Associated Press Writer

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) - An apologetic former gang member and drug dealer was executed Tuesday night for fatally shooting a convenience store clerk during a robbery in Austin more than 11 years ago.

Alva Curry's execution was delayed about two hours until the U.S. Supreme Court rejected final appeals in the case.

"I pray with the help of God that you will forgive me for the pain that I have caused your family," he said, looking at relatives of his victims who watched through a window.

"I'm truly sorry. I wish I could take it back. I just pray and ask you forgive me."

He nodded to the warden, then coughed and sputtered as the lethal drugs began taking effect. He was pronounced dead at 8:09 p.m., eight minutes after the drugs began flowing into his arms.

The slaying was one of two within a week committed by Curry, 33.

Curry was the fourth Texas inmate executed this year and the first of three scheduled on consecutive nights this week.

Curry was condemned for gunning down David Vela, 20, who was shot five times even though he was cooperating with Curry and a companion, Mark Davis. The pair, who got $220 in the robbery, was convicted of a second similar shooting death seven days later that got them $71.15.

The Oct. 16, 1991, attack on Vela was caught on tape by the store's security camera.

"I don't think I even had a goal," Curry said last week from death row. "I had been drinking but I'm not using that as an excuse."

"He derives sheer pleasure out of preying on the weak," Travis County Assistant District Attorney Robert Smith told jurors who convicted Curry and then decided he should be put to death.

Curry's attorneys contended in last-ditch appeals a judge who has ruled on petitions in his case should have disqualified himself because he was working in the Travis County district attorney's office at the time of Curry's trial, performing research for prosecutors on the case.

"The wrong choices in life took me down a destructive road," Curry, explaining his crimes, said. "I've never looked at this as punishment from God but you reap what you sow. Your choices in life have consequences."

Curry jumped over the store counter and put a gun to Vela's head. When the clerk couldn't open a store safe, he was shot in the head, then shot four more times.

A tip to police led to Curry. At his home, detectives found clothing he and Davis wore during the Vela shooting, one of the murder weapons and the cash register drawer.

"I did confess," said Curry, an unemployed restaurant bus boy who at the time of the killings was free on bond for assaulting his sister-in-law. "I'm the one that has to live with the reality of what happened."

Davis pleaded guilty to murder and robbery and is serving two life prison sentences. Curry also was tried for killing Brendon Proske, the 23-year-old clerk in the second robbery, and received a life term.

"There ain't no doubt about it," Curry said when asked about his regret for the crimes and the grief suffered by his family and the families of his victims.

"If you don't feel regretful after that, something is wrong with you," he said.

Another condemned inmate, Richard Dinkins, was set to die Wednesday for a double slaying in Beaumont 12 years ago. Granville Riddle was scheduled for injection Thursday for killing an Amarillo man during a burglary in 1988.