Once filled with rage, Texas death row inmate set to be executed is now 'a gentle human'

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Richard Lee Tabler was young, angry and out of control when he killed four people in the central Texas city of Killeen. Now 20 years later, those who know him say he's a deeply faithful man who has become so gentle, he recently hand-raised a baby lizard in his cell on Texas Death Row.

"The man I was 20 years ago is not the man I am today," Tabler said in a statement provided to Paste BN through his wife.

Texas is set to execute Tabler by lethal injection on Thursday. If the execution moves forward, Tabler will become the fifth inmate executed in the U.S. this year and the second in Texas.

Tabler's mother, sister and wife − who all spoke exclusively with Paste BN − say that he has turned into a loving and selfless man who doesn't deserve to die. Meanwhile, Tabler says he deeply regrets his crimes and is at peace with his upcoming death.

As Tabler's execution nears, here's what to know about the man he was and the man he has become.

Who was Richard Lee Tabler?

Tabler's said his father never showed him much love, and that he struggled after his parents divorced when he was 12 and he boomeranged between his dad in California and mom in Florida.

"I started doing whatever the hell I wanted to do. I had no direction and nobody cared about me so why should I care about myself," Tabler felt, he wrote in his 2021 book, "Within the Shadows of Life." Instead of finishing high school, he "ended up getting mixed up with the wrong crowd and doing drugs at a very young age."

Tabler meets the criteria for bipolar disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder − according to court records filed by his attorney − conditions that went untreated and could help explain why Tabler "couldn't sit still or hold a job for long," he wrote in the book.

At the age of 16, Tabler became a runaway and began racing motorcycles, a lifestyle that escalated after he said his mother's boyfriend severely beat her. "(It) broke something deep within my core as a youngster," he wrote.

At 25, the central California native was, by his own description, living a chaotic life. He had been stealing cars, running drugs and doing them, and had done some hard prison time. Tabler would try to get his life straight but it would never stick.

"I needed the fast life and the drugs to run," Tabler wrote in "Within the Shadows of Life."

After bouncing around the country between Florida, California, Oregon, Michigan and parts in between, Tabler ended up in Killeen, Texas, where his mother and older sister were living.

In a fit of rage on Nov. 27, 2004, Tabler shot and killed Mohamed-Amine Rahmouni, the co-owner of a local strip club with whom he'd been dealing, as well as a friend of Amine's, Haitham Frank Zayed. Two days later, Tabler shot and killed 18-year-old Tiffany Loraine Dotson, a dancer at the club he says he'd been seeing, and another dancer, 16-year-old Amanda Benefield.

Tabler wrote in his book that he killed Amine and Zayed over Amine's threat to kill Tabler's loved ones for $10. Tabler said he killed Dotson and Benefield after Dotson started asking him questions about the murders.

"I was filled inside with nothing but rage and hate towards everyone including myself," Tabler described feeling before killing the young women.

Since then, Tabler "has come to feel great remorse for his actions and the person he used to be," one of Tabler's attorneys, Peter Walker, wrote in a clemency petition. "He understands that he had no right to take his victims away from their loved ones and feels terrible about the pain he caused these families."

Bell County prosecutors declined to comment for this story. Paste BN has not received a response requesting interviews with the family members of Tabler's victims.

Richard Lee Tabler's family says he's a changed man

Tabler's 77-year-old mother, his older sister and his wife say that Tabler is not the same man who pulled the trigger in Killeen 20 years ago.

"The Richard that I know is not the man that they portray to be a monster," said his wife, who met Tabler through an prison letter-writing program. "I've never met anybody, even out here in the free world, that has a heart bigger than his."

The women spoke with Paste BN on the condition that their names not be used because they have previously faced harassment as loved ones of a Death Row inmate.

Tabler's wife and mother said that he always looks out for his fellow inmates and is more worried about how his execution will affect his family than himself.

He's also a big animal lover. When he found a baby skink while cleaning his prison cell in June, he didn't flush the tiny lizard down the toilet, but raised it, fed it and taught it tricks. He named it Little Blue (Blue is Tabler's nickname).

