/2003
AP
Hilton CrawfordHUNTSVILLE, Texas – Convicted killer Hilton Crawford, fondly known to his 12-year-old victim as "Uncle Hilty," was executed Wednesday evening for the abduction and slaying of a Conroe boy almost eight years ago.
Crawford nodded and smiled to witnesses, asking for forgiveness and expressing love for his family.
"I thank Jesus Christ. I had an opportunity to serve Jesus Christ, I'm very thankful for that," he said, a small wooden cross dangling from a cord around his neck.
The victim's mother, Paulette Everett-Norman, was standing behind a window just a few feet from her son's killer when he turned toward her and said, "I want to ask Paulette for forgiveness from your heart. One day I hope you will. It's a tragedy for my family and your family. I am sorry."
He asked a witness to deliver a yellow rose to his wife, Connie. He told his wife, who wasn't present, that he loved her and his sons. "They were the greatest gift from God."
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Texas Executions: Coverage from TXCN.com Offender profile: Hilton Crawford Related links Texas Department of Criminal Justice Scheduled executions Offenders on death row "May God pass me over to the kingdom's shore softly and gently. I am ready," he said.
"I'm ready," he said just before the dose of lethal drugs began. He nodded and gasped before losing consciousness. He was pronounced dead at 6:19 p.m., eight minutes after the drugs began to flow.
The former Beaumont policeman and sheriff's deputy acknowledged being present when McKay Everett was fatally beaten and shot after he was grabbed from his Montgomery County home. But Crawford insisted the killer in a kidnap-for-ransom scheme that went awry was a mysterious accomplice known to him as R.L. Remington, a man he met at a Louisiana race track.
Prosecutors said Remington was a figment of Crawford's imagination.
After the U.S. Supreme Court last week refused to consider appeals in Crawford's case, his lawyers filed no additional actions to try to block the punishment, the 17th execution in Texas this year.
Another three executions are scheduled for later this month in the nation's most active death penalty state and at least four more are on the calendar for August.
On death row, Crawford was known to some of his fellow inmates as "Old Man," a nod to his 64 years of age, making him the second oldest of Texas' 451 condemned killers.
But to McKay Everett, he was "Uncle Hilty," the longtime family friend who would give him gifts like the football McKay received a few weeks before he was abducted from his home just north of Houston.
"It wasn't me," Crawford replied when asked about the killing. "But I don't think that will work."
"We did everything we can, other than a claim of innocence," his lawyer, Roy Greenwood, said. "Even if that was true, he's not innocent. He was a party to a kidnapping capital murder."
McKay was snatched from his Conroe home the night of Sept. 12, 1995, while his parents were at a meeting Crawford also was supposed to attend. Testimony at his trial showed he called the boy's mother at least twice that day to make certain she and her husband would be at the evening session.
Crawford, however, was a no-show. A car like his was seen speeding away from the Everett home about 30 minutes after the meeting started.
When the boy's parents came home, McKay was gone. When they received a ransom demand for $500,000, they called police.
The investigation led to Crawford, who was facing huge credit card and gambling debts.
Authorities found his car at a storage lot in Beaumont, 80 miles to the east. The cloth lining in the trunk had been removed but blood traces matching the missing boy's blood eventually were detected.
Four days after the abduction and a day after Crawford was arrested and jailed, he drew for investigators a map of a gravel road just north of Interstate 10 in the middle of south Louisiana's Atchafalaya Swamp.
What was left of McKay's decomposing body was discovered early Sept. 17 in some weeds. He had been beaten and shot at least twice with a .45-caliber pistol.
"If ever one did, this was a death penalty case," former Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney Mike Aduddell, who prosecuted the case, said. "As a parent, it obviously changed the way I deal with my children.
"It was a violation of trust."
"I was guilty for being there and guilty for being involved," Crawford said. "What happened wasn't supposed to happen."
Asked why he just didn't step in and stop the shooting, he replied: "I wish I would have, but these people I was involved with, once it got too far, it was impossible to stop."
Irene Flores, a Houston woman who once worked for Crawford at a security business, pleaded no contest to kidnapping and received a 25-year prison term for placing the ransom call to the Everett house. She contended Crawford duped her into making the call and never thought McKay would be harmed.
