Killer of 7-year-old girl executed in Texas

By MICHAEL GRACZYK Associated Press Writer © 2008 The Associated Press

Oct. 29, 2008, 1:00AM

HUNTSVILLE, Texas — Condemned killer Eric Nenno was the last person 7-year-old Nicole Benton saw when she was abducted, strangled and raped more than 13 years ago.

Her father was among the last people Nenno could have seen Tuesday night when the Texas inmate was executed for killing her and hiding her body in the attic of his home.

Nenno, however, refused to look at Buddy Benton, who stood close to the death chamber window that separated him from his daughter's killer. Nenno also ignored the child's uncle, Donald Benton, and the girl's grandfather, C.J. Bowles, who walked up to the glass to see Nenno, then turned around and stood at the back of the witness area.

Nenno declined to make a final statement from the death chamber gurney.

"No, warden," was his only response when asked by the warden if he had anything to say.

Eight minutes later, he was pronounced dead.

Nenno, a former plumbing supply salesman who lived in the Bentons' neighborhood in Hockley, about 35 miles northwest of Houston, had lured the girl into his home by telling her he needed to get his guitar so he could join a birthday celebration for her father, who played in a band. But once inside, he attacked her, strangled her to keep her quiet, then raped her at least twice after she was dead.

He confessed two days after her disappearance, then led officers to her body.

Nenno became the 13th Texas inmate executed this year and the fourth this month in the nation's most active death penalty state. Another execution is scheduled for Thursday.

Nenno's appeals were exhausted and there were no last-day court actions.

"During the years that I have been imprisoned, I have often thought about the devastating grief and pain I caused Nicole Benton, her family, and her friends," Nenno wrote in a clemency petition that was rejected unanimously by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. "There is no excuse nor rationale which would be sufficient to justify this heinous act of violence perpetrated by me."

"He's had a long time on death row," Joan Huffman, the Harris County assistant district attorney who prosecuted Nenno at his 1996 trial, said. "It is frustrating. Eric Nenno had a fair trial and it had been upheld by the highest courts. Beyond any doubt he was guilty of committing one of the most horrendous crimes I'd ever seen.

"I believe we must save the death penalty for those extreme cases and we make sure every constitutional right is upheld and a fair trial is held. But once done, we need punishment. Thirteen years seems like a long time."

In a recent interview from death row, Nenno said he was prepared to die.

"My salvation is secure," he told The Associated Press. "I know where I'm going when this is all over."

Asked where that would be, he replied: "Heaven."

Nenno, born in Olean, N.Y., went to high school in nearby Smethport, Pa., then joined the Navy, where his attorneys said he was exposed to toxic chemicals during a four-year duty tour that left him brain damaged.

Nenno, however, said nothing could excuse his crime.

"I can't apologize enough," he said.

Police investigating the girl's disappearance in March 1995 knocked on his door and when his nervousness attracted their attention, deputies had him accompany them to a command post.

Under questioning, Nenno said he thought she had been abducted, raped and murdered. Asked what kind of person he thought might do such a thing, he replied: "Someone like me."

"I was not cognizant I had committed the crime," he said from death row. "I had blacked out the memory."

He took a polygraph and underwent additional questioning.

"Things kind of fell apart," recalled Anthony Osso, Nenno's trial lawyer.

"I think she's still in the attic," Nenno told detectives, then showed them.

"For the most part, when you confess to elements of an offense, you make it much easier for the state," Osso said. "His statement led them to the body. He himself took them to it."

Nenno told authorities he'd been having sexual fantasies involving young girls for most of his adult life. From death row, Nenno said he was addicted to pornography and had been drinking the day of the slaying.

Huffman said she remembered questioning a medical examiner at Nenno's trial about the girl's fatal injuries.

"That had to be one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life," she said. "The family, they were right in back of me on the front row. I could hear them quietly crying. Some of the jurors were crying. It was heart-wrenching."

The girl's relatives declined to speak with reporters following the execution.

On Thursday, Gregory Wright, 42, was set to follow Nenno to the death chamber. Wright was a homeless man convicted of taking part in the fatal stabbing of Donna Duncan Vick, a sympathetic Dallas County woman who had given him food, shelter and money. Another six Texas prisoners have execution dates for November.