Killer executed despite protests to spare him
Family members of man he murdered in 2004 say they ‘saw good’ in Young
HUNTSVILLE — A San Antonio man convicted of the robbery and murder of a Southeast Side convenience store owner was executed Tuesday evening, despite a high-profile online campaign and pleas from the victim’s son to save his life.
Asked by the warden if he had a final statement, Christopher Anthony Young addressed the family of Hasmukh “Hash” Patel, the man he killed on Nov. 21, 2004.
“I want to make sure the Patel family knows I love them like they love me,” Young said. “Make sure the kids in the world know I’m being executed and those kids I’ve been mentoring keep this fight going.”
The lethal dose of pentobarbital commenced at 6:13 p.m. and soon after, Young said he could feel the effects of the drug.
“I can taste it in my throat,” he said, adding that it burned.
Young, 34, opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling for several seconds before he closed them and began mumbling something incomprehensible. He was pronounced dead at 6:38 p.m.
Patel’s children, Mitesh Patel and Rinal Doshi, who did not witness the execution, said in a statement Tuesday evening that their lives were forever changed by the father’s death.
“However when we as a family look back on what Hasmukh stood for, and the values that he instilled in his family, we can look for the good in people; including looking at the good in Christopher Young,” Patel and Doshi said.
“The man that was executed today by the State of Texas was
not the same man that killed Hasmukh Patel,” they added. “Christopher was a father to his daughters, and a man who desired to break the chain of gang violence through mentorship.”
For others, news of Young’s execution brought a flood of different emotions.
Just before the 2004 murder, Young pointed a gun at a woman and raped her at her home while her three children watched, court records state. When she didn’t undress fast enough, he fired a warning shot into the floor of her sister’s apartment. He forced her into her car, then stole it when she managed to escape.
‘Hurt, misbelief, anger’
The woman, who is not being identified because she is a sexual-assault victim, said Tuesday evening she was angered that Young didn’t acknowledge the rape or apologize to her family.
“I’m so pissed,” the woman said. “I don’t think I’ve ever been this angry in my life. I’m in between hurt, misbelief, anger and frustration.”
“I hope that his death was painful and I hope that he goes to the pit of hell and burns for life,” she added.
Young, who was 21 at the time of the crimes, never denied he killed Hash Patel. In a June interview with the San Antonio Express News, though, Young said he was not guilty of the sexual assault, despite evidence to the contrary.
Young’s story has become well-known in recent weeks after the Patel family came forward in support of Young’s bid for clemency, which would have changed his sentence to life in prison without parole. Young said he should receive clemency because he was “no longer the young man he was when he arrived” on death row and that he was “truly remorseful.”
The clemency bid was subsequently rejected by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. Young’s lawyers sued the board, arguing that their decision was influenced by racism. A white Texas inmate received a rare commutation earlier this year. Young is black.
Early Tuesday, a federal judge in Houston dismissed the suit and refused to stop the execution. The Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also turned down an appeal from Young’s lawyers to consider the case. Young's attorneys did not appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Young, who grew up on the East Side of San Antonio, said his childhood was marred by violence and trauma.
When he was 8, his father was murdered. A few months later, one of Young’s relatives, to whom he was close, was raped and impregnated by one of her mother’s boyfriends, court records state.
Wanted to raise his kids
Young said he was headed down a dangerous path before he committed the string of crimes. He was part of a gang and sold crack cocaine, court records state.
“I truly believe if I would not have come to death row when I did, I would be one of two places: in prison or murdered in the streets,” he said in an interview.
“If I would have gone straight to prison with the attitude I had, my growth process would not have started, and my gang-banging ways would still be there. I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to look at myself and tell myself I was doing wrong. I wouldn’t have been able to help anybody.”
Young said he wanted to live so he could raise his daughters from behind bars and continue a mentorship program for at-risk children.
When asked in June how he would like to be remembered when he was gone, Young said he wanted people to understand he was executed for something that “was done in a time capsule.”
“I was a kid,” he said. “I want them to know that even though I came here, I did everything I could to better myself and to take care of my kids. I want them to understand that you may have executed somebody that could have helped society.”