Convicted Killer Set to Die This Month Loses State Appeal

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has refused to stop the execution later this month of a Fort Worth man on death row for the shooting deaths of a 5-year-old girl and her grandmother at a children's birthday party a decade ago.

Attorneys for 31-year-old Erick Davila contend prosecutors failed to disclose to trial lawyers that Davila was high on drugs at the time of the shootings, that his earlier appeals attorneys were deficient and that the death penalty sentencing process in Texas is unconstitutional.

The state's highest criminal court Monday rejected the appeal as improper without ruling on the merits of the arguments.

Davila is set for lethal injection April 25 in Huntsville for the April 2008 slayings of Queshawn Stevenson and her grandmother, Annette Stevenson, in Fort Worth.