SANTA FE, N.M. — Saying she wanted to see a convicted murderer get what he deserved, a woman who was 6 years old when she was raped and left for dead watched as her assailant became the first person executed in New Mexico in nearly 42 years.
Terry Clark, 45, was executed for raping and fatally shooting 9-year-old Dena Lynn Gore in 1986. He committed the crime while out on bail pending an appeal in the rape case of Donita Welch, who survived and is now 23.
Clark was executed by chemical injection Tuesday, about an hour before another convicted child killer in Georgia was put to death.
Before Clark's execution, a tearful Welch said she wanted to see Clark die and "make sure he got something taken away from him that he will never get back. He took it from me and Dena . . . and now he'll never get it back."
Dena's bound, decomposed body was found in a shallow grave on the Squaw Canyon Ranch where Clark worked. She had been shot in the head three times.
The ranch foreman led investigators to his younger brother, Terry Clark, knowing of the prior rape case.
Clark never explained the Gore killing. He pleaded guilty and told a minister he'd raped the girl.
Before he was injected, Clark cryptically mumbled "15 minutes" — nothing more. Warden Tim LeMaster said the reference came from the book, "Dead Man Walking" by Sister Helen Prejean. State Attorney General Patricia Madrid said she was told Clark believed 15 minutes was how long it would take him to reach heaven.
As the drugs were administered, Clark's cheeks puffed, he gasped, grimaced and closed his eyes, then relaxed, and witnesses heard an exhaling and a gurgle.
The last execution in New Mexico was on Jan. 8, 1960, when David Nelson became the only person to die in the state's gas chamber.
In Georgia, Jose Martinez High, 45, was also put to death Tuesday night for killing an 11-year-old boy during a 1976 gas station robbery.
Before High was executed at the state prison in Jackson, south of Atlanta, he denied killing Bonnie Bulloch.
"I did not kill that little boy," he said. "I could not hurt a child."
According to court papers, High taunted the boy, saying, "Are you ready to die?" as Bulloch begged for his life during the robbery in Taliaferro County.
The boy and his stepfather, who ran the gas station, were forced to lie on the ground, and each was shot in the head. The stepfather survived and later identified High as the gunman. He was convicted in 1978.