Drifter Arrested In Oklahoma Facing Execution In Texas Slaying

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) _ A South Carolina drifter who was arrested in Oklahoma after police said he confessed to killing a woman in Texas is facing execution Wednesday night. <br/><br/>Tony Roach was arrested

Wednesday, September 5th 2007, 1:00 pm

By: News On 6

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) _ A South Carolina drifter who was arrested in Oklahoma after police said he confessed to killing a woman in Texas is facing execution Wednesday night.

Tony Roach was arrested in Guymon in 1998 for stealing cigarettes and reselling them two weeks after Ronnie Dawn Hewitt was found dead inside her burning apartment in Amarillo, Texas. Police say that during questioning about the stolen cigarettes he volunteered to officers they should ask him about the murder of a woman in Amarillo.

Authorities say Roach broke into Hewitt's apartment through a bedroom window and hid while she took a shower and spoke on the telephone then attacked her. Investigators say he strangled her with a belt and raped her after she was dead.

Roach would be the 24th condemned inmate to be put to death in Texas this year.