Dallas man executed for abduction, rape, slaying of woman during 1999 crime spree

Dallas man executed for 1999 rape, slaying

HUNTSVILLE, Texas — A Texas man has been executed for the rape and slaying of a woman abducted while she was trying to make a call at a pay phone 10 years ago.

Twenty-eight-year-old Derrick Lamone Johnson of Dallas was the 14th Texas prisoner executed this year in the nation’s most active death penalty state. He was pronounced dead at 6:23 p.m. Thursday.

Twenty-five-year-old LaTausha Curry of Dallas was robbed of less than $10, then was driven away in her car, raped, beaten with a two-by-four and suffocated with her own blouse.

Authorities determined the 1999 slaying was part of a two-week crime spree involving Johnson and a companion that stretched from Dallas to south of Waco, some 100 miles away.