Texas executed Billie Wayne Coble on February 28, 2019, nearly 30 years after he was convicted of killing three members of his estranged wife’s family in Axtell, a community northeast of Waco. Coble, 70, was put to death by lethal injection at the Huntsville Unit and became the oldest person executed in Texas since the state resumed capital punishment in 1982.
The case began in August 1989, during the breakdown of Coble’s marriage to Karen Vicha. Prosecutors said Coble, distraught over the pending divorce, kidnapped his wife and was later arrested before being released on bond. Days later, authorities said, he went after members of her family in a violent sequence that ended with three people dead.
The victims were Robert Vicha, Zelda Vicha, and their son, Waco police Sgt. Bobby Vicha. Prosecutors said Coble shot them at separate homes and also tied up and threatened children during the attack. J.R. Vicha, Bobby’s son, later recalled being 11 years old when he was restrained and threatened during the killings.
Coble was convicted of capital murder and spent decades on death row as his case moved through appeals. His attorneys argued that his original defense team failed him by not presenting an insanity defense and later pointed to post-traumatic stress disorder from his time as a Marine in Vietnam. Courts rejected the final appeals, and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles also declined to commute his sentence.
The U.S. Supreme Court denied Coble’s last request for a stay on the day of the execution. In the death chamber, when asked for a final statement, Coble spoke briefly to his selected witnesses, telling them he loved them and ending with the unusual phrase, “That’ll be $5,” according to witnesses and prison officials.
As Coble’s final statement ended, chaos broke out in the witness area. His son and grandson became emotional, shouted, pounded on the chamber window and resisted officers, according to officials. They were later identified as Gordon Wayne Coble and Dalton Coble and were arrested on charges including resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.
While officers were removing the disruptive witnesses, the lethal dose of pentobarbital was administered. Coble was pronounced dead at 6:24 p.m. For the Vicha family, the execution marked the end of a decades-long legal battle, but relatives said the method of execution was far more humane than the violence inflicted on their family in 1989.
