On April 21, 1997, a group of teens from Chapel Hill High School in Tyler, Texas, came upon the dead body of 21-year-old Donald Whittington, bound and blindfolded, in a picnic area near the banks of Lake Tyler.

Three days later, a parent of one of the students called police, and the teens led authorities to the body. The teens told police that 18-year-old Justin Chaz Fuller, a recent graduate of Chapel Hill, had led them to Whittington's body and bragged about shooting him.

When police went to Fuller's home on Aug. 25, they found Whittington's ATM card in his wallet and Whittington's watch in the living room. Fuller was arrested and brought into custody for questioning.

In a videotaped interview with the FBI, Fuller stated that he went to Whittington's home the evening of April 21, 1997, with his friends, Elaine Hays, Sam Wideman and Brent Chandler, to retrieve jewelry that Hays had left with Whittington as collateral for a loan.

Fuller told authorities that Wideman used Mace on Whittington before tying him up and ransacking the home. The group later brought Whittington to a bank, where he withdrew $300 from his ATM.

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From there, Hays, Wideman and Fuller drove Whittington's car to Sandy Beach Park. Hays waited in the car while Wideman and Fuller brought Whittington into the woods and shot him twice in the head and once in the arm. Then they returned to the car and torched it.

Chandler  pleaded guilty to arson charges and received a 25-year sentence. In his guilty plea, Chandler testified that the four teens went to Whittington's home with the intent to rob the victim, but not to kill him. Hays pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to 40 years to life.

Both Wideman and Fuller were charged with capital murder in the course of a robbery and kidnapping, although prosecutors argued that Fuller was the shooter, based on statements from friends claiming that he had bragged about pulling the trigger.

Fuller was 19 when his trial opened in Smith County in February 1998.

In Fuller's FBI statement played for the jury, he admitted his involvement in the robbery but implicated Wideman as the shooter.

"He did not come across as being terribly compassionate," Fuller's trial attorney, James Volberding said. "He did not express a great deal of concern for the victim."

Fuller's lawyers focused on sparing him the death penalty by minimizing his culpability. They portrayed Elaine Hays as the instigator who planned the robbery and encouraged the others to carry it out.

The defense also called one witness who testified that Wideman admitted being the shooter.

The panel convicted him after three hours of deliberations, but took an additional 11 hours to sentence him to death.

In a separate trial, Wideman was convicted and sentenced to life.

In petitions since his conviction, Fuller claims his trial attorneys never informed him of a plea bargain that would have netted him a life sentence in exchange for his guilty plea on charges of capital murder and arson.

The petitions also question the impartiality of a juror who was on pain medication during the trial. Also, the entire panel contracted food poisoning during the penalty phase, but were given medication and instructed to continue deliberations.

Elaine Hays has submitted an affidavit stating that, when the pair returned after shooting Whittington, Wideman said that "it felt good to shoot somebody."

Fuller's claims are pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.