LUCASVILLE, Ohio -- Ohio has put to death a killer sentenced to die for stabbing and strangling a man he met in a bar in 1985.
The execution of Robert Van Hook by lethal injection was carried out Wednesday at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville. The time of death was 10:44 a.m.
The 58-year-old Van Hook was sentenced to die for killing David Self in Cincinnati. Prosecutors say Van Hook made a practice of luring gay men to apartments to rob them.
Van Hook, weeping, told his victim's brother, sister and brother-in-law he was "very sorry for taking your brother away from you."
Defense attorneys argued unsuccessfully that Van Hook should be spared because of childhood sexual, physical and mental abuse he suffered.
