"Man sentenced to death in Texas courthouse killing" by Juan A. Lozano | Associated Press, May 08, 2013
GALVESTON, Texas — A Houston man was sentenced to death Tuesday in the fatal shooting of a 79-year-old woman outside a Southeast Texas courthouse.
Bartholomew Granger, 42, was convicted last week of capital murder in the slaying of Minnie Ray Sebolt. The same jurors who found him guilty deliberated for a little less than two hours before deciding on the death penalty.
Granger testified that he opened fire on his daughter outside the courthouse in downtown Beaumont in March 2012 but insisted he did not kill Sebolt. She was a bystander walking outside the courthouse, where Granger’s daughter had testified against him in a sexual assault case. The daughter and her mother were among three women wounded in the attack.
During the sentencing phase of his trial, Granger burst out in profanity-filled rants denouncing the verdict, his daughter, prosecutors, and the judge. On Monday, as he testified — and against the advice of attorneys in the punishment phase — Granger called his case a ‘‘mockery of justice’’ and a ‘‘lynching.’’ He was then restrained and temporarily removed from court.
Granger testified during the trial that he emptied the 10-bullet magazine of his illegally purchased semiautomatic carbine, saying he fired toward his daughter. Then, when he saw his daughter was still moving while lying in the street, he ran over her with his pickup truck. The daughter spent three months in a coma.
Prosecutors said Granger parked outside the courthouse for hours, then ambushed the women at the courthouse in the late morning. Sebolt also was outside at the time.
--more--"
Also see: Supreme Court Says Let God Sort 'em Out
