LIVINGSTON (March 19, 2010)--Texas Death row inmate Hank Skinner, 47, says Twila Jean Busby became the love of his life after they met at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting and he says there would have been no reason for him to explode in rage more than 16 years ago on New Year's Eve, swinging an ax handle to batter the 40-year-old woman to death.

She was beaten to death and her two grown sons, Elwin “Scooter” Caler, 22, and Randy Busby, 20, were stabbed to death on Dec. 31, 1993 at the home they shared with Skinner and their mother in Pampa.

Skinner acknowledged being at the scene, but said he was passed out and sick from using alcohol and codeine.

Skinner, who is scheduled for execution Wednesday in Huntsville, was among the death row inmates found with contraband cell phones.

He has denied wrongdoing.

His defense attorney, Rob Owen, says there's DNA evidence that has never been tested and the appeals continue.

Prosecutors oppose new testing.

Skinner was arrested after a Pampa police officer, who was dispatched to check on a report of a stabbing, found Elwin Caler, wearing only bloodstained underwear, sitting on a neighbor’s porch.

Caler was taken to a Pampa hospital, where he died a short time later, prosecutors said.

Officers went to Twila Busby’s house where they found the woman dead on the living room floor near the family’s Christmas tree, prosecutors said.

She had been strangled and beaten on the head with a blunt object.

Officers found a bloodstained axe handle leaning against a couch nearby.

Randy Busby was found dead in the bedroom he shared with his brother.

At about the same time officers were at the scene of the murder, Skinner was at the home of a former girlfriend, whom he first told that he had been stabbed and shot, prosecutors said.

She tried to call police, prosecutors said, but Skinner threatened to kill her if she did.

Later he told her that he thought he had kicked Twila Busby to death.

Police arrested him about three hours after the murders after finding him standing in a closet in the ex-girlfriend’s home, wearing jeans and socks that were heavily stained with blood, prosecutors said.

The only injury he had was a gash on the palm of his right hand, prosecutors said.

DNA tests showed that the blood on his shirt was Twila’s and the blood on his jeans was a mixture of Elwin’s and Twila’s, prosecutors said.