HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) —
    A San Antonio man convicted of killing a police officer with the officer's own gun almost 14 years ago was headed for execution Wednesday evening.
    No last-day appeals were in the courts hours before Manuel Garza Jr., 35, was scheduled for lethal injection. The U.S. Supreme Court in November refused to review his case.
    Garza already had a long criminal record when in February 2001, at age 20, he was stopped by San Antonio Police Officer John "Rocky" Riojas, who was part of a team targeting property crimes at apartment complexes. Garza ran off and witnesses say that when Riojas, 37, caught up with him the two struggled and Garza grabbed the officer's gun.
    Riojas was fatally shot in the head.
    Witnesses said Garza put Riojas' gun in his pants, cursed at the fallen officer then ran away.
    Garza was apprehended a day later at his sister's apartment after an informant told detectives that someone had tried to sell him the officer's missing semi-automatic service weapon.
    In a statement to detectives, Garza blamed Riojas.
    "I truly think this was the cop's fault," he said. "I don't see why he wanted to pull out his gun."
    He said he initially ran because he feared the officer would discover he was wanted on outstanding warrants.
    "I didn't want to go to jail," he said.
    While being escorted to a holding cell after his arrest, court documents described Garza as cocky and smirking. He used obscenity-laced language to tell officers they were "lucky I didn't get y'all ... too."
    Defense attorneys said the shooting was accidental and that Garza was a product of childhood neglect and abuse. In a 2013 failed appeal, attorney Michael Gross said Garza's family encouraged him to break the law.
    His criminal record began at age 14, and included burglaries, thefts, escape from custody and leading police on a stolen car chase.
    The San Antonio Police Officers Association was providing two buses for officers to make the 200-mile-trip to Huntsville to be present outside the prison as the execution takes place.
    Garza would be the first inmate executed with a new supply of pentobarbital recently obtained by Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials that will allow his and two other lethal injections scheduled for this month to be carried out.
    If all three take place, the state prison agency once again will have to replenish its inventory of the scarce drug or find a new chemical to accommodate at least three more scheduled executions beginning next month.
    Drug manufacturers, under pressure from death penalty opponents, have been withholding their products for use in capital punishment.