Texas Man Executed For Woman’s 2002 Death

Mario Swain, a Texas man, was executed for the 2002 death of a woman during a break-in at her home. Swain was described by prosecutors as “a serial killer in training.”

Swain, 33, was executed by lethal injection for the murder of Lola Nixon at her home in Longview, Texas just two day after Christmas 2002, reports The Associated Press.

The prisoner shook his head no, closed his eyes, and took several big breaths when a warden asked if he had a final statement before his execution was carried out.

It did not take long for Swain to stop moving and he was pronounced dead 30 minutes later, at 6:39 pm CST. None of Nixon’s family members were present, nor were Swain’s relatives among the witnesses.

The US Supreme Court refused to review Mario Swain’s case and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected an appeal last week that contended a prison expert’s testimony during a 2003 capital murder trial was false and misleading. The man who was executed Thursday night refused media interview requests before he died.

After Swain murdered Nixon, evidence shows he put her body in the trunk of her BMW and drove about 120 miles east of Dallas and dumped her body in the back seat of an abandoned car.

The Washington Post notes that police were called to Nixon’s home when her friends were not able to get in touch with her. They found the back door jimmied and found blood throughout the house. A neighbor reported to police that they saw an unfamiliar truck parked on the street the night Nixon disappeared.

Investigators tracked the truck back to Mario Swain who initially blamed friends for the break-in. He ultimately confessed and showed police the body and the tire iron he used to beat the woman with.

Evidence and testimony at the man’s trial showed that Swain gathered information about women he wanted to rob. He would stalk them and attack them, forcing them to inhale an anesthetic and hitting them over the head with a wrench or shooting them with a stun gun. Prosecutor Lance Larison described him as “a serial killer in training.” Larison added:

“A girlfriend told us he kept a list in notebooks of names and license plates of girls he would follow. I think he was working up to something.”

Mario Swain, the Texas man executed for murdering Lola Nixon in 2002, is the first of three prisoners set to be executed in Texas in the next week.