HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — Fifteen years after a pair of North Texas road-rage killings put Douglas Feldman onto death row, the rage still appears to exist.
Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials declined to make Feldman, 55, available to reporters as his scheduled Wednesday evening execution approached. One media session several weeks ago never even began, because he ripped the telephone from the visiting cage outside death row and became disruptive. It was among 136 disciplinary cases Feldman's has accumulated in prison.
"He's a memorable character, a dangerous person in any setting," said Jason January, the former Dallas County district attorney who in 1999 prosecuted Feldman for capital murder. "He threatened to kill me personally."
Feldman, a former financial analyst turned gun-toting motorcyclist, was convicted of killing Robert Everett, 36, of Marshfield, Mo., and Nicholas Velasquez, 62, of Irving.
The two truck drivers were killed about 45 minutes apart on Aug. 24, 1998. Prosecutors said Feldman became enraged after Everett cut him off, so he shot him and then later, simply because he was still angry, shot Velasquez.
Barring any delays ahead of the execution, Feldman will be the 11th prisoner executed this year in Texas and the third this month in the nation's busiest capital punishment state.
Feldman's attorney, Robin Norris, filed a clemency petition with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles that was turned down Monday. Multiple courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, earlier rejected Norris' appeals on Feldman's behalf.
At Feldman's murder trial, prosecutors produced evidence of numerous confrontations initiated by Feldman, including one where he jumped on the hood of another driver's car, smashed it with hammer, and then used the hammer to beat the windshield, a door and the driver.
"I have come to hate every single person on this planet with all my heart and soul," he told a former girlfriend in one of 81 letters to her while awaiting trial. "If I had a button which would kill every single person on this planet, I would push it with no hesitation whatsoever!"
Evidence showed Feldman was riding his Harley-Davidson bike on U.S. Highway 75 just north of Dallas when the 18-wheeler driven by Everett passed and then pulled into Feldman's lane. Feldman was enraged, pulled out his pistol and fired several shots at the back of the truck trailer. Then he reloaded and pulled up alongside the truck cab.
"I chased Mr. Everett down and I shot him to death," Feldman testified at his trial. "I felt like I needed to stop that man."
Eleven miles later, and after circling back to make sure Everett was dead, Feldman spotted Velasquez, driver of an Exxon fuel tanker, replenishing tanks at a Dallas gas station.
"I exploded again in anger," he testified. "I drove by and shot him. It was just acting out. I felt emotionally compelled and consumed by anger."
"I have found it quite pleasurable to kill those two men," he said in another letter to his ex-girlfriend.
The day before the fatal shootings, evidence showed he shot up a Volkswagen dealership where he once had some work done. Feldman was arrested about a week later after shooting a man outside a fast-food restaurant.
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