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By Khaleda Rahman
National Correspondent
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A man set to be executed in Missouri on Tuesday said he will maintain his innocence until his final breaths.
David Hosier, 69, is set to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. local time for the 2009 killings of a Jefferson City couple, Angela and Rodney Gilpin.
Prosecutors said Hosier, a U.S. Navy veteran, had a romantic relationship with Angela Gilpin and was angry at her for ending it and reconciling with her husband. According to court documents, Hosier broke into her apartment in September 2009 and shot her and her husband before fleeing to Oklahoma.
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Missouri Gov. Mike Parson on Monday turned down Hosier's clemency request. No court appeals are pending.
"Ms. Angela Gilpin had her life stolen by David Hosier because he could not accept it when she ended their romantic involvement. He displays no remorse for his senseless violence," Parson, a Republican, said in a statement. "For these heinous acts, Hosier earned maximum punishment under the law. I cannot imagine the pain experienced by Angela's and Rodney's loved ones but hope that carrying out Hosier's sentence according to the Court's order brings closure."
In a phone interview with Newsweek on Monday, Hosier said he was being put to death for a crime he did not commit.
"When they put a needle in my arm and inject poisons inside me to kill me, I will maintain my innocence," he said. "It saddens me that people will still not believe someone when they tell the truth because a prosecutor says he did it I know he did it, he had to have done it, he's the ex."
Hosier said he can't fault those convinced of his guilt.
"That is their belief," he said. "However, I would want them to think about this: would you want your family member, your friend, your loved one, sitting, waiting to die, to be executed, for something they didn't do based entirely on circumstantial evidence, on innuendo, on conjecture?"
He continued: "They have no solid evidence, and they never have and they never will have because I was not there. But because I live alone and I can come and go as I please in a free country, I had no need for an alibi or witnesses. I wasn't doing anything wrong. And I could not combat the lies, innuendo, the conjecture, the supposition that the prosecution was using to convict me.
"But I would want them to think about that, would that be the way they would want to be treated? Would that be the way that they would want their loved ones to be treated? And see if that maybe would stretch a little bit on their heart chords and say, 'Hey, wait a minute, this isn't right.'"
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Hosier also expressed frustration with the clemency petition put together by his lawyers. It focused on the trauma of his father, an Indiana State Police sergeant, being killed in the line of duty when Hosier was 16.
"I specifically told them I didn't want the 'boo-hoo, woe is me' type thing," he said. "Because it has nothing to do with this case."
He said he had wanted it to focus on the lack of evidence or witnesses tying him to the Gilpins' deaths. Laurence Komp, one of Hosier's attorneys, has been contacted for comment via email.
According to court documents, an application for a protective order was found in Angela Gilpin's purse after the shootings, as well as another document in which she expressed fear that Hosier might shoot her and her husband.
Police used cellphone data to figure out Hosier was traveling through Oklahoma, and a chase began when a police officer tried to pull him over.
When he got out, he told the officers, "Shoot me, and get it over with" or "end it," according to court documents.
Officers found 15 firearms, 400 rounds of ammunition, a bulletproof vest, and a knife in Hosier's car. The weapons included an unloaded machine gun that investigators said was used in the killings, although ballistic tests on it were inconclusive.
Police also found a note in the front seat of Hosier's vehicle. "If you are going with someone do not lie to them, do not play games with them, do not f*** them over by telling other people things that are not true, do not blame them for things that they have not done," it said. "Be honest with them if there is something wrong. If you do not this could happen to YOU!! People do not like being f***** with, and after so much s*** they can go off the [deep] end!!"
Hosier said he wasn't fleeing but was on a long drive to clear his mind, The Associated Press reported. He had the guns because he likes to hunt, and didn't recall a note in the car.
"If you're looking for a weapon to go kill somebody, why would you take something that big? That would be very hard to conceal," Hosier told Newsweek.
He said he had rejected a plea agreement that would have taken the death penalty off the table.
"I could have saved my own life a long time ago," he said. "But I will not plead guilty to something I did not do and I have been maintaining that ever since."
The Missouri Supreme Court upheld Hosier's conviction in 2019.
But Hosier believes he would not have been convicted at all if he had been represented at trial by a private attorney rather than a public defender.
"Because they don't have any tangible evidence at all," he said. "They have no witnesses. They have no fingerprints that tie me to this crime. They have no DNA that ties me to this crime. They have no trace evidence that ties me to this crime."
Last month, he was moved from prison to a hospital and diagnosed with atrial fibrillation. He said he is being treated with medication, but still feels unwell.
Hosier said he is grateful for those who have tried to save his life. Representatives Cori Bush and Emanuel Cleaver, both Missouri Democrats, had urged Parson to halt Hosier's execution last week.
"I appreciate everybody, all of the support," he said. "The only thing you can do is you hope for the best, you prepare for the worst, and you pray."
He also said that while he may have supported the death penalty after the killing of his father, he is now convinced that capital punishment should be abolished.
"Had you asked me 53 years ago if the death penalty was a fit punishment, I may have said yes," he said.
"But that was back also when I believed in the criminal justice system and in the supposed infallibility of our judicial system. But having gone through what I have gone through and having seen the things that I have seen, since I have been through the system and knowing what I know now... there's no way I could justify the death penalty as being any type of a fit punishment for anyone."
He added: "It just needs to be stopped, period, not just for me, but for everyone."
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