Associated Press Archive - November 18, 1999

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Deceased Name: John Michael Lamb - Texas executes California drifter for 1982 murder

A California hitchhiker with a lengthy rap sheet was executed Wednesday for killing a businessman who offered to drive him to Texas only hours after he was freed from an Arkansas jail.

Just before he died, John Michael Lamb told his victim's family, "I'm sorry. I wish I could bring him back. I can't."

Lamb, 42, of San Jose, Calif., was the 30th convicted murderer to die by injection in Texas this year and the second this week. A third execution was scheduled Thursday.

Lamb fatally shot Jerry Chafin, 30, of Castlewood, Va., at a motel in Greenville, about 50 miles east of Dallas. Chafin's body was found Nov. 6, 1982, by a cleaning woman.

Five days later, Lamb was arrested near Greenville, Fla., after shooting a convenience store clerk and stealing two cases of beer. He was driving Chafin's car and carrying the Virginia man's credit cards when he was arrested.

Lamb said he had stolen guns from a mobile home in Arkansas after serving 100 days in the Searcy, Ark., jail for receiving stolen property. He was hitchhiking to Dallas when Chafin picked him up and took him to the motel, he said.

Lamb had drug, burglary and forgery arrests in California and armed robbery and attempted murder arrests in Florida, where he faced three life prison terms.

Court records show he thanked Florida authorities for capturing him "before I killed somebody else."

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Associated Press Archive
Date: November 18, 1999
Record Number: D70PKRTG0
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