Edward Harold Schad Jr., 71, was executed after almost 35 years in prison, making him the oldest person in Arizona on death row.
According to the Associated Press, Schad was convicted of killing Lorimer "Leroy" Grove during a robbery in 1978. Schad dumped Grove's body in underbrush "off the shoulder of U.S. 89 south of Prescott." He reportedly strangled Grove with a cord.
The convicted killer was pronounced dead at 10:02 a.m. on Wednesday. The U.S. Supreme court denied his attempts at appealing the conviction and the sentence.
The court authorized Schad's execution in June. His last attempt at an appeal was in 1989.
"He doesn't take any responsibility for what he did," chief deputy Dennis McGrane told Arizona Board of Executive Clemency, AP reports. "Accidents two times, died of strangulation? I don't think so."
Schad reportedly thanked the officials who watched over him in the prison, according to Kelley Henry, a federal public defender who helped represent him. Henry believed Schad was a "model inmate" during his time in prison.
"Ed Schad was a model inmate to the end," Henry said in a statement.
Schad's last words to the warden were: "Well, after 34 years I'm free to fly away home. Thank you, warden. Those are my last words."
Prison officials administered a "lethal dose of pentobarbital through IV needles in both arms," AP reports.
According to KJZZ.com, there are now 121 people on Arizona's death row, including two women. Schad claimed Grove's death was an "accident."
"Schad was arrested several weeks later in Utah while driving Grove's Cadillac. Authorities say he had driven the car across the country, used Grove's credit cards and forged a check from Grove's bank account," AP reports. "At the time, Schad was on parole for second-degree murder in the 1968 strangulation death of a male sex partner in Utah."
