A TEXAS killer apologised to the family of his murdered wife before he was executed by lethal injection yesterday.

John Gardner, 64, was pronounced dead at 6.36pm at the state's death chamber in Huntsville, becoming the first inmate to be executed in the US this year.

Gardner was convicted and sentenced to death in November 2006 for the killing the previous year of his wife Tammy Gardner, then 41.

Tammy had filed for divorce from Gardner, having begun bearing signs of physical abuse shortly after marrying Gardner in 1999.

On January 23, 2005, 15 days before the divorce became final, Gardner drove from Mississippi to Tammy's home in Anna, Texas and shot her once in the head.

She was taken to hospital in a coma and put on life support, but died two days later in hospital.

According to a statement released by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, before Gardner's execution he turned his head and addressed Tammy's family, who were sat behind a window a few feet away.

"I would like to say sorry for your grief," he said.

"I hope what I'm doing today will give you peace, joy, closure, whatever it takes to forgive.

"I am sorry. I know you cannot forgive me, but I hope one day you will."

He then asked the warden to move ahead to the execution, saying: "I want to see the Lord Jesus so bad."

ASKED COLLEAGUE TO HELP HER 'DISAPPEAR'

Prosecutors said Tammy had suffered bruising, headaches, sleeplessness, anxiety, and depression during her marriage to Gardner, while friends told authorities she had on one occasion received a black eye after being shoved into a bookcase.

On another occasion, she had a large bruise across her face after Gardner hit her with a hammer, court documents said.

Tammy had told friend on numerous occasions that she would not get out of her marriage alive, and on the day she was murdered had asked a colleague to help her "disappear" so no-one could track her.

According to trial testimony, she had marked February 5, the date the divorce would become final, on her calendar at work, and would tell herself out loud: "You're almost there. You're almost there."

She had also borrowed money from her employer to pursue the divorce.

Gardner turned himself in to police in Mississippi the day after the killing.

Investigators matched evidence from the crime scene to some found in a truck Gardner had borrowed from his brother-in-law.

Prosecutors said Gardner had also used his brother-in-law's .44 magnum, which his brother-in-law kept fully loaded with live bullets under his mattress.

The gun was found back under the mattress after the crime with one shell spent.

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