LUCASVILLE, Ohio — Convicted child killer Ronald R. Phillips was put to death by the state of Ohio Wednesday with a combination of drugs the state had never used before, but without the complications seen with its last execution.

With the death of Phillips, 43, at 10:43 a.m., Ohio rejoined the handful of states actively carrying out the death penalty after a delay of 3½ years.

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During the process, a witness observed a tear drop from Phillips’ left eye as he fell asleep.

Phillips was convicted in the 1993 death of Sheila Marie Evans, his Akron girlfriend’s 3-year-old daughter. He had repeatedly beaten and raped the child over time until she ultimately died from cardiovascular collapse.

“To the Evans family, I’m sorry. You had to live so long with my evil actions,” Phillips said in a shaky voice in his final statement before the girl’s half-sister and aunt who witnessed his execution.

“All those years, I prayed you’d forgive me and find it in your heart to forgive and have mercy on me,” he said. “Sheila Marie did not deserve what I did to her. I know she is with the Lord and she suffers no more. I’m sorry to each and every one of you that you lived with this pain all those years.”

The victim’s half-sister, Renee Mundell, said, “We have a very forgiving God. ... This is the first time in 24 years that I’ve seen any remorse from this man.”

She had already married and moved away before Sheila’s death.

“God forgave him, but I’m sorry. I don’t think I can,” the child’s aunt, Donna Hudson, said. Her sister, Sheila’s mother Fae Evans, died of leukemia in 2008 in prison while serving a sentence of 13 to 30 years for involuntary manslaughter in the girl’s death.

During the process, witnesses observed a tear drop from Phillips’ left eye as he appeared to calmly fall asleep after the drugs began to flow.

There were no signs of the problems that accompanied Ohio’s last execution on Jan. 16, 2014, of Dennis McGuire, of Preble County, using a two-drug process the state had never used before and abandoned afterward.

Witnesses had described McGuire as making choking and snorting sounds and struggling against his restraints in the unusually long 26 minutes after the drugs were administered.

The drugs to Phillips began to flow at 10:31 a.m. He was pronounced dead 12 minutes later. Media witnesses described him calm and remorseful but also scared. Before the drugs began to flow he gave a thumbs-up to his brother and other witnesses who had attended the execution to support him.

After years of delays, Ms. Mundell said, “I’m hoping that we have opened the door [for other executions]. … There was no doubt in anyone’s mind for 24 years that this man did what he was accused of doing.”

This time the state used a combination of three drugs it has never used before as a trio — the sedative midazolam to put him to sleep, rocuronium bromide to shut down breathing, and then potassium chloride to induce cardiac arrest.

Midazolam was one of the two drugs used in the McGuire execution, and it was involved in executions in other states where there were problems similar to those seen with McGuire.

Lawyers for Phillips and two other death row inmates with pending executions this year argued in court appeals that midazolam could not be relied upon to induce deep and lasting unconsciousness so that the condemned would not experience unconstitutionally cruel and unusual pain from the follow-up drugs.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday denied Phillips’ two last-minute requests for stays.

On Tuesday, Phillips had pizza, Pepsi, and strawberry shortcake for his last dinner, but he passed on breakfast Wednesday. However, he requested grape juice and unleavened bread that was later used for communion with his spiritual adviser.

He visited with friends, prayed, and read the Bible while awaiting his scheduled time of execution.

One of his attorneys, Timothy Sweeney, said Phillips earned a certificate as a minister while in prison and had written what he’d hoped would someday be his first sermon. It was entitled “My People.”

“Ron Phillips committed an unspeakable crime when he was 19 years old and was himself the product of a home filled with abuse and neglect,” Mr. Sweeney said. “But the grown man who woke up this morning at age 43, ready to face his punishment, did not in any way resemble that troubled and broken teen.

“He had grown to be a good man, who was thoughtful, caring, compassionate, remorseful, and reflective,” he said.

Phillips repeatedly had execution dates scheduled only to see them delayed by the courts or by Gov. John Kasich as the state struggled to find the lethal injection drugs it would prefer to use — the powerful barbiturates pentobarbital and sodium thiopental.

Unless the state does obtain supplies of its preferred drugs, the new triple mix is likely to remain Ohio’s protocol for future executions.

Gary Mohr, director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, said the execution team at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville held 18 separate rehearsals in preparation for Phillips’ execution in order to comply with both department rules and federal court directives.

The next execution is scheduled for Sept. 13. Gary Otte, who was also a plaintiff with Phillips in the latest court challenges, was convicted in the 1992 shooting deaths of two Parma residents during separate home robberies.

The next execution involving an inmate from northwest Ohio is set for Jan. 3, 2018. William Montgomery was convicted in the 1986 murders of Toledo roommates Debra Ogle, 20, and Cynthia Tincher, 19.

Contact Jim Provance at jprovance@theblade.com or 614-221-0496.

First Published July 26, 2017, 3:00 p.m.