sa国际传媒

Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Man convicted of killing former lover and her husband is executed in Missouri

BONNE TERRE, Mo. (AP) 鈥 A man convicted of killing his former lover and her husband in what prosecutors described as a fit of rage was executed Tuesday evening in Missouri. David Hosier , 69, was pronounced dead at 6:11 p.m.
01e4ff36-3c72-4f01-8e3b-68ec1d03e2e6
This photo, provided by Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty, shows inmate David Hosier, Friday, June 7, 2024, at Potosi Correctional Center in Potosi, Missouri. Hosier is scheduled to be executed Tuesday, June 11, 2024, for the deaths of a Jefferson City couple in 2009, but he has long questioned how he could be convicted on circumstantial evidence. (Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty via AP)

BONNE TERRE, Mo. (AP) 鈥 A man convicted of killing his former lover and her husband in what prosecutors described as a fit of rage was executed Tuesday evening in Missouri.

, 69, was pronounced dead at 6:11 p.m. following a single-dose injection of the sedative pentobarbital at the state prison in Bonne Terre, said Missouri Department of Corrections spokeswoman Karen Pojmann via text message. Hosier was convicted of the 2009 killings of Angela and Rodney Gilpin in the state capital of Jefferson City.

Investigators said Hosier had a romantic relationship with Angela Gilpin and was angry with her for breaking it off and reconciling with her husband. Hosier maintained until the end that he was innocent and shouldn鈥檛 have been convicted on circumstantial evidence.

The way was cleared Monday when Gov. Mike Parson declined to grant clemency, citing Hosier鈥檚 鈥渓ack of remorse.鈥 Parson, a Republican and former county sheriff, has overseen 10 executions since taking office in 2018. Hosier鈥檚 lawyers said no court appeals were pending in the hours before the scheduled execution.

鈥淚 leave you all with love,鈥 Hosier said as part of a final statement released before the execution. 鈥淣ow I get to go to Heaven. Don鈥檛 cry for me. Just join me when your time comes.鈥

Hosier was the son of an Indiana State Police sergeant killed in the line of duty. Glen Hosier went into a home searching for a murder suspect in 1971 when he was shot to death. Other officers returned fire and killed the suspect.

David Hosier, then 16, was soon sent to military school and enlisted in the Navy after graduating. He served four years of active duty and later moved to Jefferson City, Missouri, where he worked for many years as a firefighter and EMT.

In previous interviews with The Associated Press, Hosier acknowledged having an affair with Angela Gilpin that she ended before getting back with her husband. In September 2009, the two were fatally shot near the doorway to their apartment.

Detective Jason Miles told AP that Hosier made numerous comments to other people threatening to harm Angela Gilpin in the days before the killings. After the shootings, police found an application for a protective order in Angela Gilpin鈥檚 purse, and another document in which she expressed fear that Hosier might shoot her and her husband.

Hosier was an immediate suspect, but police couldn鈥檛 find him. They used cellphone data to track him to Oklahoma. A chase ensued when an Oklahoma officer tried to stop Hosier鈥檚 car. When he got out, he told the officers, 鈥淪hoot me, and get it over with,鈥 court records show.

Officers found 15 guns, a bulletproof vest, 400 rounds of ammunition and other weapons in Hosier鈥檚 car, the court documents state. The weapons included a submachine gun made from a kit that investigators maintain was used in the killings, though tests on it were inconclusive.

A note was found in the front seat of Hosier鈥檚 vehicle. 鈥淚f you are going with someone do not lie to them,鈥 it read in part. 鈥淏e honest with them if there is something wrong. If you do not this could happen to YOU!!鈥

Hosier said he wasn鈥檛 fleeing to Oklahoma, but was simply on a long drive to clear his mind. He had the guns because he likes to hunt, he said. He didn鈥檛 recall a note in the car.

The Missouri Supreme Court in 2019.

Hosier wheezed at times when he spoke by phone to AP last week, and his voice was weak. In mid-May, he was 鈥 a rare move for death row inmates. He was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation.

Hosier was the seventh person executed in the U.S. this year and the second in Missouri. was executed in April for killing his cousin and her husband in 2006.

Missouri is scheduled to execute another man, , on Sept. 24, even though Williams is still awaiting a hearing on his claim of innocence in the 1998 stabbing death of Lisha Gayle.

In January, St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell requested a court hearing after DNA technology unavailable at the time of the crime showed that someone else鈥檚 DNA 鈥 but not Williams鈥 鈥 was found on the knife used in the stabbing.

Williams was hours away from execution in 2017 when then-Gov. Eric Greitens granted a reprieve and appointed a board of inquiry to examine his innocence claim. The board never reached a conclusion and Parson dissolved it last year.

Jim Salter, The Associated Press