Man Who Killed Woman, Set Her on Fire Shares Unsettling Last Wish Before He's Executed

A Texas inmate, who set a great grandmother on fire during a convenience store robbery, was executed by lethal injection Tuesday, May 20 at the state penitentiary in Huntsville.

Matthew Lee Johnson, 49, spoke some of his last words to relatives of 76-year-old Nancy Harris, exactly 13 years to the day after killing her.

“As I look at each one of you, I can see her on that day,” he said, according to the Associated Press. “I please ask for your forgiveness. I never meant to hurt her.”

“I pray that she’s the first person I see when I open my eyes and I spend eternity with,” he added, per AP. “I made wrong choices, I’ve made wrong decisions, and now I pay the consequences.”

Johnson was pronounced dead at 6:53 p.m CDT, AP reported.

Johnson robbed the convenience store in Garland where Harris was working a morning shift on May 20, 2012. During the robbery, Johnson doused Harris with lighter fluid, stole cash from the cash register as well as her rings, two packs of cigarettes and a lighter before setting her on fire.

He grabbed candy bars before he fled the scene, according to the Texas Observer.

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Harris attempted to extinguish herself at a sink in the store and then ran outside for help, USA Today reported, citing court documents.

Harris, who sustained second-to-fourth degree burns to her face, arms, hands, legs and chest was taken to the hospital where she died five days later, according to USA Today.

Johnson, who claimed he was high on crack at the time of the killing, admitted to murdering Harris during his 2013 trial, stating, “I hurt an innocent woman. I took a human being’s life…It was not my intentions to — to kill her or to hurt her, but I did,” he said, per AP.

He was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death.