Texas set to execute man for a triple killing, days after other man convicted in case put to death

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A man convicted of fatally shooting three people during a 2005 attempted robbery at a rural Texas home is set to be executed Wednesday evening, a week after the other man convicted in the killings was put to death.

Ker’Sean Ramey, 41, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection of a powerful sedative at the state penitentiary in Huntsville starting after 6 p.m. local time. He would be the sixth person executed to date this year in Texas, with three more scheduled in the next two months.

A total of 27 prisoners have been put to death in U.S. states so far this year, with Florida leading with 15 executions to date in 2026.

A jury convicted Ramey of capital murder and sentenced him to death in the shootings of Samuel Roberts, 24, Tiffani Peacock, 18, and Celso Lopez, 38, at the home they shared in the small city of Edna, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) southwest of Houston.

Ramey and LeJames Norman believed there was cocaine in the house and hoped to steal it, according to court records. They found none and killed the three victims, who lived across the street from Norman, the records stated.

Norman was put to death on Sept. 16 at the Huntsville prison. He had no last words, and no relatives or friends of the victims witnessed that execution.

Ramey was described by officials as polite on the 45-mile (70-kilometer) van ride from the prison that houses death row inmates to the Huntsville Unit, where executions are carried out.

Authorities said he declined to have a spiritual adviser pray over him as the execution time approached, and a woman described as a friend was the only person he chose as a witness. No friends or relatives of the three victims in the case were listed on official documents as planned witnesses.

Hours earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a final appeal from Ramey.

The man’s attorneys had argued that jurors never heard about how he suffered physical abuse as a child and grew up in poverty. State prosecutors told the court the appeal was “meritless” and argued that evidence showed Ramey had “an escalating pattern of criminal behavior.”

Norman testified during Ramey’s trial in January 2007 that both he and Ramey shot the victims. Ramey’s attorneys blamed the shootings on Norman.

Norman was sentenced to death in December 2008 after pleading guilty to capital murder.

Ramey’s former girlfriend testified that she was with him when he threw two pistols into a lake after the killings, and that he told her in detail about his involvement.

Lopez was shot four times, including in the back of the head; Peacock was shot twice in the head; and Roberts was shot five times in the chest, neck and head.

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Stengle reported from Dallas.