A 37-year-old Cincinnati man was executed by lethal injection on Tuesday for killing five children in a fire he set to destroy evidence of an apartment robbery.

The Columbus Dispatch has reported that with the lone survivor of the 1992 fire and parents of some of the dead children witnessing, William L. Garner received a lethal injection at 10:38 a. m. at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville.

"To the state of Ohio, thank you, I'm free. Thank God Almighty, I'm free now," Garner said, reading from a three-page, handwritten statement.

The Dispatch also said that Garner, who was described as "borderline retarded," set the Jan. 26, 1992, fire to cover up a pre-dawn burglary.

He had found a purse belonging to Addie F. Mack, whom he did not know, in the emergency room of a Cincinnati hospital and, while she was being treated, went through the purse and found food stamps, her keys and address.

The Dispatch further reported that he took a cab to the Cincinnati apartment and was surprised to find four girls in one bedroom and two girls in another and talked to one of the girls and gave her a drink of water.

Garner stole Mack's TV, VCR, telephone and boom box, then set fires to a couch and two other spots in the apartment. He told police he never intended to kill the children because he expected they would smell smoke and leave the apartment. (With Inputs from Agencies)