Texas executes inmate who killed two men in Killeen in 2004

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Richard Tabler was executed Thursday for the murders of two men in 2004, which he confessed to, after years of going back and forth on whether he wanted to appeal his death sentence.

Tabler, 46, was pronounced dead at 6:38 p.m. after being injected with a lethal dose of pentobarbital, according to the Department of Criminal Justice. Tabler was the second man to be executed in Texas in 2025.

In his final statement, Tabler asked for forgiveness from the families of his victims, some of whom were in attendance during the execution, according to a statement provided by Jay Dan Gumm, the spiritual adviser for Tabler’s execution, to a group outside the prison.

Tabler also thanked his family, legal team and the staff on death row for their support.

“There is not a day that goes by that I don't regret my actions, I had no right to take your loved ones from you, and I ask and pray; hope and pray that one day you find it in your hearts to forgive me for those actions,” Tabler said. “No amount of my apologies will ever return them to you.”

In 2004, officials say Tabler, along with an 18-year-old accomplice, shot and killed four people in Killeen: Tabler’s former boss at a nightclub and the man’s friend on Nov. 26; and two teenage girls who worked at the club on Nov. 28. Bell County Sheriff’s officials said at the time that Tabler called their office on at least one occasion to brag about the murders.

After being arrested quickly after the fatal shootings, Tabler confessed while in police custody to killing the two men, and said he had a list of other club staff he had planned to kill as retaliation against his former boss. Tabler also claimed his accomplice, Timothy Payne, recorded him killing the two men, but later destroyed the video.

Despite Tabler’s confession, both men pleaded not guilty in separate trials. Tabler was sentenced to death only for the first two killings, while Payne received a life sentence. Tabler was never charged in the deaths of the two girls, and later denied he had killed them in a 2008 interview. In a book Tabler published in 2021, he confessed to killing all four victims.

Like his confessions and contrasting not guilty plea, Tabler had expressed a desire to be executed multiple times in the 21 years since his conviction only to later walk back the claims. Tabler first expressed he wanted to speed up his execution shortly after he was sentenced in 2008. In 2010, he was granted a stay of execution when his legal representation sought relief from the U.S. Supreme Court.

On multiple occasions, Tabler’s legal representation called into question whether he was mentally sound enough to decide whether or not his appeals should be withdrawn, and at one point a judge held a competency hearing for Tabler in 2008. The judge ultimately determined he was competent, allowing Tabler to waive his state habeas corpus rights, which would have allowed him another avenue to appeal his conviction.

Tabler later tried to withdraw the waiver months later, but was unable to due to a miscommunication on deadlines. In 2024, the American Civil Liberties Union also claimed in an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of Tabler that his counsel in 2008 had withheld a report that diagnosed Tabler as severely mentally ill. The Supreme Court denied the appeal in October.

The ACLU released a statement Thursday lamenting Tabler’s execution, claiming he had reformed in the years since the murders to a “mentor and source of support for those around him.” Tabler also reportedly led a ministry for death row inmates.

“Today, Texas plans to execute a man who spent the last two decades proving his capacity for growth, remorse, and redemption,” said Claudia Van Wyk, senior counsel at the ACLU's Capital Punishment Project, in the statement.

While on death row, Tabler made headlines in 2008 and 2012 for sending multiple death threats to then-state Sen. John Whitmire, now the mayor of Houston, via contraband cellphones and through letters. Tabler published a short book in 2024 accusing Whitmire of targeting him while he was state senator, and has published other books chronicling his experience on Death Row.

Tabler’s execution was the second in the United States on Thursday. More than an hour before Tabler was put to death, Florida executed James Ford for a 1997 double murder.

Texas’ third execution for 2025 is scheduled for March 13. David Wood was convicted in the abduction and fatal stabbing of a 24-year-old woman more than 30 years ago. Her body, along with the bodies of five other women he is accused of killing, were found buried in the desert northwest of El Paso.