Texas put LeJames Norman to death Wednesday night for killing three people during a robbery in a small town back in 2005. Prison staff gave him a lethal injection at the state prison in Huntsville. He was pronounced dead at 6:44 p.m.

Norman was 19 when he and a friend broke into a neighbor's house in Edna. Edna is a small town between Corpus Christi and Houston. It happened on August 24, 2005.

Norman and Ker'Sean Olajuwa Ramey wanted to steal cocaine from the house, court records show. A fight broke out inside. By the end, three people were dead.

The victims were Samuel Roberts, 24, Tiffani Peacock, 18, and Celso Lopez, 38. All three were shot.

After the killings, Norman ran to Mexico. Border Patrol agents caught him when he tried to cross back into the United States.

Norman later helped police. He testified against Ramey in court. In December 2008, Norman pleaded guilty to capital murder. A jury later sent him to death row.

Norman spent 18 years on death row before his execution. He turned 40 this year.

He did not give a final statement before he died, a prison spokesperson said. Witnesses said he looked calm. Some said he smiled at the people watching through the glass.

Norman fought the execution until the very end. His lawyers told the U.S. Supreme Court that prosecutors used different facts at his trial than at Ramey's trial. They said this made Norman look more guilty than he really was. The Supreme Court said no. It turned down his appeal just hours before he died.

Norman also joined a lawsuit with another death row inmate. The lawsuit said Texas cannot prove its execution drug, pentobarbital, is safe and reliable. A state appeals court let the execution move forward anyway.

At his trial, Norman's lawyers asked the jury to spare his life. They said he grew up poor and often had no home. They said his family hurt him as a child. A police officer killed his father when Norman was young. Norman had three kids of his own before he finished high school. The jury heard all this and still chose death.

Tiffani Peacock's sister spoke about her loss this week. "She was my sister, and she was a light to the people who knew and loved her," she said.

Norman's death was the fifth execution in Texas this year. It was the 26th execution in the whole country this year.

Ramey, the man who was with Norman that night, is still on death row. He faces his own execution date later this month.