COLUMBUS, Ohio – A condemned man who fatally shot an adult bookstore security guard at the end of a multistate crime spree “gratuitously brutalized” innocent people who posed no threat to him, the Ohio Parole Board said Friday in rejecting the inmate’s plea for mercy.

Frederick Treesh, sentenced to die for killing Henry Dupree in a 1994 robbery, had argued he accepted responsibility for the killing but that it was an unintentional consequence of a struggle for a gun while he was high.

The parole board disagreed, ruling unanimously that the evidence showed Dupree was seated when shot and hadn’t shown any sign of being a threat to Treesh.

The board also said Treesh’s decision to shoot a clerk in the face as he left the store suggests Treesh’s “murderous intent” when coming to the store.

The decision came just under a month before Treesh’s scheduled March 6 execution. Gov. John Kasich has the final say.

Treesh’s attorneys described him as a cocaine addict who was high during the robbery and is deeply sorry for what happened.