Tell them I finished strong': Last words of Texas woman, 38, executed for starving girlfriend’s 9-year-old son to death

A Texas woman was executed this evening, after spending the last eight years on death row for the murder of her girlfriend’s son a decade ago. Lisa Ann Coleman, 38, of Arlington, Texas, was found guilty of capital murder in the death of 9-year-old Davontae Williams, who had been beaten and bound, and whose body bore more than 250 scars when officials discovered him on July 26, 2004.

He had also been starved, weighing a mere 35 pounds at the time of his death.

Coleman was given a lethal injection sometime after 6pm and was pronounced dead at 6:23pm, according to KDFW reporter Richard Ray who acted as a media witness to the execution.

Ray said the execution was ‘very peaceful’ and that he only heard a ‘short gasp’ before Coleman passed.

Her last words were directed at her fellow inmate, Darlie Routier.

‘Tell them I finished strong,’ she said.

She then smiled and blew kisses at the supporters gathered and added: ‘God bless you all.’

Ahead of her death, Coleman told jailers she was at peace with the execution.

”I’m ready, I know where I am going. I’m not bitter, just ready,’ Coleman said Wednesday. 

She spent Monday playing word games with her friends, Routier, before being transferred to Huntsville for the lethal injection.

On Wednesday  she was given the opportunity to see family and spiritual advisers and make phone calls.

Five family members and friends bore witness to Coleman’s execution. No one showed up to represent the victim, Davontae.

Davontae’s mother, and Coleman’s former girlfriend, Marcella Williams, is currently serving a life sentence for his death, after reaching a plea deal.

Prosecutor’s in Coleman’s case used the charge of kidnapping to justify asking for the death penalty.

According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, they argued that Coleman ‘did not allow Davontae to have visitors, kept him from visiting others by restraining him and told people he was not at the apartment when he was there.’

The young boy’s ultimate cause of death was malnutrition.

Paramedics who arrived on the scene after it was reported the child was having trouble breathing found him dressed in nothing but bandages and a diaper, and reported that the boy had clearly been dead for several hours.

A jury deliberated for just three hours in June 2006 before recommending the death penalty.

Williams, who was just 14-years-old when she gave birth to Davontae, had been investigated by Child Protective Services seven times between 1995 and 2002. In 2002, they lost track of  the family.

Coleman’s appellate attorney, John Stickels, filed a clemency application in August asking that Texas governor Rick Perry commute her sentence to life in prison, but a board voted unanimously earlier this week to not recommend commutation.

‘What she’s really guilty of is being a black lesbian,’ Stickels said.

‘Her sexual orientation played a role in the state choosing to seek the death penalty and in her getting the death penalty.’

The Supreme Court on Wednesday denied a last minute stay of execution.

According to The Austin Chronicle, four witnesses who lived in the same apartment complex as Williams and Coleman report seeing Davontae around the neighborhood unrestrained and in good spirits just days before his death.

These witnesses all submitted affidavits on Coleman’s behalf to help her attorneys as they attempted to appeal her case by questioning the legitimacy of the kidnapping charges.

Coleman is the sixth woman put to death in Texas since 1982, and the ninth person this year.

The last woman to be executed in Texas was Suzanne Basso, who received a lethal injection on February 5, 2014.