Texas to execute man who killed three boys as they slept

Texas is scheduled to execute a man on Wednesday convicted of fatally shooting three sleeping teenagers in Amarillo in 1998.

John Balentine, 43, would be the eighth person executed in Texas this year and the 28th in the United States. He has twice been granted stays of execution - by the U.S. Supreme Court last year on the day he was scheduled for lethal injection, and by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in 2009 on the day before his execution date.

He appealed to the Supreme Court after the appeals court on Tuesday refused to reconsider his request for a stay.

In January 1998, Balentine entered the home of his ex-girlfriend and shot her brother, Mark Caylor, Jr., 17, and two other boys, Kai Geyer, 15, and Steven Watson, 15, while they were sleeping. All three boys were shot in the head with a .32 automatic pistol.

Balentine had broken up with Misty Caylor and moved out of the house a few weeks earlier, according to court documents. Caylor's brother had threatened Balentine because of how he treated her, court documents said.

Balentine confessed to the murders after his arrest in Houston, according to the Texas Attorney General's Office.

A mechanic who shot and killed three teenagers as they slept is to be executed - after avoiding the death chamber twice in the 14 years since his crime.

John Balentine has previously been within hours of execution but was granted reprieves on two separate occasions.
His lawyer is now fighting to block his execution a third time.

The 43-year-old, who had an extensive criminal history in his native Arkansas, Texas, was granted a reprieve by a federal appeals court a day before he was scheduled to die by lethal injection in September 2009.

In June 2011 he was within an hour of execution when it was blocked by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The killer is now due to be executed in Huntsville, Texas, on Wednesday. His lawyer has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to delay the process once again.

The mechanic was convicted of shooting Mark Caylor Jr, 17, Kai Brooke Geyer, 15, and Steven Watson, also 15, in January 1998.