A man who was the first to be executed in Texas in 2016 was reported as saying he was "all right" with the sentence, according to the Associated Press. Richard Masterson was put to death for the murder of professional Houston female impersonator Darin Shane Honeycutt 15 years ago, whose stage name was Brandi Houston.
"I'm all right with this," he was quoted by prison officials as saying regarding the execution, which took place Wednesday, NBC News reported. "Sometimes you have to live and die by the choices you make. I made mine and I'm paying for it." He also referred to being sent "to a better place."
Masterson, 43, met Honeycutt at a bar in 2001 and then headed back to Honeycutt's apartment to have sex. Honeycutt's body was found with evidence of strangulation, which Masterson has claimed occurred as a result of a consensual sexual act gone wrong as opposed to a deliberate murder.
His lawyers had attempted to halt the execution by launching appeals with the U.S. Supreme Court but were unsuccessful, according to Reuters. They had claimed that Masterson's due process rights were being violated and that false and misleading evidence had been presented with regards to the murder.
"[Masterson] has never denied that he restricted the complainant's airflow, but only that it occurred during a consensual sexual encounter," Masterson's lawyers said in a court filing. They previously claimed that the death was accidental and that there had been no struggle.
Masterson never admitted to the murder and actively dared jurors to give him a death sentence by claiming that he was a danger to society at his trial in 2002, Reuters noted. He was pronounced dead at 6:53 p.m. Wednesday evening shortly after receiving the lethal injection.
