May 17, 2002 2 min read

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) – A man was executed Thursday for beating his 11-month-old son to death. Ronford Styron, 32, told family and friends that he loved them and was worried about them before being put to death by injection.

“I’m going to go and be with my little boy and I’m going to have fun with him,” he said, smiling and looking at relatives, including his mother and grandmother, who watched through a window.

Lee Styron died at a Houston hospital in October 1993, three days after he was brought into an emergency room with a head injury.

Styron acknowledged he punched the child once in the head but contended in appeals he didn’t intend to kill his son. The U.S. Supreme Court refused Thursday to review his conviction.

Weeks before the boy’s death, a Texas law had taken effect making killers of children under the age of 6 eligible for the death penalty.

Medical examiners found the baby had suffered three recent blows to the head.

At least 10 bones had broken in previous injuries. According to testimony, Styron stuffed the child’s mouth with tape, dunked him in ice water, squeezed his chest and shook him so hard the retinas of his eyes hemorrhaged.

Styron was the 12th Texas inmate put to death this year.