"He embraced that little skink, trained it to crawl on him, and it would crawl all on his arms, sit on his shirt, crawl up on his head and sit there," his mother said. "The guards in there couldn't believe that Richard had raised this little skink."

Tabler was allowed to turn the skink over to his mother, who is now caring for the creature.

Both women plan to attend his execution despite how painful they know it will be.

"He didn't want us to be at the execution," his sister said. "And I'm like, 'No, we're gonna be there.' My mom's point was, 'You're not gonna die alone. I want our faces to be the last faces you see.'"

Who is Richard Lee Tabler now?

During his 20 years behind bars, Richard Lee Tabler says he's found God and leads a ministry of Death Row inmates. He draws serene landscapes and has written several books, which include advice for young people about how not to end up like him.

"I'm unable to get over the hatred for myself, for the pain I caused so many and my loved ones," he wrote in "Within the Shadows of Life."

In a statement provided to Paste BN through his wife, Tabler owned up to what he did.

"I take full responsibility for my actions of 20 years ago, and sadly, I can't go back in time and just walk away," he said, adding that he has accepted his fate.

"A lot of people cannot understand how I can have such peace and joy in my heart in the face of my own death, but I know it’s the strength, grace and mercy of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who has been with me every step of the way," he said. "The day of my execution is the beginning of my real life."

Richard Tabler's life on Death Watch

Tabler's life on Texas Death Row has been very different from what other inmates experience. Instead of being housed with most Death Row inmates, Tabler spent about 10 of the last 20 years being housed in what's known as Death Watch, according to his Denver-based attorney, David Lane.

On Death Watch, all the inmates are going to be executed within 60 days, except Tabler, who became "brothers" with many of more than 100 men just before they were executed over the years. It nearly broke him, Tabler said, calling it his "hell on Earth."

Tabler and Lane believe that prison officials have singled him out after he obtained a prohibited cellphone while on Death Row in 2008 and made calls to then-state Sen. John Whitmire (a Democrat and now the mayor of Houston). Tabler maintains that he was wanted to tell Whitmire about injustices within the prison, including an inmate's severe beating by guards. Whitmire said at the time that he viewed the phone calls and subsequent letters that Tabler wrote to him as threatening.

Either way, the incident served to embarrass the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Then-Republican Gov. Rick Perry ordered all 112 prisons in the state locked down and searched for contraband, according to reporting by the Austin American-Statesman, part of the Paste BN Network.

Since then, Tabler's access to family visits and phone calls has been severely restricted.

At one point during his incarceration in 2009, Tabler became so depressed that he attempted suicide, using a box cutter to carve a 7-inch bone-deep gash in his arm. Prison staff saved him and later forced him to clean up his own blood, Tabler wrote.

"I felt like there was nothing left inside of me," he wrote in "Within the Shadows of Life." "That my life had no meaning or purpose other than that the state of Texas would do anything to see to it that I was unable to end my own life, because they wanted the privilege of being the ones to insert the needle into my arm through lethal injection."

Amanda Hernandez, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said that Tabler "was moved to the Death Watch area as it is more secure due to his disciplinary history," but didn't address Tabler's complaints about his treatment other than to say they were inaccurate.

Does Richard Lee Tabler have anymore appeals?

Tabler decided not to fight his execution in the court system any longer, said his attorney, David Lane. Lane said he had to convince Tabler to at least file a clemency packet with Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole in order to share more personal details about himself.

Tabler's faith "has transformed him into a remorseful, gentle human who would continue to be a positive influence on others inside and outside of prison if allowed to serve a life sentence," the clemency petition reads. "(His) continued development as an amazing artist, writer and family member during the past 20 years of incarceration demonstrates that he is not a danger to anyone and is capable of being a positive friend, family member and fellow inmate."

Tabler shared on last thought with Paste BN ahead of Thursday's execution:

"I love my life and my family and friends," he said. "But they now understand that I'm going to a far better place than where I am."