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Oct 27, 2008 10:30 am US/Central
Killer Of 7-Year-Old Girl To Die Tuesday In Texas
LIVINGSTON (AP) ―
Eric Nenno bristles at suggestions he's some kind of ogre.
"So many articles I read depicted me as a monster," Nenno said softly from a visiting cage outside Texas death row. "It was upsetting to not hear anything to balance that."
A favorable balance is difficult given the former plumbing salesman's acknowledgment that he committed a horrific crime nearly 14 years ago.
Nenno, 47, is set to die Tuesday for abducting a 7-year-old girl who lived in his neighborhood in Hockley, about 35 miles northwest of Houston, raping and strangling her, then stuffing her body in the attic of his home. Evidence showed he raped Nicole Benton after she was dead.
He led police to her remains two days later.
"He perpetrated one of the most horrendous crimes that I think I'd ever heard of," said Joan Huffman, the former Harris County assistant district attorney who prosecuted Nenno. "It was of nightmarish quality, I would say -- a gut-wrenching experience for all involved."
"I can't apologize enough," Nenno told The Associated Press. "I don't know of anything I could have done since I was convicted to be convincing and to show my condolences."
Nenno would be the 13th Texas inmate executed this year and the fourth this month. Another execution is scheduled for Thursday in Huntsville.
Nenno's appeals were exhausted and he petitioned the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to commute his sentence to life.
"I feel for certain the execution will go through," Nenno said. "I don't think this will meet the standards for getting any relief."
In the clemency petition, Nenno's lawyers described him as "a good man who committed a terrible crime."
"He had never done anything remotely like this before that day," attorney Richard Burr wrote. "Since that day, he has faced up to what he did and has, in every way within his control, lived a good life. ... Mr. Nenno knows that he can never put right the wrong he is responsible for."
The Benton girl was noticed missing from her father's birthday celebration in 1995. Police canvassing the neighborhood two days later knocked on his door. He invited them in and when his nervousness attracted their attention, deputies had him accompany them to a command post that had been set up in the neighborhood.
Under questioning, Nenno said he thought the girl had been abducted, raped and murdered. Asked what kind of person he thought might do such a thing, he replied: "Someone like me."
"I'm sure there was a certain amount of concern when you get a response like that," Anthony Osso, Nenno's trial lawyer, recalled.
Nenno voluntarily took a polygraph, which he failed.
"I think she's still in the attic," he eventually told authorities.
In his confession, The Olean, N.Y., native said he'd been having sexual fantasies involving young girls for most of his adult life.
"Scientific evidence also linked him although the confession and body in the house was more than adequate evidence," Osso said. "The focal point of our case was on punishment. It always was our position Eric wouldn't pose a future threat."
Osso said the defense team argued a life sentence would be more appropriate.
"But it's hard to get over hurdle of the heinous nature of the crime and that proved to be insurmountable to us," he said.
Nenno had no previous felony convictions, but the nature of the case showed he deserved the death penalty, Huffman said.
"It was one of those cases," she said. "The facts of the case itself were so aggravating."
Nenno did not testify. From death row, he said the death sentence "was the answer I was prepared for."
"Realistically, there couldn't be any other outcome," he said.
Attorneys said Nenno was in the Navy from 1979 to 1983 and had been exposed to toxic chemicals while working in a steam and heat shop aboard a ship, damaging brain areas that control strong emotional impulses like sexual desires. The effects could be worsened by heavy alcohol use, they said.
Nenno said that at the time of the killing he'd had been drinking heavily, had used marijuana and was addicted to pornography.
"That does not give any excuse by any means," he said. "I'm responsible no matter the circumstances."
On Thursday, Gregory Wright, 42, was set to follow Nenno to the death chamber in Huntsville. Wright was a homeless man convicted of taking part in the fatal stabbing of Donna Duncan Vick, a sympathetic Dallas County woman who had given him food, shelter and money. Another six Texas prisoners have execution dates for November.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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