Man Who Snapped and Went On Shooting Spree Has Been Put To Death – IOTW Report

Man Who Snapped and Went On Shooting Spree Has Been Put To Death

“Party’s Over, Bastard.”  -Sister of victim.

Barney Fuller liked to shoot on his property. His neighbors, 200 yards away, complained that he was dangerous. I guess they were right.

He shot up the outside of their house and then entered and tried to execute the entire family. He killed the mother and father, The son was shot, but survived.

The daughter escaped death because Fuller didn’t know how to work the light switch.

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Houston Chronicle –

An East Texas man who pleaded guilty to killing a neighbor couple during a shooting rampage 13 years ago and said he wanted to be put to death for the crime was executed Wednesday evening.

Barney Fuller Jr., 58, had asked that all his appeals be dropped to expedite his death sentence.

 Fuller never made eye contact in the death chamber with witnesses, who included the two children of the slain couple.
 Asked by Warden James Jones if he had any final statement, Fuller responded: “I don’t have anything to say. You can proceed on, Warden Jones.”

Fuller took a deep breath as Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials injected a lethal dose of pentobarbital into each arm, then blurted out: “Hey, you fixin’ to put me to sleep.”

He took a couple of breaths, then began snoring. Within 30 seconds, all movement stopped.

Court records show Fuller, armed with a shotgun, a semi-automatic carbine and a pistol, fired 59 shots before barging into the Copeland home and opening fire again. He had been charged with making a threatening phone call to Annette Copeland, and the neighbors had been engaged in a 2-year dispute over that.

Fuller pleaded guilty to capital murder. He declined to appear in court at his July 2004 trial and asked that the trial’s punishment phase go on without his presence. He only entered the courtroom when jurors returned with his sentence.

Last year, Fuller asked that nothing be done to prolong his time on death row.

“I do not want to go on living in this hellhole,” he wrote to attorney Jason Cassel.

“Happy New Year,” he told Annette Copeland in the Jan. 1, 2001, call. “I’m going to kill you.”

A sheriff’s department dispatcher who took Annette Copeland’s 911 call about 1:30 a.m. on May 14, 2003, heard a man say: “Party’s over, bitch,” followed by a popping sound. Annette Copeland was found with three bullet wounds to her head.

On Wednesday evening, one of her sisters who watched Fuller die said as she left the death chamber: “Party’s over, bastard.”

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ht/ deer park dave

15 Comments on Man Who Snapped and Went On Shooting Spree Has Been Put To Death

  1. WTF? The guy gave these TEXANS(I might add) plenty of forewarning to grab their weapons and fire back. Some guy starts shooting up the front of my house ain’t gonna get 59 rounds off. My gal and I will be sending lots of lead out his way.

    Please don’t tell me they weren’t armed. If so, they’re in a very small minority.

  2. 13 years? Obviously there was absolutely no doubt of his crime.
    He should have been executed right after the verdict.
    Stringing his death out was cruel and unusual punishment for the surviving family.

  3. When there is no doubt, within a day, it should be lights out. And don’t try to use the excuse that there are no chemicals available for capital punishment. The very same people who make that claim turn right around and advocate for doctor assisted suicide, using the very same chemicals.

  4. Sorry, sister, the party’s just begun down here with Pogo the Clown (John Wayne Gacy) welcoming Barney with open arms. Uh oh, here comes Teddy Kennedy to join in the fun.

    👿

  5. aleon October 6, 2016 at 2:24 pm

    I don’t know. Is justice served by giving this bastard what he wanted?
    ———————————-

    I feel good about it. He’s no longer breathing, and the taxpayer is no longer taking care of his eating, sleeping, or Club Gitmo lifestyle. Justice was served.

  6. I think that in the future we can shorten the time from trial to execution.
    But the rate of folks getting out after being proved innocent is still way too high to expidite the process.
    Perhaps with improvements to the DNA testing and forensic technology that day will be soon.

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