HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A Texas man was executed Thursday for killing his girlfriend’s 13-month-old daughter in a torturous ordeal the couple said was part of an “exorcism” to expel a demon from the child’s body.

Blaine Milam, 35, was pronounced dead at 6:40 p.m. following a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. He was condemned for the December 2008 death of Amora Carson at his trailer in Rusk County in East Texas.

In a final statement, Milam thanked supporters as well as the prison chaplaincy for opening its faith-based programs to death row inmates.

“If any of you would like to see me again, I implore all of you no matter who you are to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and we will meet again,” he said from the death chamber gurney. “I love you all. Bring me home, Jesus.”

As the lethal dose of sedative pentobarbital began flowing into his right hand and left arm, at 6:19 p.m. CDT, Milam grunted and gasped once, then began snoring quietly. After about two minutes, all sounds and movement stopped. Minutes later, he was declared dead.

It was one of two executions carried out Thursday evening in the U.S. Geoffrey West was put to death in Alabama with nitrogen gas for fatally shooting a gas station employee during a 1997 robbery. The two executions brought the year’s total to 33 death sentences carried out nationwide.

Milam had blamed then-girlfriend Jesseca Carson for the killing and alleged she was the one who claimed the girl was possessed by a demon. She was tried separately from Milam and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after being convicted of capital murder for helping Milam. Both were 18 at the time.

Prosecutors said Milam savagely beat the girl and also bit, strangled, and mutilated her over a period of 30 hours. Court documents show a pipe wrench was among the evidence that tied Milam to the slaying.

A forensic pathologist who performed an autopsy found the child had multiple skull fractures along with broken arms, legs, ribs and numerous bite marks. The pathologist testified at trial that he could not determine a specific cause of death because the girl had so many potentially fatal injuries.

Rusk County District Attorney Micheal Jimerson, who tried the case along with the Texas Attorney General’s Office, told The Associated Press in 2019 that authorities initially treated Milam and Carson as grieving parents.

But Carson later told investigators Milam told her Amora was “possessed by a demon” because “God was tired of her lying to Milam,” according to court records.

Jimerson said at the time he still couldn’t pinpoint a motive, believing the exorcism claim was just a way for Milam and Carson to cover up their crime.

The prosecutor witnessed the execution.

“We will never know what Amora would have contributed to our world,” Jimerson said Thursday evening after it was over. “Answering the call for justice for the most helpless is a measure of a civilized people.”

Among other observers was the child’s grandfather, Richard Mutina. He declined to speak with reporters after the execution.

Milam was the fifth person put to death this year in Texas, historically the nation’s busiest capital punishment state. Florida leads the nation this year with a record 12 executions conducted to date in 2025 with two more scheduled in the state by mid-October.

The execution was carried out hours after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Milam’s final appeals.

Rebuffed previously by state and federal appeals courts, Milam’s attorneys had asked the Supreme Court to block the execution, arguing his conviction was based in part on “now-discredited” bite mark evidence and other unreliable DNA evidence. They also argued he was intellectually disabled and thus ineligible for execution.

The Texas Attorney General’s Office has said Milam’s claims of an intellectual disability had been rejected previously by the courts. The attorney general’s office also said in court documents that even if bitemark and DNA evidence were excluded, there was other evidence pointing to his guilt, including his efforts to hide evidence and a confession he made to a nurse after his arrest.

The use of bite mark evidence has been called into question in recent years, with a 2016 report by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology saying bitemark analysis “is clearly scientifically unreliable at present.”

On Tuesday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles had denied Milam’s request to commute his death sentence to a lesser penalty. Milam’s previously had executions dates in 2019 and 2021 that were stayed.

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Lozano reported from Houston. Follow Juan A. Lozano: